Cascarino’s owner Jimmy Coady said some of the items on his expansive menu of which he is most proud are not ones customers would typically expect from a pizzeria.
The restaurant, located at 39-17 Bell Blvd. in Bayside, opened in 2005 following the success of Coady’s other eatery in Whitestone.
Coady said some of menu’s best items are atypical for an Italian restaurant and pizzeria.
“Everything I carry here is top quality,” he said. “I’d put my burger against anybody’s burger. It’s a good choice steak with three different meats.”
Cascarino’s offers 18 styles of gourmet pizza, including vegetable, lasagna, white broccoli, stuffed eggplant, bruschetta and buffalo chicken. It also has 12 brick oven pizzas, such as margherita, broccoli rabe, seafood pizza and grilled chicken Caesar.
Cascarino’s also serves spaghetti, penne, linguini, rigatoni, cappelini, ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi and several other varieties of pasta.
Its menu has 16 types of hot and cold heroes, soups and salads, chicken dishes, seafood, desserts, wraps and paninis.
“We have a huge menu,” said Dina Amatuccio, the restaurant’s manager. “Most of the entrees and pasta dishes are Jimmy’s grandmother’s recipes.”
She said the eatery has a number of dedicated customers, many of whom she knows by name or order.
“We have a lot of regulars,” she said. “I think the customers like it that we know their address or what they are going to order. It makes them feel at home that we’re friendly.”
Cascarino’s offers delivery and catering services as well as an upstairs dining area that can be used for parties.
The restaurant primarily delivers to Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, Whitestone, Flushing and Fresh Meadows. But Amatuccio said they have also ventured further out.
“We’ll go all over the place – Long Island, Manhattan, the Bronx,” she said. “We’ve gone to New Jersey. We never say ‘no.’”
Cascarino’s Brick Oven Pizzeria is open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
