Business Profile: Fiamma Wood Fire Tavern, Mahopac
NEAL RENTZ PHOTO
Mahopac resident Nick Fusco said last week wood fired pizzas are distinctive from typically hot pies.
Fusco’s oven, which is powered by wood, gets as hot as 800 degrees. As a result it typically takes only 90 seconds to fully bake a crisp crusted thin pizza, which is faster than other methods of preparing pizzas take, he said.
Fusco and fellow Mahopac resident Matt Camerino opened Fiamma Wood Fire Tavern in Mahopac seven months ago.
Some of the most popular pizzas at the new restaurant include the classic margherita, the prosciutto parmigiano, which features Prosciutto Di Parma, shaved parmigiana and fresh arugula, and Fungi Al La Tarttufo, which includes wild mushrooms, truffle oil, mozzarella and shaved parmigiana. .
Fiamma has specialties other than pizza, which can be eaten in the dining room, which opened three weeks ago. Pastas are particularly popular, with some of the customers’ favorites being a purse shaped pasta stuffed with cheese and prosciutto and topped with a pink sauce, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and peas; and a mixed seafood pasta, Fusco said. “We have a very big menu,” he said.
Fusco noted that most of his customers come from Mahopac.
Fusco said he and his partner chose the Clark Place location because it was the home to very successful restaurant that closed several years ago that already had a brick oven.
A room in the back of the pizzeria burnt down previously, but was restored by the partners to become the recently-opened dining room.
The restaurant has a total of 104 seats, divided between the pizzeria, dining room and patio, which is opened seasonally.
Fusco said he has been in the food industry for two decades without originally planning to enter the field. “Once you’re in it you just kind of stay in it,” he said. “It’s an interesting lifestyle. If you don’t live this business you can’t do it.”
Though it has been open less than a year, Fiamma Wood Fire Tavern has been successful, Fusco said. “I can’t complain. The town’s been very good,” he said. “I just want to be here for a long time.”
Fiamma Wood Fire Tavern is located at .18 Clark Place in Mahopac. For more information call 845-628-1004 or visit http://www.fiammawoodfiretavern.com/
