Photo submitted to Times Observer NY Style Pizza Owner Leah D’Angelo (left) and Manager Shelly Curtis visit with Robert Montana of John’s Pizzeria of Bleecker Street in New York City.

NY Style Pizza Owner Leah D’Angelo wanted to grow her business.

So, she purchased a larger space across Pennsylvania Avenue.

She also wanted to make her shop as authentic as possible.

So, she went to New York City and visited the real thing.

D’Angelo is a foodie. So is her dad, Michael.

“We’ve been cooking together since I was 10,” D’Angelo said.

The path to owning NY Style started as an academic exercise.

“I was going to college for business and accounting,” she said. “I did a business plan for a business I thought would flourish in Warren.”

She practiced the idea on her parents. They liked it so much, they started looking to open a pizza shop.

She prefers a crust the New York way — “thin and floppy, having sugar and oil in your dough, and low-moisture mozzarella cheese.”

There was already a store in Warren that matched and the family purchased NY Style at 338 Pennsylvania Ave. in 2018.

“It was my first time running a business,” D’Angelo said.

It was going well, so they purchased 319 Pennsylvania Ave. and started getting ready to move. There, they would have twice as much seating, and a much larger kitchen space. “Our kitchen is literally as big as our whole area is right now,” she said.

Then… COVID.

“We didn’t even know if we were going to make it through,” she said.

They made it through and continued to have success. “We’ve grown every year since we bought it,” D’Angelo said.

The move is, hopefully, coming soon — “Preferably before the summer. I’ve been on my contractor to finish in four months.”

So, D’Angelo had to finalize the details.

“I wanted to portray a certain image,” she said. “I wanted to pull in that New York vibe.”

But she didn’t have a lot of first-hand experience with that image.

“Our manager, Shelly Curtis, had never been to New York City,” she said. “I’d only been once.”

So, they took a trip to “make sure there’s nothing we’re missing.”

They found some generalized themes — “everything’s very industrial,” she said. “That’s part of a vibe that we have going on.”

“A lot of the businesses in NYC took up half of the streets — they have old railcars for outside seating,” she said. “Eventually, I would like to do something like that.”

They stopped at Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street — which had made an appearance in the Spiderman movies. “Their slices look identical to ours.”

“Upside was probably my favorite looking one,” she said. “Their look was very cool.”

“Lombardi’s was really tasty, too,” she said.

They checked the dÈcor at Salt and Pepper on W. 33rd St.

“It was really nice seeing everything,” D’Angelo said. “All those different styles of pizza.”

But, one particular shop captured their imaginations.

“Our favorite place was John’s of Bleecker Street,” D’Angelo said.

Inside, there were photos of famous people who had eaten at the shop.

Customers could see pizza makers tossing the dough.

Robert Montana spoke with them, sharing the history of the place — a family business since 1929 — and the non-secret parts of the pizza-making process.

The coal-fired ovens are not really an option for NY Style, but, the crust at John’s inspired D’Angelo to make a slight change.

“Their crust… was just the perfect amount of chewy,” she said.

She was hesitant. “I was going to change our dough,” she said. “The one thing a lot of people say is, ‘I like your dough.'”

She figured it wouldn’t hurt to test it. And, she nailed it.

“I used a different amount and did it like they were doing it,” she said. “The only thing that’s missing is New York City water.”

After a day of eating pizza, D’Angelo and Curtis made sure to get their John’s pizza wrapped up to go.

The business won’t be getting all of its ideas from New York City. D’Angelo hopes to incorporate family events, movie nights, parties, business meetings, and activities in NY Style. She wouldn’t even mind being able to make salmon while her dad works on his famous prime rib.

D’Angelo is considering heading to a pizza expo in Las Vegas and maybe making another trip to New York City.

But, John’s of Bleecker Street got her headed in a direction she likes and she hopes to be able to reflect well on the New York tradition.

“Maybe we’ll be on their wall.”