I recently fond myself in my old hometown and the friends I was with asked for a recommendation for dinner. All I could remember was the Venice Restaurant from my early years. I told them “to this day I have never had a pie as good as the ones that the Venice made.” Well I walked in and it was like the smell was exacty as it was 30 years ago!!!! Without hesitation I ordered the famous Venice pie, an antipasto salad and a beer on tap (Just what I would have ordered after a hard week at St. Peter’s College with my friends). My friends went the more traditional route with a Chicken Parm dinner and Stuffed Shells.

To say the food here gets better with age is an understatement. The pie was thin and the sauce was delicious. We all sampled the hot dishes and shared the antipasto. Everything was great. The secret to great Italian dishes is the sauce (or the gravy as my Grama would call it). You can’t make food like this without the perfect sauce and believe me the Venice is still using the same great ingredients and keeping it simple. All this adds to the memories that you have of the place as a kid. Friday nights my Mom would call the Venice and I would walk the three blocks to pick up two large pies and a salad.

This is an old family restaurant that only the locals really know about and now I shared it with friends…old and new!!! Try it and you won’t be disappointed. Great service, nice ambiance but parking is still a nightmare. Some things never change and thank goodness one of them is The Venice in Bayonne, NJ.