Williston Park's La Parma Italian restaurant to be succeeded by ACASA
Pizza topped with smoked prosciutto, arugula, cherry tomato at Mangia Bene in Rockville Centre. The restaurant's owners are expanding with a new restaurant in Williston Park. Credit: Yvonne Albinowski
When La Parma closed last month after 41 years, it left a family-sized Italian hole in Williston Park. Now a restaurant group from South Shore is moving in to fill the void. Maurizio Vendittelli and his team from Rockville Centre’s Mangia Bene and Churchill’s have purchased the Willis Avenue building and hope to open ACASA this fall.
The former La Parma in Williston Park. Credit: Maurizio Vendittelli
Where Mangia Bene is a regional Italian trattoria-pizzeria, Vendittelli said, "ACASA won’t veer too far from what La Parma has always done here — Italian American family dining." Marsalas, Franceses and Parms, never front and center at Mangia Bene, will be here in full force, along with big platters of pasta, some of it homemade. Fresh mozzarella will also be made in-house.
Some Mangia Bene specialties (cherry-pepper pan sauce, for example) will make the trip and there will also be a full pizza menu.
Vendittelli grew up in the Italian restaurant, starting as a busser at Cafe Donatello in Plainview, then server at Basil Leaf Cafe in Locust Valley, captain at Cafe Continental in Manhasset and general manager at Il Bacco in Little Neck. His first venture in Rockville Centre was The Breakfast Club (2019). The next year he took over Churchill’s and opened Mangia Bene.
Vendittelli said that he and his partner Peter Oppedisano had been looking for another location for awhile and that they "just could not pass this up. It allows us to bring our footprint farther north and — the cherry on top — it’s such an iconic location."
A gut renovation of the interior is underway. ACASA's management team also includes Oppedisano’s daughter, Amanda Cestaro, and Jade Lorenalti, who is the director of operations at both Rockville Centre restaurants.
