Tossing New York-style pizza in Kahala

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Friday - August 17, 2007

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In the 15 years or so I’ve been writing about restaurants, I’ve seen nothing that fires up a food frenzy more than the topic of pizza. Favor that deep-dish Chicago-style? Some consider the thick, doughy base nothing more than a cheesy casserole. Love a medium crust with a Thai or Chinese topping? Then purists may dismiss you as a Neapolitan neophyte.

Over at Antonio’s Pizzeria in Kahala, owners, cousins and pizza makers Joe Tramontino and Anthony Romano don’t really care what you think about anyone else’s pizza - they only care about their own.

Thin-crust pizza, freshly hand-tossed to order, with an assortment of toppings that include Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami, ham, meatballs as well as a selection of white sauce pies are just some of the dishes made by ‘real Italians’ in Kahala

Joe is a professional wrestler who came out to Hawaii to complete his degree in electronic technology and ended up making award-winning pizza.

“I had a good friend, Tony Vuto, who owned this pizza place,” he explains, “and for about a year he wanted to move back to Florida. He kept asking me to buy the place and I kept refusing.

“But then Anthony wanted to come to Hawaii. So he sold his house and we took over the business.”

Word soon spread that there were “real” New York Pizza guys in town.

Antonio’s crust is thin, and the hand-tossed pies come in 14-inch and 18-inch sizes, with mini pizzas at a manageable 9 inches for $4. But there’s more to this Italian joint than just great pizza. Calzones, bruschetta and appetizers, salads, hoagies and Philly cheesesteaks all make up the menu. The family recipes include a killer N.Y. cheesecake and fresh cannoli.

Joe Tramontino, Anthony Romano and Dave Heart chow down at Antonio’s New York Pizzeria

But while the menu at Antonio’s may be large and filling, it’s the pizza that keeps customers coming back. And you don’t have to take our word for it. Antonio’s is the only Hawaii-based pizzeria featured in Ed Levine’s food travelogue, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven (Universe Publishing, 2005, $24.95 paperback).

Book reviews or not, the way Joe and Anthony see it is, you’d better just go to test the pizza yourself.

“We get all kinds of people in here,” says Joe of the ultra-casual, order-at-the-counter store. “And they come because they like the food.”

In the pizza world, he continues, there are basically two types of customer.

“The ones who know what they want, and the indignant people you have to kick out.”

He’s grinning when he says it, but he’s telling the truth.

“Look, if people are obnoxious - and they are at times,” says Joe, “you have to ask them to leave. With pizza, people feel like they can come in and tell you how to do your job. We sell what we sell. If you don’t like it, then don’t come in.”

Surprisingly, the uncompromising approach wins over more customers than it loses.

“We’ve had people beg for forgiveness, and we even had one guy come back in wearing a disguise,” Joe says, laughing. The bottom line at Antonio’s is that their pizza delivers. “We want people to come in and to test us,” says Joe.

And for people who’ve yet to take the Antonio’s taste test, Joe has a few words of advice.

“Tell them the service sucks,” he says as I leave the store, “but that the pizza is the best they ever had.”

Hey, who am I to argue?

Antonio’s New York Pizzeria 4210 Waialae Ave.

Across from Kahala Mall 737-3333