Melville pizzeria scraps breakfast plans after pizza demand surges
Pizza demand at Say Cheese Pizza Cafe forced owner Rosario Asta to scrap breakfast days after opening at 89 Ruland Road. Roman and New York slices won out.
Strong demand for Roman- and New York-style slices pushed Say Cheese Pizza Cafe in Melville to abandon part of its opening plan almost immediately. Owner Rosario Asta had intended to introduce the menu in stages at 89 Ruland Road, but the rush for pizza was so strong that breakfast items were taken off the table just days after the café opened.
Asta had spent about a year renovating the former Ruland Road Deli space before setting out to open the new business on May 27. The original plan called for a slow rollout, starting with pizza, empanadas and dessert, then adding breakfast dishes such as pancake pies, omelettes and egg sandwiches once the kitchen and customer flow were established.
Instead, the early response made the café a pizza-first operation. Demand for the specialty Roman and New York slices was strong enough that the breakfast menu was scrapped almost right away, a sharp reminder of how quickly a new restaurant in Melville can be reshaped by what nearby customers actually buy.
That pivot matters in a busy commercial stretch like Melville, where lunch traffic, commuters and office workers can make or break a new food business. Say Cheese had been conceived as an all-day Italian-inspired café, one that could draw people in the morning, at lunch and again at dinner. The early traffic showed a different priority: speed, familiar favorites and a product that can move fast across the counter.
The restaurant’s website now describes Say Cheese as a neighborhood spot for pizza, Italian favorites, café-style items and catering. Its posted menu hours begin at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday, reinforcing the shift away from an early breakfast schedule and toward a lunch-and-dinner rhythm.
A hiring post for the business had advertised morning, evening and weekend shifts, which suggests the labor plan was also built around broader daypart coverage before the demand for pizza changed the equation. For now, Say Cheese Pizza Cafe appears to be following the market in real time, and in Melville that has meant leaning into the slices that brought people in first.
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