About two weeks away from opening Bravo Pizza, workers polished new stainless steel counters and recently installed kitchen equipment. This restaurant and sports bar soon coming to New Dorp has some big shoes to fill, said Mike Libretta, one of the owners. “I want it to be a great neighborhood place," he said, invoking the name of the building’s former tenant, Gennaro’s Pizzeria. 

The property, near the corner of Hylan Boulevard on New Dorp Lane, is rich in pizza history. Back in the 1960s, it was Pizza Clown. When Gennaro “Jerry” Chiarello and wife, Maria, bought the business, they turned the then white-and-red rounded tent structure into Pizza Town USA. By 1980, Jerry Chiarello built a new restaurant, a block-shaped 5,000-square-feet building with a casual dining area plus a side room for more formal supping and private parties.