The Solorzano's Story
Where it began: Torrioni, Italy
Our story starts in Torrioni, a small hill town in the province of Avellino, in the Campania countryside east of Naples. It is the kind of place where everyone knows each other, where meals are long, and where good food is made by hand from simple ingredients.
That is where my grandparents, Filippo and Lina Centrella, grew up, and it is where they learned the values of hard work and family that would one day travel across an ocean with them.
A New Start in New Jersey
In the 1960s, my grandparents left Torrioni for America. They settled in Union City, New Jersey, joining the many Italian families building new lives across the Hudson from New York City.
They worked hard, saved, and eventually opened Filippo's Pizzeria in Hoboken. It was a true family place, where the recipes from home met the pace of the Jersey waterfront.
Love at The Pizzeria
The next chapter began behind the counter. My father, Carlos Solorzano Sr., took a job at Filippo's, and that is where he met my mother, Franca, Filippo and Lina's daughter.
They married and started a family, with first me and later my brother. We grew up around dough, sauce, and the ovens, learning the business the same way my grandparents had: by working it.
Bringing The Family to Sarasota
In 2003, my parents, my brother, and I moved to Sarasota and opened our family's first pizzeria on the Gulf Coast. Over the years, my parents grew that pizzeria into a fine-dining Italian restaurant, taking the cooking they had learned in Hoboken to a new level.
In 2007, my brother and I opened a pizzeria of our own on Siesta Key. Later that same year, we opened a second location on Webber Street. We ran both together for five years, and then each of us took the lead on one: my brother on Siesta Key, and me here on Webber Street.
Webber Street, Since 2007
Today, Solorzano's on Webber Street is the family's home in Sarasota. It has been open since 2007, serving neighbors and regulars for nearly two decades.
In 2021, my parents moved back to Torrioni and bought the house where my grandfather Filippo was raised. They live there full time today, bringing the family story full circle. Here in Sarasota, I carry on what my grandparents and parents started almost fifty years ago: real pizza, made by hand with quality ingredients, the way they taught me in New Jersey.
Thank you for being part of our family's story.
