Gio Novello, the owner of Novello’s Pizzeria & Restaurant, opened the eatery bearing his name in December 2022. Just a bit over a year and a half later, the pizza sauce he’s been perfecting since he was 11 is now being called the Best of Lackawanna County.
That’s no small honor. In a county that includes Old Forge, the town that calls itself “The Pizza Capital of the World,” a relatively new business in Scranton being crowned in anything pizza related is quite the accomplishment.
Gio chalks up his success to a few main tenets: affordability, authenticity and quality.
“Quality is my biggest thing,” said Gio. “Everything that comes out that door has to be high-quality. If I won’t eat it, I won’t send it out. That’s what my customers know about us. If you order something here, it’ll be top quality.”
Lunch is the hottest time to stop by Novello’s, and, considering the area of Scranton it sits in, that isn’t hard to imagine. The pizza place is surrounded by big employers and active spaces, such as Riverfront Sports, Geisinger 65 Forward Health Center, and Valor Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
That location certainly helped Novello’s get off the ground, but Gio pulled from what he saw as a weakness in Scranton’s pizza offerings to help develop his own place.
“I wasn’t raised on that kind of pizza,” Gio said, citing what he sees as a certain sameness in the pizza culture of Scranton. “I mean, the pizza’s good, but I was raised with New York-style pizza.”
With that, Gio Novello used his philosophy on flavor to develop the sauce that is on his place’s pizza. And that philosophy, according to Gio, is part of what makes his pizza stand out from some of the other options in the city.
“I’ve always said simplicity is the best. If you use the best ingredients,” Gio said, “you don’t have to season it.”
If you plan on going to Novello’s anytime soon to try the sauce being hailed as the best in Lackawanna County, don’t worry about things switching up too much. Gio is a traditionalist in that regard.
“I’m the type that if something’s not broken, I’m not going to try to fix it,” said Gio, before diving deeper into the authentic flavoring of his sauce.
“It’s that natural flavor that I’ve always aimed for, and that’s what our sauce gives customers.”
Beyond pizza, Novello’s is acclaimed for its dinner entrées, such as chicken Francese and chicken Marsala. Gio said the dishes he would eat around the family table growing up have had a strong influence on the dishes at his restaurant.
That family influence extends to the crew Gio has put together at Novello’s. He said that customers have asked him on a number of occasions if workers are his siblings based on the camaraderie behind the counter.
“I want the environment to be like that so we’re all on the same page,” Gio said.
“At the end of the day, it’s for the customer to feel welcome. Even when our guests come to eat, I want them to feel like they’re home.”
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