'Blast From The Past' Is Non-stop Fun For New Pizza Parlor Owner

NEW CITY, NY — Tom Doran is back in the pizza parlor where he worked as a teen. He may own the place now, but that didn't stop the 48-year-old from acting like a kid when he saw an old customer headed to the nearby deli.

"It was a blast from the past, I had to run outside," he told Patch. "I walked up to this gentleman and said, 'You’re Steve, half mushroom. I’m Tom from the pizza shop.' He looked at me like I was crazy. But he came back 20 minutes later and said 'I can’t believe it’s you.'"

Doran had been perfectly happy as the owner of Valley Pizza in Valley Cottage — a career change he made two years ago. But then Napoli's Pizza on Germond Road came on the market, and the memories were just too much.

"That was my first job," he said. "I was a little kid in middle school. I was a prep guy. I did counter, I made pizza dough, I grated cheese, made sauce and helped customers. I just learned and learned and learned."

Doran loved his time at the pizza parlor, which was then called DiNoto's. He studied cooking and restaurants through Rockland BOCES then attended the Culinary Institute of America, and worked as a chef for several years.

Later he went to help his dad with the family business, a high-end painting company in New York City. But after a while he wanted to get out of construction and the pandemic came along.

Because he had been project manager for his father's company, juggling a lot of details, "the switch was easy," he said. "The pizza industry was booming — if it was done right. The back end, the business part, that’s the trickiest part."

Some people run a pizza joint as a cash cow, he said, taking all the money out when it comes in, but struggle if they don't handle overhead and all the details methodically. Such as staff.

"I have a fantastic team, they’re all motivated," he said. "I’m the first one scrubbing floors. I wouldn’t ask them to do anything I haven’t already done in front of them. The more money the shops make, the more money they can make."

"We have a lot of high school kids that work for us. I embrace that," he said. "We are part of the community, we donate to the community, we inspire the kids and teach them to have a good work ethic."

Doran believes pizza is the quintessential American ritual.

"You order pizza when you move into a new house. You’re having a kid's party, you order a pizza. Too many kids come over — pizza's the best inexpensive way to feed them."

It was certainly true for his family.

"When we were kids living in Stony Point, planning on moving to New City, before we went and looked at houses, my father took us all and tried out pizza shops," Doran said. "He liked the pizza at DiNoto's and we moved right down the street. That’s how important pizza is to our family."

Except that it's now named Napoli's, the pizza joint is much the same, he said. Unlike Valley Pizza, which has tables and a family vibe, "It's a fast-in-and-out place, it’s always packed, always busy, seven schools in a one-mile radius."

So Doran is offering a Homecoming Hometown Special Sunday through Thursday in March. Any home within one mile of Napoli’s can order one large plain pie at the same price it was when he worked there — only $10. All other orders, regardless of distance, will be discounted 10 percent.

"That’s how much it was when I was 16 and I was the Friday night pizza guy," he said. "It’s a nice thank you to everybody. We’re getting customers that had stopped coming to come back and we're getting new customers — my staff says 'we’ve never seen these people before.'"

Of course, you can always ignore tradition and try his garlic knot slider.

"The greatest thing is when I took over, I started seeing faces I hadn’t seen in 25 years. The adults when I was a kid are now grandparents. I still remember what some of them used to order," Doran said. "I’m having an absolute blast doing what I do. I work 100 hours a week and I don’t feel like it’s work. I have fun nonstop."

Napoli’s Pizza is at 48 Germonds Road in New City, 845-623-0545.