Meet the couple who bought this longtime Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Lake Norman

Never change a great menu.

Steven Hackett learned that unwavering principle, he said, from owner Tommy Lacon at Sebastiano’s Pizzeria on Brawley School Road in Mooresville over nearly two decades.

Hackett, 35, has worked on and off at the longtime casual dining Italian restaurant since age 17.

In April, he and his wife, Megan, bought the Lake Norman establishment from Lacon and changed its name to Rocco’s Pizzeria & Spirits.

The name honors Steven Hackett’s late grandfather, Rocco Sandano, just as the name Sebastiano honored Lacon’s grandfather, Sebastiano Charles Testa. Hackett and Lacon are from Long Island, New York, Lacon of Sicilian descent and Hackett’s family from Salerno, Italy.

Nearly every appetizer, entree and pizza variety remains on the menu. Only a few that never sold well were removed.

“Customers will see a lot of the same faces working at Rocco’s,” Hackett said. “The plates are the same. The recipes are the same, 97%, 98% of the menu is the same.“

“Never, ever, ever allow yourself to comprise on the quality of the food, because that’s what separates you from other restaurants,” Hackett said Lacon instilled in him.

Items are made to order, as they always have been. And, “as it pertains to pies, we are doing it all by hand. You are watching the guy hand-turn it personally for you and your family,” Hackett said.

‘A sanctuary for me’

Hackett has been a part of the restaurant since he and his mom moved from Long Island to the Morrison Plantation subdivision at Brawley School and Williamson roads in 2003.

He hung out and played video games at Sebastiano’s and eventually got hired.

“This place has been a sanctuary for me,” the Lake Norman High School grad said. “I just love being here.”

Hackett also gained corporate restaurant experience at O’Charley’s and Red Robin. He ran the bar at two Red Robin locations and was in its management program when another opportunity arose, at the MSC Industrial Supply corporate offices in Davidson.

A decade later, he still loves his day job as an MSC Industrial Supply routing analyst who “moves people around for different projects” across the U.S.. “And I’d like to stay there as long as possible,” he said.

As for Rocco’s: “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without Tommy’s blessing and my wife and my family taking on this responsibility,” Hackett said. “They’ve been very, very supportive.”

Hackett’s son Josh works at Rocco’s, too. The couple also has an 8-year-old daughter, Emma, and 2-year-old son, Arthur.

“He does not work here,” Lacon said about the Hacketts’ 2-year-old. “Although we do have a picture of him sweeping the floor.”

Hackett said Lacon has been right by his side during the ownership change. “He advises me, he helps me with the ordering, he predicts things two steps before they happen, and helps me avoid pot holes in the road,” Hackett said.

Also easing the transition, “from a staff perspective,” are former Sebastiano’s employees Megan Phistry and Tyler Lucas, and Lacon’s girlfriend, Diana Fox, Hackett said.

And Hackett is grateful for Doug and Mike Testa’s blessings, he said. The Testas are Lacon’s first cousins, who own the building that houses Sebastiano’s and other businesses.

Meanwhile, Lacon said he and Fox will continue to help at the restaurant long into the future.

School of Hard Knocks degree

Lacon became the first restaurateur on his side of the family when he opened Sebastiano’s in 2003 at 862 Brawley School Road.

A cousin’s family operated a monagute and fresh pasta shop in Brooklyn and a catering hall called Furci’s Crescent Palace, also in Brooklyn. “Manicotti” is the Americanized word for “monagute.”

Lacon opened Sebastiano’s after obtaining what he called his School of Hard Knocks degree working for free that summer at Carmella’s Pizzeria, founded in 1972 in Franklin Square, Long Island.

“Carmella’s University,” Lacon said. “I went to work for food and knowledge. I got my best value out of both. I ate a bunch, and I soaked up knowledge like a sponge.”

He told Carmella’s owner that he’d even scrub the toilets. The owner said no, but let Lacon do everything else.

“I was on the cash registers, the slicers, the pizza, the cook line, that summer,” Lacon said. “I saved them on payroll, and I got a second education at age 35, to open up Sebastiano’s.”

Lacon developed his menu from family recipes and his Carmella’s training, using only the best ingredients, he said.

“We’ve used the same ingredients for the last 19 1/2 years, and we’ll use the same ingredients for the next 19 1/2 years,” Lacon said. “And it’s first-class quality, and we don’t compromise on quantity, either.”

When Lacon had a second restaurant, in Cornelius, customers told him they could count the noodles on their dishes at competing establishments. he said. “That never happened with Sebastiano’s and won’t with Rocco’s,” he said.

Related through marriages

Lacon and Hackett grew up less than a 15-minute drive from each other in Long Island but never knew each other until Lacon, now 55, opened Sebastiano’s.

Lacon’s grandfather, an oil truck driver and skilled carpenter, emigrated from Sicily as a child to Brooklyn, N.Y., before moving to Nassau County in Long Island.

Hackett’s grandfather was born in Brooklyn, and his great grandparents were from Salerno, Italy.

At Sebastiano’s, Hackett and Lacon began talking and also learned they were related, not by blood but through marriages in their families.

Decision to sell

Lacon said he decided to sell Sebastiano’s in part because he also operates a busy consulting business called C Solutions: Senior Examination Audit Solutions.

He graduated from St. John’s University with a bachelor of science in accounting.

He does specialized auditing and examinations for asset-based lenders, “where a company has a loan or is trying to get a loan with a bank or finance company, and I audit their books and records,.” he said.

Also, Lacon is spending more time helping his 82-year-old mom.

“So that’s two full-time jobs, and this was 1 1/2 full-time jobs,” he told the Observer in the Rocco’s dining room. “I had 3 1/2 full-time jobs. You get a little tired. You love it, but sometimes ... I was 35 when I opened Sebastiano’s. Got a lot more energy at 35 than you do at 55. So it’s all part of that.

“Somebody asked, ‘Do you miss it?’” Lacon said, before he started to laugh. “I said, ‘I haven’t left. I’ll let you know when I’m not working there.”

“But do I miss getting the schedule out, having to worry about getting the payroll in on time? No. Somebody else who has more hair takes care of that now.” Smiling, he added, “This place, it stole my hair, but I still love it as a place.”

New dining room entrance

Among the enhancements they’ve made at Rocco’s, the Hacketts opened a first-time entrance to the dining area from the parking lot. Customers had only one option before: the bar entrance.

They painted the dining area a new color and added a host stand at the entrance.

The couple also created a New York sports motif in the bar area, with replica Yankees, Mets, Jets and Knicks jerseys and Jets and Giants helmets, as many of their customers also are from the New York metropolitan area. They’ll have the Mets and Yankees MLB packages soon, and in the fall, the NFL package.

The Hacketts also widened the bar area to install a more efficient system that sends customer orders directly back to the kitchen.

They intend to expand to seven days and feature daily drink specials, with minor tweaks to operating hours they’ll announce soon.

And they may sell Rocco’s merch, including T-shirts like the ones employees wear that hold special meaning for Hackett.

His mom, Rosetta Sandano, designed the logo on the shirts and menu. The outline on the logo is Salerno, and the word “Rocco’s” on the shirts and menu “is actually my grandfather’s signature,” Hackett said. “My mother was able to extract that from a legal document, and we made it part of the pdf.”

The backs of half of the shirts say “Mange,” which means “eat” in Italian, and the other half say “Salute,” meaning “cheers.”

Rocco’s Pizzeria & Spirits

Location: 862 Brawley School Rd #101, Mooresville, NC 28117

Instagram: @roccospizzeriaspirits