NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

Easy ways to “shake up” your average pizza: Add a topping here. Switch sauces there. Inject ungodly amounts of cheese into every square inch possible.

When you are ready to truly break free from the carryout pizza mold, come see “Papa” John Petrone.

A nearly 20-year veteran of the bake-at-home dining scene, Petrone continues to reel in new customers and repeat business alike with his signature “scramble bread”—a piecemeal masterpiece of loose pizza dough, unlimited toppings (more than two dozen meats, vegetables and cheeses are always at the ready) and piles of scattered mozzarella. While baking, the mounds of dough puff up around the selected proteins and greens, producing a pick-apart sensation that begs for further experimentation.

“It’ll hook anybody,” Petrone says of his mountainous, priced-by-the-pound creation.

Homemade pastas (Petrone prepares everything in-house, using only egg whites for the noodles) include a variety of specialty raviolis ranging from standards like a portobello-mascarpone-caramelized onion medley (loaded with soft mushrooms and sharp cheese) to exotics like pumpkin and tarragon. Customers can also build a meal from familiar pastas (angel hair, rigatoni) and sauces (terrific white clam sauce yields loads of chewy clams steeped in butter and black pepper) or sample made-to-order stunners like his white lasagna (an all-out dairy assault featuring broad egg noodles interlaced with a proprietary blend of five cheeses and rivers of alfredo sauce).