Verona Native Brings Taste of Jersey to Colorado

Anyone who has ever craved a taste of home while traveling outside the Garden State would be delighted to stumble upon a place like Jersey Boys Pizza & Deli in Dillon, Co.  

The restaurant became an instant hit with both locals and tourists when it opened almost nine years ago for bringing authentic pizza, subs and Italian fare to the Rocky Mountain resort area.


Started by Verona brothers Russ and Craig Sikorsky, Craig now runs the business on his own and he's proud of what he and his brother have built. (Russ moved to Montana where he started Jersey Boys Pizzeria in the town of Whitefish with his wife Kim.)

Reader's Choice polls in the local daily paper have named Jersey Boys one of the top restaurants in Summit County, and it has been singled out for Best Pizza, Best Sandwich and Best Italian.

The recipes are by Sikorsky's Italian grandmother and mother and what he has picked up working more than 20 years in food service.

He imports everything from back home, including the meats he uses in his subs and the bread. (The bread would not taste the same if baked in Colorado, he explained, due to the differences in water and altitude.)

Inside the casual, family-friendly restaurant are many hints of a Jersey influence. Posters of Frank Sinatra, The Sopranos and a favorite team, the Rangers, hang in the dining room, where there's a mural of the New York skyline. Near the counter is a Personette Avenue street sign, the block his family called home in Verona.

While Sikorsky loves the outdoors and his Western home, what does the Jersey boy crave?

"Chinese food," he said. "I miss the ocean."

Check out the Jersey Boys website.