A LOCAL RESTAURATEUR’S LOVE LETTER TO FAMILY AND FOOD OPENS ITS DOORS IN TOTTENVILLE

BY ERIK SCHONING PHOTOS BY ALEX BARETT

Rob DeLuca has a nickname for his restaurants: the “DeLuca-verse.” With the launch of Rocky’s Pizza Bar late last year, the Staten Island restaurateur has completed the third installment in his trilogy, an old-school neighborhood pizzeria that blends his past, present, and future.

Named after DeLuca’s 18-month-old son, Rocky’s Pizza Bar is a lively throwback. From the distressed wallpaper to the checkered tablecloths and the gold-framed family photos on the wall (a DeLuca verse staple), this is the kind of pizza joint that feels rare and comforting in the modern dining scene. Together with DeLuca’s Italian Restaurant, the high-end flagship located just across the street, and the mid-level Don Roberto’s, Rocky’s Pizza Bar slots into the DeLuca-verse as the restaurateur’s most family-friendly and casual option.

“We wanted to hit all sectors across Italian cuisine,” DeLuca said. “Pizza was always going to be the driver with this. The other two places do not have pizza, and pizza is something that’s very special and important to me. It’s how I started in this business and is something I’ve been wanting to get back to. This was the perfect opportunity.”

DeLuca’s Italian Restaurant, which DeLuca affectionately refers to as “my Yankee stadium,” put him on the map, quickly garnering a reputation for quality, authentic recipes learned directly from his mother. In each successive venture, DeLuca has maintained that same standard; despite the more casual feel, Rocky’s Pizza Bar offers imported and remixed versions of classic DeLuca dishes. The brand’s signature dish, the Famous Mamma’s Meatballs that put DeLuca’s Italian Restaurant on the map, is at Rocky’s, reimagined as Nonna’s Meatball Sliders. Served at the other two restaurants in tomato sauce with ricotta, the meatballs here are served on jumbo garlic knots and topped with mozzarella. It’s a subtle twist that turns a classic dish into family-friendly pizzeria comfort food.

“We asked ourselves how can we do this differently?” DeLuca said. “On Sundays, when my mother would be making meatballs, I would take one out of the pot and cut open a little piece of Italian bread, take a piece of cheese, put it on top, and make myself a mini meatball sub. That was the inspiration.”

But Rocky’s is first and foremost a pizza bar, and it was important to DeLuca to do pizza right. DeLuca cut his teeth working in pizzerias, and Rocky’s was the perfect opportunity to combine the ingredients and recipes of DeLuca’s and Don Roberto’s with the pizzerias of his youth. DeLuca and his chefs make everything in-house, starting with good, clean flour for the dough, high-quality tomatoes for the sauce, and house made mozzarella on top. The pizzas are baked in a Neapolitan-style, open flame high temperature oven that gets as hot as 1,000 degrees. At that temperature, pizzas cook in a matter of minutes, ensuring the crispy thin crust that is non-negotiable in an authentic slice of New York pizza.

“It’s three simple things – the dough recipe, the sauce, and the cheese – that really make the difference in our pizza as opposed to everywhere else,” DeLuca said. “The belief here is that simple, fresh, quality ingredients will make great, yet casual, dishes.”

The marquee pizza on offer is the Dirty Don, a pizza that originated from Don Roberto’s, another example of the restaurants in the DeLuca-verse feeding into each other. Slathered in DeLuca’s signature spicy vodka sauce and topped with pepperoni cups, stracciatella, fresh mozzarella, Mike’s Hot Honey, and basil, the Dirty Don is by far the most popular pie at Rocky’s, outselling even the classic cheese pizza.

Pasta is also a big part of the Rocky’s experience. Standouts include the spicy orecchiette vodka, a creative twist on the classic penne vodka, and the gemelli al forno, which combines the classic twist shaped pasta with a lobster cream sauce, baby shrimp, and fresh mozzarella. The dish is then wrapped in foil and baked in the oven.

“When you open it up at the table, it’s just this awesome cheese bowl,” DeLuca said. “It’s an old school type of Brooklyn dish, and at Rocky’s, it’s really becoming a staple item. It’s just really good comfort food.”

That idea of comfort is perhaps the unifying concept across all of DeLuca’s restaurants. It’s what unites them, despite the different menus, price points, or décor. Whether you’re eating the Rocky’s Steak Sandwich at Rocky’s Pizza Bar (a dish that has already become a crowd favorite) or the Famous Mamma’s Meatballs at DeLuca’s, there is a through line, a common DNA that brings everything together.

“In a sense, they all tell a story,” DeLuca said. “DeLuca’s is a lot of old-school recipes, a lot of the past. Don Roberto’s is the present; it’s more transitional, and it’s named after me. And then Rocky is my son. He is the future. I named this place after him. It’s where he’s going to grow up. It’s that place that we all went to as kids that maybe doesn’t exist anymore. We’re recreating that.”

Many restaurateurs say that restaurants are their babies; for Rob DeLuca, it’s something taken seriously. And with another child on the way for DeLuca and his wife, one thing is clear: the DeLuca-verse is still expanding, one restaurant at a time.

Rocky’s Pizza Bar

7339 Amboy Road 718.371.0077 / rockyspizzany.com