Dina’s Italian Cafeteria celebrated its grand opening at 102 Liberty St on Friday, March 6th with a ribbon cutting hosted by the City of Newburgh. The dining room of Dina’s was completely packed with city residents looking to celebrate the grand opening with a plate of pasta.

 

The restaurant has four co-owners, Charles Bivona III, also known as Chuck, Rosa Wallace, Dan Schiavone, and Sean Moul. Chuck and Rosa came out to the counter to talk to the crowd before the ribbon cutting. Chuck emphasized the local nature of the business, saying “I want to push locality…we’re here to build something great, this is a beautiful city”

 

The ribbon cutting took place in front of the restaurant, where Councilmember Ramona Monteverde congratulated the owners, saying “I wish you many good years of success, and I want to thank you for investing in our community.” 

 

Dina’s Italian Cafeteria is an offshoot of the popular ‘Bivona’s Simply Pasta’ on 47 Liberty Street, and many of the people working there came over from Bivona’s. Chuck is the owner of Bivona’s, and Rosa helped him run the store from the beginning. Employees Marilyn, Isaiah, and Janette all started at Bivona’s and now work at Dina’s. Rosa said “They have been making the hot food and producing the meatballs and helping run the extruder for two plus years at Bivona’s. So it only made sense to move them over here.”

 

Chuck said Dina’s was started out of necessity. When it first opened, Bivona’s Simply Pasta offered not only fresh pasta and ingredients, but hot lunches as well. However Chuck said “It then grew to the point where I couldn’t keep up with production and the amount of people that it took to produce that food.”

 

Rosa said “We debated taking away hot food from Bivona’s, and that would have made a lot of people sad.” and it would have lost the business a lot of customers. Instead, they decided that separating the business into two would be a risk worth taking.

 

Bivona’s will continue to operate as a location for Newburgh residents to get high quality ingredients, like pasta, sauces as well as imported Italian goods, while Dina’s will take over serving hot food. Chuck said “What we’re doing is we’re trying to make cooking at home at a higher level with less processed food more affordable and more available at Bivona’s.”

 

Dina’s Italian Cafeteria is a continuation of a history of family cooking. The original Bivona’s Simply Pasta was opened by Chuck’s parents in the 1980s, though it closed after only a few years. The name of the restaurant is a tribute to Chuck’s grandmother Dina DiDonato. Dina came to the US from Italy at the age of eleven. She owned a salon on William’s Street called ‘Dina’s Beauty Studio’, and during retirement she worked part time as a cafeteria lady at Newburgh Free Academy. 

 

Chuck said ““The last time her name was on the wall for a small business was I believe the years ‘64 to ‘84…I think she would absolutely lose her mind if she came around the corner and saw her name on the wall again.”

 

Dina’s Italian cafeteria is open Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 5 pm.