Montclair's Bivio pizza restaurant closes for good, owner announces
Tomasso Colao, the chef-owner of Montclair's Bivio restaurant, where he has been serving sought-after wood-fired Neopolitan pies since 2018, announced on Instagram last week he is permanently closing the restaurant.
The statement came after a temporary closure from October of last year until January of 2022, which Colao said then was to recover from minor surgery.
His recent announcement did not give a reason for the closure, which was Sept. 17.
The casual, cozy BYOB restaurant on Pine Street was known for its long list of limits--no takeout; no delivery and no slices--as well as its authentic Neopolitan pies made with high-quality ingredients such as San Marzano tomatoes, homemade mozzarella and Salerno olive oil.
But the real magic was in the thin, tender crust on his small personal pies, which had puffy edges with large browned bubbles in the Neopolitan tradition. Colao, who previously ran a pizza restaurant named Bivio in Little Falls with his wife Jackie, used a sourdough starter he calls "Baby" that he has fed every day for the last 20 years.
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In Bivio's first few years on Pine Street, the restaurant was walk-in only and only open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday. More recently, Colao instituted a reservation policy with dining time limited to 90 minutes, and was closed Wednesdays, too. Still, people would line up outside for a seat in the small restaurant, where they could observe the chef immersed in his craft while jazz music played.
Colao, who had been a professional jazz musician, occasionally played his alto sax in Montclair venues.
Last year, Colao noted on Instagram that he has a "beautiful new oven from Napoli — one of the best in the world" — that he planned to fire up again in 2022.
Last week, he said on Instagram:
"This has been a bittersweet decision, much like a Napoletana espresso, bitter until tasting the sweetness of the unstirred sugar at the bottom of the demi-tasse, like life - And so it goes…"
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Montclair NJ: Bivio pizza restaurant announces closure
