Craving some Philadelphia-style hoagies and American-Italian eats?
Scott Burley plans to bring that to the streets of downtown Victoria by opening Serena’s Pizzeria and Hoagies.
One of Burley’s biggest inspirations for the cuisine of the restaurant that will soon open on Fort Street was Angelo’s Pizzeria in Philadelphia. He liked that the city popularized the tomato pie and the fact that the line is almost always out the door for the latest Neapolitan creations at the U.S. pizzeria.
Along with the pizza, Burley is confident his Philly hoagies will stand out because the eatery is putting 175 to 200 grams of meat in the sandwich.
“We’re making American style, big, big, food,” exclaimed Burley.
Not only will the restaurant’s cuisine consist of hoagies and pizza, but the menu will feature hot pork sandwiches, Philly cheese-steak sandwiches, cold sandwiches, Philly steak fries, regular fries, and more. One fryer will have beef tallow in it and the other will have vegetable-based oils so the restaurant can also accommodate a vegetarian demographic.
Serena’s is named after Serena Burley, Scott’s adopted daughter. This is similar to how the founder of Wendy’s, Dave Thomas, named the burger chain after his adopted daughter.
“We’re a family-run business. We’re all about family and people come here as families. So we just wanted to have a real focus on families. In our family the newest addition is Serena and we thought about starting a restaurant, we also thought about supporting and raising awareness for adoption and adoptive families,” said Ashley Burley, Scott’s wife and support person throughout bringing the American-style restaurant to life.
Ashley has been helping Scott every step of the way from ordering decor items, acquiring licences and permits, and doing all the behind-the-scenes work.
The restaurant will offer alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, but Scott does not want that to be the focus. Instead, he wants the food to be a highlight. If the previous restaurant in the space, La Taqueria, didn’t have a liquor licence then Scott wouldn’t have added it to the menu.
“We have liquor, we have beer, but if this restaurant didn’t have beer when I bought it, I wouldn’t have had it. It wasn’t about that for us.”
Serena’s Pizzeria and Hoagies will be open on Nov. 10
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