Growing up, John and Tino Procaccini only knew one way to produce food: grow it, prepare it and serve it.
“We never had processed food and we never ate fried food,” John said. “My father had a garden, he would bring home produce and my mom would make it and jar it. That’s what we ate.”
As the brothers got older and their love for cuisine grew, they decided to take that dinner table mentality and channel it into a restaurant.
“All we did was take the way we grew up and flip it into a food concept for a restaurant and we’re doing the exact same thing [our parents did],” John explained.
Osteria Procaccini, located at 7 Tree Farm Road in Pennington, is the embodiment of that idea.
The Procaccini brothers, along with their partner Z Pappas , opened their first Osteria restaurant in Kingston in 2011. After the success they had at that location, they decided to open a second Osteria, and Pennington became a logical destination, John said.
“Over and over, we heard that this place would do really well in Pennington,” John said. “ You hear one customer say it and you kind of disregard it, it’s an opinion, then a second person says it and it’s the same thing, but on a weekly basis we were hearing people say, ‘You should really open one up in Pennington, they like this kind of concept.’”
Those suggestions proved to be spot on, John Procaccini and Pappas said, as there was a line at the door they day they opened six months ago.
They believe that the reason for their hot start is their style, the same concept that John and Tino grew up with and saw during yearly visits to the family’s estate in Italy.
Osteria isn’t like the everyday, “American” pizzeria, according to John and Pappas. They serve 12-inch, thin crust pies that are brought out to your table, not a Formica booth, on dishes, not paper plates.
Most of the produce comes from John and Tino’s father, who owns several garden plots. It’s natural, organic, it isn’t touched by chemicals and “people notice the difference,” John said.
Another unique aspect of the pies at Osteria is the oven they are cooked in. The Pavesi Oven comes from Modena, Italy, the same town where the Ferrari is produced, and even comes in Ferrari red.
There are only six on the East Coast, according to John, and the Procaccinis own two of them. It’s an edge that separates Osteria from other pizzerias, where it takes 15 minutes for a pie to cook at 400 degrees, John explained.
“This oven cooks at almost 1,000 degrees,” John said. “It’s almost like the terracotta convection. It allows it to stay insolated, keeps it hot and we can pump out a pie in 90 seconds.”
In addition to the pies, Osteria also follows its concept and Italian roots in terms of the alcohol they serve, which consists of only craft beers and wine that originates from the home country.
“The wines we chose come from vineyards that only use principles of, literally, from the grape to the bottle,” John detailed. “There’s no preservatives and no chemicals, so it’s all natural wine that you’re drinking as well.”
Glasses of wine run anywhere between $3 to $6, while bottles come at a range of $12 to $24.
As the Pennington community has come to embrace the authentic Italian feel, Osteria is moving forward by opening its doors seven days a week, starting March 1—they were previously closed on Mondays. John also noted that Osteria is open for private events on Sundays between noon and 4 p.m., when they officially open to the public.
Osteria will further make their presence known in the local community by providing services similar to the food and beverage program they run at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club.
No matter what the service though, John proclaimed that Osteria will always continue the concept that conceived it.
“I know it’s so simple that it’s hard to explain,” John said. “Everything (in Italy) is grown, the produce all the way down to the meat. We don’t buy out of a box and we don’t fry it. You’ll taste the difference.”
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