Syosset Couple Opens Americano Pizza Shop, Bringing New Flavors to Long Island

What started as a side hustle with a trailer in 2023 has become one of Long Island's more talked-about new pizzerias. Vinny Corrao and his wife Nicole opened Americano Pizza Shop at 43 Berry Hill Road in Syosset on February 9, and the sourdough-forward slice shop has been pulling customers from as far as Queens and Brooklyn ever since.

The path from trailer to storefront followed demand. Corrao first upgraded from the trailer to a pizza truck to keep pace with sales, working weekends as a mobile pizzaiolo and turning out tender, puffy-rimmed 12-inch Naples-style pies from a wood-burning oven. The jump to a brick-and-mortar location was, in his words, the logical next step. "It was the only way to grow," Corrao said. "It was either this or just keep doing the truck on weekends. So we switched to pizza full time."

The move to Syosset also meant a shift in format. The 12-inch Neapolitan rounds gave way to classic 18-inch New York pies, sold whole or by the slice. What Corrao refused to give up was the sourdough. "If I didn't do sourdough," he said, "I'd be like every other pizza shop."

That's a deliberate point of differentiation. Americano uses a pre-fermented sourdough starter that drives both flavor and leavening, paired with high hydration dough and a long, cool fermentation. The result, according to Newsday food critic Erica Marcus, is a crust that is crisp and thin through most of the slice, but opens up to a blistered edge where the sourdough character is most pronounced. The tomato sauce is described as clean and tangy, and toppings are applied with enough restraint that the cheese actually stays on the slice.

On Long Island, sourdough in pizza tends to show up at artisanal spots like Anna in Woodbury and Via Cuma in Valley Stream. A handful of slice shops, including Dario's in Hempstead and Mozzafiato in Centereach, also use it. Corrao is positioning Americano squarely in that company while keeping the format accessible. "We are taking the traditional slice shop idea and just adding our cleaner twist to it," he said. "Long Island is saturated with bad pizza, and we are trying to change that. If we didn't do something different to stand out, we would be like the 10 other pizzerias in this town."

The early reception suggests the approach is working. Social media responses since the February 9 opening have been strong, with Instagram user @michaeltheothersorrentino ranking Americano among his top three pizza shops on all of Long Island. "The support has been tremendous," Corrao said. "People traveling all over Long Island, from even Queens and Brooklyn to try our food."

Corrao continues to operate an Americano Pizza truck alongside the storefront. The shop at 43 Berry Hill Road is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., though hours may have been updated since that information was reported on March 8. Current hours can be confirmed by calling (516) 226-1523 or checking americanopizza.com.