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The Pizzeria has fired up the ovens in Yaphank.
The fast-growing Long Island pizza brand opened its eighth location Wednesday at The Boulevard, bringing pizza, pasta, cocktails, outdoor seating and an indoor-outdoor bar to the booming mixed-use community off William Floyd Parkway.
The new restaurant sits near Walmart inside The Boulevard, a 322-acre development that has quickly become its own little neighborhood of apartments, condos, hotels, shops, restaurants and medical offices.
Ken Keane, The Pizzeria’s director of operations, said that is exactly what made the spot attractive.
“It’s a little city built in,” Keane told Greater Long Island. “There’s about 1,200 people that live here. You have a built-in clientele.”
The Yaphank restaurant is The Pizzeria’s second-largest location behind Babylon, but Keane said it will have more total seating once its outdoor spaces are fully set up.
The location includes outdoor seating on both sides of the restaurant, about 10 outdoor tables, eight to 10 bar stools and additional casual seating for pizza service.
It also introduces a new feature for the brand: an indoor-outdoor bar window.
“This is the first where you can also do events out there,” Keane said. “Everybody always wants the bar included in the events.”
The Pizzeria hired about 55 people for the Yaphank opening, while bringing over experienced team members from other locations to help launch the restaurant.
That includes veteran pizza makers, which Keane said is one of the most important parts of opening a new location.
“Our pizza team over there is basically all existing pizza guys that we’ve had,” he said.
The opening marks another step in a rapid Long Island expansion for The Pizzeria, which first launched in 2020 at Smith Haven Mall and has since grown to Bay Shore, Lindenhurst, Islip, Bayport, Babylon, Smithtown and now Yaphank.
Keane has been there since the early days.
Before joining The Pizzeria, he worked in hospitality, including hotels and restaurants in New York City and the Hamptons. During the pandemic, he connected with the team as they were preparing to open Bayport.
It was not supposed to be permanent.
“I was supposed to get back to my regular real job,” Keane said.
Instead, he stayed — and helped the company grow from a local pizza concept into an eight-location brand.
Keane said the company is now getting more strategic with hiring, training and operations, while still holding onto the feel of a neighborhood pizzeria.
“We still operate like a mom-and-pop pizzeria — the feel and everything else,” he said. “We’re trying to get a little more strategic in the way that we operate.”
The Pizzeria Yaphank will be open seven days a week.
Top: The Pizzeria director of operations Ken Keane. (Credit: GLI/Nick Esposito)
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