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Victoria Tiso has brought her family’s NYC pizza-making legacy to Malverne, where she opened Tori T’s Pizzeria last month at 360 Hempstead Avenue.
Tiso is the daughter of John Tiso, who has owned the famous Louie & Ernie’s Pizza in The Bronx with his brother Cosimo since 1987.
It was at the famous Louie & Ernie’s, located in the Pelham Bay section, where a young Victoria Tiso honed her God-given talent for prepping and serving Italian food for the masses.
And now she’s doing it right here on the Island, every day.
How it happened
Tiso, who still lives in The Bronx, knew she wanted to help expand the family’s pizzeria footprint, especially with her father reportedly retiring.
And she wanted to do it on Long Island, even if it meant a longer commute.
“The market in Westchester is over-satured, so I wanted to go somewhere completely new,” Tiso told Greater Long Island. “Once I came here, I was like, ‘Alright; this is it.’”
After checking out numerous spots across the Island, she zeroed in on the Angelo’s PIzza location that had been successfully in business for some 30 years in the strip of stores just west of the Malverne Cinema.
If you go
Her family’s place sticks to the basics, which has worked for the franchise since Louie and Ernie themselves started the place in Harlem in 1947 before moving to The Bronx.
But she’s looking to keep Tori T’s more on trend.
And, she wants to differentiate herself.
Tori T’s opened its doors April 6 and right away began offering Detroit-style pizza, which is steadily growing in popularity across Nassau and Suffolk.
(Click here to watch how it’s prepared out in Patchogue.)
“The biggest thing that everyone is finding love for is the Detroit,” she said. “In the beginning everyone was a little skeptical about it, because they didn’t know what it was.”
She’s also lined up what she galls The Godfather, another instant hit.
That’s a New York-style thin crust pizza with sausage, pepperoni, onion, mushroom, and peppers.
Still, as with her dad’s and uncle’s place in The Bronx, she brings in fresh sausage from the pork store up there, even if it means an extra stop on her way into work.
She says it’s worth it, because the city’s best sausage helps Tori T’s stand out.
Top: Victoria Tiso shows off a fresh pie out of the over behind the counter at Tori T’s Pizzeria, which opened last month in a Malverne strip mall just west of Malverne Cinema. (Matt O’Leary)
