With a plan to turn the former Caruso Brick Oven Trattoria into a more specialized restauarnt, owner Joseph Chiaro has now opened Nonno Pasta Bar last November in the same location, 424 N. Main St. in Souderton.
“We thought that with The Burger Shop selling burgers [and] Peppe Steaks selling mainly cheesesteaks, it was a good direction to go, just to be specialized in pasta, and not being so generic,” Chiaro said.
According to junior Jack Boell, location of Nonno’s on main street is convenient.
“It’s at the top of the hill when everything on Main Street is kind of down the hill,” Boell said, “but Nonno’s is right there, so that’s pretty convenient.”
According to Chiaro, he owns two restaurants besides Nonno’s.
“We just opened up Nonno’s at the end of November of last year. We’ve been running Peppes [for almost three years], and then we also own The Burger Shop, which [has been] for seven or eight years,” Chiaro said.
According to Chiaro, when he first opened Caruso’s, he was really busy.
“We started to get busy right away, because back in 2004, there was no sit-down restaurant in Souderton. It was mostly all fast food,” Chiaro said. “So when we opened up in 2004, I think people were waiting for a sit-down restaurant; a place where you can actually go for the date.”
According to waiter Sadman Sadad, he used to work at Caruso’s when he was 15, but it closed, so he transferred to Peppe Steaks.
“I used to work for Peppe Steaks, which is owned by the same owner as here [Nonno’s],” Sadad said. “So when they opened back up, they just asked me, ‘Oh, you want to work here?’ And I said, yes.”
According to Chiaro, after his family opened Caruso’s, he made the realization that they are in the real estate business, not the food business.
“After that, we moved to Caruso’s [and] we realized that we were not really in the food business. We were more in the real estate business,” Chiaro said.
According to Sadad, he grew from doing the dishes to becoming a server.
“When I started, I worked as a dishwasher, and I worked my way up to a busboy and now finally a server,” Sadad said.
Chiaro said most of the meals at Nonno’s are inspired by “poor family” dishes his dad (an Italian chef) would eat in Italy.
“When I say poor family dish, I mean that back in the days, mostly moms or grandmas, they used to go to a butcher shop,” Chiaro said. “They used to ask for the kind of not the best quality meat.”
However, Chiaro uses quality meat in his restaurants.
According to Chiaro, he wants to eventually open a fourth restaurant focused on British cuisine or a chicken restaurant.
“Fried fish and seafood and chips, or even maybe a rotisserie chicken kind of thing,” Chiaro said.
Sadad said the more specialized menu makes it easier for new workers to memorize.
“It makes it easier because when you have pasta, we don’t have to worry about all the appetizers, we don’t have to worry about all the pizzas,” Sadad said. “It’s definitely easier to learn it if you’re a new worker.”
According to Sadad, he wants to become a police officer, and his current job as a server is a good fit for him.
“I think that being a server is a good transition to being a police officer, with the communication,” Sadad said.
According to Boell, the meal was a very large serving.
Boell said he enjoyed the food and ate it the next day.
“The food was great, very filling,” Boell said. “It was a large serving, and I had it for lunch the next day.”