Casano family is developing plans for larger pizzeria
By: John Tredrea
It’s been only 10 days since Pennington Pharmacy closed after doing business in the heart of the borough for 73 years, but plans are already in the works to use the 1,900 square feet of commercial space the passing of the pharmacy has left vacant.
"We want to move the pizzeria in there," said Nat Casano, owner of the building that houses both Vito’s Pizza and the space the pharmacy occupied next door to Vito’s.
"The space the drugstore had is twice what we have in here," Mr. Casano said at a table in Vito’s July 26. "For years, people have been telling me they wished we had more room in here. When it’s busy, we need more seating. We could use a lot more counter space, too. We can satisfy both those needs by moving next door."
Mr. Casano said his family is in the process of developing an architectural plan for the new pizzeria. "After the plans are done and we get the approvals we need, we’ll start building the new pizzeria right away," he said. "It should be very nice. We’ll have double the seating we have now, and there’ll be a very long counter. One thing that means is that we’ll be able to sell a lot more kinds of pizza than we do now – up to about 15 kinds. I want to do that now, but we just don’t have the counter space for it."
Since moving into the site of the former Easy Street Café about 12 years ago, Vito’s Pizza – named for Nat’s eldest son, who’s worked at the shop since its earliest days – has become one of the most briskly patronized businesses in the Hopewell Valley area.
Mr. Casano said he and Vito considered trying to expand the pizzeria to include both its present quarters and that vacated by Pennington Pharmacy, but in the end opted to propose limiting the operation to the pharmacy site. Located at 2 N. Main St., the site is at the northwest corner of the only intersection in the one-square-mile borough, excluding those on state Route 31, that has a traffic light.
"We decided it would be too big if we included both where we are now and where the drugstore used to be," Mr. Casano said. "Assuming all goes well, we’ll sell all the fixtures in here and lease the place after we move the pizzeria next door."
Mr. Casano said, "I’d like to see a video store come in here. I know a lot of people in town were disappointed when Pennington Video closed up shop (three doors north of Vito’s) a few years ago."
Mr. Casano said he’s already made several contacts with individuals or companies that could bring a new video store to town. "But it was just preliminary," he said. "We have quite a ways to go before anyone else can move in where we are now."