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Left of Center with Joshua Maloni
GM/Managing Editor
The Gallo Coal Fire Kitchen campus on Center Street in Lewiston will soon have a new culinary offering available for patrons. Owner Michael Hibbard is partnering with Jamah Destino to transform the Gallo Pronto unit into Destino’s Pizzeria. Here, customers will find items similar to what was offered via her family’s former Creek Road restaurants.
“Jamah, who had had Destino’s/Grandma D's out near Lew-Port, she's been working for us for almost a year now; and she's just really good in the kitchen,” Hibbard said. “She understands the business. She's had a business. That space has been vacant for a while, and we decided, mutually, that there's an opportunity there for doing something like this, which is pizza slices, subs, salads, soups, and still incorporating some of the Gallo products in there, as well. We mutually came to agreement to understand how that concept can work.”
She said, “I am very excited for this partnership between Destino's and Gallo. This is going to be a great experience. I cannot wait to begin cooking for the amazing and supportive customers in the Lewiston and Youngstown area. Destino's and Grandma D's have always appreciated the love and support of the community.”
Destino added, “We have changed up the menu. We added paninis and new salads, along with our signature pizza.”
Hibbard said, “We’re going to be using the same local breads from DiCamillo’s that she was using. A lot of the same recipes. Obviously, the sauce is going to be the same, that she was doing over there. And the style of how she produces the pizza is going to be the same.”
That's an important distinction, as Gallo serves its own signature pizza.
“Our pizza is coal fire pizza, which is unique to Western New York in itself, just because of our oven that we use,” Hibbard said. “This pizza, that we're going to be serving in the Pronto space, we actually purchased deck ovens for this. So, it'll be square sheet pizza, versus what we do – hand-stretched, 14-inch pies on the Gallo side.”
Destino’s Pizzeria at Gallo Pronto is slated to open later this winter.
Hibbard said, “We're pretty much done. The menus are done and we're ready to go. We're at the point now where it's close. We're about 90% done in there. Hopefully, in the next couple weeks, we should be OK to open – on a soft open.”
He noted, “We're thinking, to start, we're going to be open Thursday through Sunday; and we're going to have lunch and dinner service. It's mostly focused on takeout and delivery.”
Hibbard added, “I'm excited about this concept, because it's really kind of what we wanted to do there originally.”
He said, “That's what we wanted to do there, from the beginning, when we purchased this property, to do more takeout service out of there.”
Gallo Coal Fire Kitchen, and the new Destino’s Pizzeria at Gallo Pronto, is located at 402 Center St., Lewiston.