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Light Rain and Breezy Salvatore's of Elmont named best Long Island restaurant
Salvatore’s of Elmont is number one.
Known for its traditional Italian, homemade dishes, Salvatore’s of Elmont, owned by Anna and Vito Cortesiano, has been named the 2022 Best Restaurant on Long Island by Bethpage Best of L.I.
Each item on the menu at Salvatore’s comes from Cortesiano family recipes and is cooked fresh, “from scratch,” Anna said. This approach earned Anna and Vito the Businessperson of the Year award from the Elmont Chamber of Commerce in 2021, too, as well as numerous other distinctions since Salvatore’s opened five years ago.
But the couple’s focus is not on winning awards but serving the Elmont community and its customers.
“We’re very humbled to receive the award, but it’s all because of our customers,” Anna said, stressing that the restaurant’s success comes from the relationships both her and Vito have built with community members by spending time with customers dining at the restaurant and offering donations and holding events for the community during the pandemic.
“All of our customers have become our family,” Anna added, stressing that the coronavirus pandemic has brought the couple closer to customers, who she said supported the Elmont restaurant during challenging times amid the COVID-19 crisis.
At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, Vito decided to offer free pizza dough to families in need when he noticed that other restaurants were selling pizza dough kits at the cost of $15 per kit.
The restaurant provided dough to 80 families on one March day alone. “This is a time people have to come together,” Vito said in a previous Herald story.
The restaurant’s commitment to the community is rooted in Anna and Vito’s devotion to their family.
Purchasing the restaurant, which is named after the couple’s eight-year-old son, Salvatore, was always a dream for Vito, who has worked in the pizza and restaurant business his entire life.
“My husband’s vision has always been [owning] his own restaurant,” Anna said, adding that Elmont has become home for the family, originally from Queens, and the restaurant, which she said has helped revamp and better the Elmont community.
Dishes at Salvatore’s are named after Anna and Vito’s family members, such as the couple’s daughter, Pia Maria, as well as their parents, nieces and nephews.
“Everything we do, we bring love,” Anna said, adding that her husband Vito, who grew up cooking in Italy and came to the U.S. when he was 13, constantly says that dishes that fail to “show love and have a spark” cannot be served to customers.
This commitment to serving the Elmont community with quality, traditional Italian food, as well as providing donations, holiday cheer and more during tough times is what has led Salvatore’s to have great success.
As Bethpage Best of L.I. put it in a statement on its website: “Salvatore’s of Elmont is a family owned business who brings their love of authentic Italian cooking to every meal. We have been told Salvatore’s of Elmont is a gem to our neighborhood as we make everyone feel like family as soon as they enter our indoor or outdoor garden dining experience.”
Anna and Vito are seen greeting customers outside in the dining area every night.
Earlier in the pandemic, when Anna said the restaurant planned to construct outside space but instead pivoted to a tented dining area that serves up to 200 people, Salvatore’s offered free pizza and provided Wi-Fi for families in need in Elmont.
After hosting a Christmas event with Santa for children in Elmont last year, Vito displayed Salvatore’s commitment to the community. “It’s been a rough year for all of us and last night lit so many of our hearts as we saw the faces of so many children filled with happiness,” he wrote in a Facebook post following the event.
Winning the best restaurant on Long Island award is not what drives Salvatore’s on a day-to-day basis as much as bettering the lives of community members, Anna explained.
“’You gave us hope during COVID,’” she recalled hearing from customers whose lives, she said, the restaurant hoped to improve after they faced the deaths of loved ones and the onset of a sense of uncertainty that remains today.
“We bring the community together … and together is better,” Anna said.
