A new restaurant will officially be replacing La Parma after 41 years. The restaurant, purchased by Maurizio Vendittelli and his team from Rockville Centre’s Mangia Bene and Churchill’s, plans to open up ACASA at Williston Park in the fall.
La Parma opened in 1984 and has since spawned multiple locations across Nassau County. With Mangia Bene as a pizzeria joint, ACASA will attempt to follow in La Parma’s path in Italian cuisine on Willis Avenue.
The Churchill’s at South Park Ave in Rockville Centre is the only one across Long Island, which is located right beside Mangia Bene’s. Outside of Rockville Centre, another Mangia Bene is located in Great Neck.
ACASA’s anticipated menu is expected to include some of Mangia Bene’s most favored features, such as its cherry-pepper pan sauce and their full pizza catalog.
Unlike Mangia Bene, different Italian dishes will be placed front and center at the new ACASA restaurant. Dishes such as Chicken Marsala, Francese and parm respectively. Churchill’s restaurant brings in more of a pub and grill flavor to the new ownership.
Vendittelli’s journey thus far has been entrenched in Italian restaurants. He started as a bus boy at Cafe Donatello in Plainview before being a server at Basil Leaf Cafe in Locust Valley.
He then transitioned to captain at Cafe Continental in Manhasset and then got his first general manager gig at II Bacco in Little Neck. Vendittelli took over Mangia Bene and Churchill’s in 2020, after his first business venture in 2019 with The Breakfast Club in Rockville Centre.
Renovation is ongoing for ACASA with management including the daughter of Vendittelli’s partner Peter Oppedisano, Amanda Cestaro and Jake Lorenalti, who is the director of operations at the Rockville Centre locations.
Oppedisano comes from a family-owned business which has spots like KX Burger in Astoria and Slopes at Hunter Mountain in Tannersville.
Vendittelli was not available to provide comment by the time of publication.
