In the old Dorian’s Gourmet Pizza & Deli storefront on Westcott Street, a new pizza shop has taken root with a dough recipe refined over months and a founder whose great-grandfather once worked as a pizza maker in Utica. Ioli Pizza serves contemporary Neapolitan pies with a lighter dough than the traditional New York style, built by two longtime friends who spent months perfecting the recipe before opening their doors.
Jonathan Durand, a 2005 Syracuse University graduate, co-owns ioli with his longtime friend Damian Vallelonga, according to The Daily Orange. The restaurant opened its first location in Syracuse’s Westcott neighborhood on September 9, taking over the space once occupied by Dorian’s. Durand has said his great-grandfather worked as a pizza maker at a pizzeria in Utica, a family thread that runs through the new venture.
The pair began planning the restaurant, including its renovation, in January, per Durand, and the Daily Orange reports they spent months dialing in their dough recipe before settling on a final version. Separately, syracuse.com reported that the owners began renovating the building in January after it had sat empty for two years, and that ioli’s dough goes through a 36-hour process before it ever hits the oven.
A Different Kind of Dough and Sauce
Ioli’s pizzas rely on Caputo 00 flour and San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy, with other produce sourced from local farms, according to the Daily Orange. The restaurant also uses a poolish pre-fermentation technique that can take two to three days, a method behind the dough’s lighter, airier texture compared with conventional New York-style crust. Syracuse.com’s report on the opening noted that the tomato sauce contains just three ingredients: San Marzano tomatoes, freshly cut basil and salt.
The ovens run hot. Syracuse.com reported pizzas cook at about 840 degrees, leaving little margin for error, with each pie taking just shy of two minutes to finish. The opening menu featured four pizzas — Margherita, ’nduja, marinara and Scarole — alongside salads and desserts, per the Daily Orange. Durand has said that his mother, who is gluten intolerant, has no trouble eating the restaurant’s pizzas.
Early Demand Outpaced Expectations
When ioli opened, the initial plan called for Wednesday-through-Saturday hours from 5 to 9 p.m., with enough dough prepared for about 60 pizzas a night, according to the same syracuse.com report. Demand showed up fast: the restaurant sold 50 pizzas its first Wednesday evening and was nearing its nightly limit by 8 p.m. the following Thursday, syracuse.com found. A later segment from localsyr.com, where Durand and Vallelonga appeared on Bridge Street to discuss the restaurant’s origins, described ioli as having become a staple in the Westcott community since opening.
Vallelonga has said he hopes ioli becomes a place for neighbors to gather, meet people and enjoy themselves, and the open kitchen design is part of that pitch — he’s said it lets customers ask the owners directly about the process and ingredients as pizzas come together. Some customers already return weekly, visiting every Friday and greeting employees by name, the Daily Orange reports.
Built on Friends, Family and a Little Help From a Neighbor
Vallelonga has said the owners rely heavily on friends and family to build a dependable team, and many ioli employees attended Nottingham High School. Kara Williams, director of strategy at the Allyn Family Foundation, has worked at ioli since its opening and helps out most Friday evenings. Durand provides employees food at the beginning and end of shifts and sometimes sends them home with pizza; accidentally burned or holed pies get shared among staff as informal house pizzas.
Johanna Yorke, who owns neighboring Alto Cinco, offered ioli guidance about small business ownership as the pair got the restaurant off the ground, according to the Daily Orange. The owners describe their approach on their own site as a casual hangout in the heart of the Westcott neighborhood, built around traditional Neapolitan pizza with light, tender, airy dough, per ioli’s website. The Daily Orange’s report frames the opening as a story of careful planning and consistent quality, with the owners emphasizing both as they built out the menu and the team.
The address carries some local history. Vallelonga was previously one of three developers behind the Westcott Remix project, a 2020 proposal reported by syracuse.com that would have replaced Dorian’s Pizza & Deli at 534-544 Westcott St. with a larger mixed-use retail and residential building. That plan was separate from ioli, but it means Vallelonga had already spent years thinking about what could come next for the same stretch of Westcott Street before helping open a pizza shop there himself.
