Pasquale Presa says his restaurant, Pasquale’s Neighborhood Pizzeria, is a labor of love and an expression of his passion for Italian cuisine, his family and Rochester. Presa, who opened the restaurant in 2016 at the corner of First Avenue and Fifth Street Southwest, explains that it represents all that has been and is important to him. “I was born in Bari, Italy, in 1973,” Presa said. “I came to New York City with my mom and dad and three brothers when I was 7.” 

Noting that his family worked in the masonry industry, he says, “I am the only one to be in the culinary arts.” His cooking interest, he says, grew out of his mother carrying on the cooking traditions of southern Italy in their home and also the cuisine and especially pizza found in the Bronx and New York’s Little Italy. That led him to the Culinary Institute of America in Manhattan.