Food industry fetes Nicola Pizza, Lewes Oyster House
Restaurateurs, organizations and media were feted at the Delaware Restaurant Association’s 21st annual Restaurant Industry Cornerstone Awards Oct. 23 at the Lighthouse Cove Event Center in Dewey Beach.
Nicola Pizza and the Caggiano family received the Cornerstone Award for their contributions to the industry in over 52 years of business. Family patriarch Nick Caggiano Sr. honored his late wife Joan, who died in 2017, with whom he founded the restaurant on First Street in Rehoboth Beach in 1971.
Joan worked the front while Nick Sr. worked the back in a business that began to help support the needs of their daughter Camille, who has spina bifida.
Not too long after their opening, Rehoboth lifeguards began stopping by, asking for discounts on food. Word of mouth spread quickly on the beach, Caggiano said, as lifeguards enthusiastically talked up the menu.
The family opened a second spot, this one with a sports-themed upper deck, on Rehoboth Avenue in 2010. In 2022, they closed both Rehoboth locations to open a new restaurant on Route 1 outside Lewes.
Nicola Pizza has remained a family-operated restaurant, with many longtime employees considered part of that family, said Nick Jr., whose cousin Kelly Munyan Small is general manager.
Lewes Oyster House
Lewes Oyster House partners Sean Corea, Tom Little and Tim Bartley were feted as Restaurateurs of the Year for their new business venture housed in the historic Walsh Building on Second Street.
Reservations have been a hot ticket since the restaurant opened in October 2022, said Delaware Restaurant Association board Chair Gianmarco Martuscelli, who noted he also had difficulty getting a table at the new spot.
Other awards
The Food Bank of Delaware received the Industry Impact Award, recognizing not only its dedication to providing food to nourish residents, Martuscelli said, but also its culinary school that has provided free training to more than 900 low-income students since 2002.
Food writers Pam George, Patty Talorico and Bob Yesbek also received Industry Impact Awards for their contributions in putting the Delaware culinary scene on the map, Martuscelli said.
George has contributed articles, editorials and features for Delaware Today magazine, Delaware Beach Life, Edible Delmarva, Out & About and the Cape Gazette’s The Current publication. She has been the voice of the Small Wonder, Big Bites blog for 10 years.
Talorico has covered a wide array of subjects for Delaware Online/The News Journal and the USA Today Network, and has interviewed major players in the culinary world from Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and Marcella Hazan to Jose Andres, Anthony Bourdain and the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.
A professional musician and former restaurant owner himself, Yesbek is a co-trustee of the Rehoboth Foodie.com/Touch of Italy Culinary Scholarship Foundation and authors the RehobothFoodie.com website, Rehoboth In My Pocket travel app and a weekly column in the Cape Gazette.
Each year, the association celebrates the contributions of Delaware’s restaurant industry members, who gathered to enjoy fine food and cocktails, beer and wine from 25 stations along with live music from the Hot Sauce Band. Following the awards banquet, attendees moved to the after-party at Starboard Claw.
For more information about the Delaware Restaurant Association, go to delawarerestaurant.org.
