Solorzanos Pizzeria Siesta Key

In the early 1960’s, Filippo Centrella and his wife Lina moved to northern New Jersey from Avellino, a small town just outside of Naples, Italy. The immigrant Italians settled in Union City where they raised four children and by 1968 took over an existing pizzeria named Sole’s. The Centrellas sold the business a few years later and opened Presto Pizza in West New York. After leaving Presto to his brother Vincienzo in 1977, Filippo opened a pizzeria on Washington Street in Hoboken, naming it after himself. He and Lina, along with their children and a young pizza man named Carlos Solorzano helped make Filippo’s pizzeria a success.

Eventually Carlos and Filippo’s eldest daughter Franca started dating and married in 1979. Shortly after the Solorzano’s two sons were born, they were able to start a business of their own. The young couple opened Filippo’s II in 1985 on the same street in Hoboken as the original, paying homage to the man who had started it all. Filippo’s III and IV opened in the years following, all owned and operated by Carlos while Franca stayed at home with the boys. By 1995, the Solorzano’s had sold all three pizzerias, and decided to concentrate their efforts on one single business. Carlos, Franca, and their sons Carlos Jr. and Philip opened Filippo’s Pizza Café at the corner of First Street and Willow Avenue in Hoboken. While on vacation in Florida in April of 2003, Philip Solorzano fell in love with the area and the people of Sarasota, while at the s