Homegrown Blue Hens: These Delaware high school grads are having strong spring for UD sports
DINING

Ripieno's in Ocean City tests the limits with its huge pizza

Jeff Neiburg
The Daily Times

Translated from Italian to English, the word "ripieno" means stuffed or filled. Armed with that knowledge, it's easy to see what Kirby DiSeveria and has father, Michael, were going for when they decided to open Ripieno's Italian Bistro early this year in Ocean City.

The large pizza at Ripieno's in Ocean City, a massive, 28-inch pizza.

The eatery, off 33rd Street and Coastal Highway, specializes in big portions, including a 28-inch large pizza that comes in a box so big it doesn't fit inside the traditional door opening of a car.

So leave room in the trunk.

Kirby DiSeveria, 44, who runs the business, said he was looking for the shock and awe factor when the business opened in April.

“We wanted to build something that people could look forward to," he said.

Ripieno's owner Kirby DiSeveria holds the 28-inch pizza box in front of the pizza menu at his business at 33rd and Coastal Highway in Ocean City.

The restaurant is a move in a different direction from what he and his father have traditionally done in the past. The DiSeverias have typically been franchisees. They own and operate 24 Burger King restaurants, including the one attached to Ripieno's, eight Bojangles locations, the Golden Corral and g'latto in Salisbury and a few Philly Pretzel Factory spots. Their restaurants are spread out in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Kirby DiSeveria said a recent trip to Sicily, his father's birthplace, inspired the duo to do something different and more personal. In the future, the plan is to open full-scale Italian bistro, with a chef-driven kitchen, full bar service and a wine room.

“We just want to dial it back and do something that we really, really love,” Kirby DiSeveria said.

Ripieno's owner Kirby DiSeveria works the wood-fire oven at his business in Ocean City

The plan started two years ago with the opening of g'latto, the popular Italian gelato eatery attached to the Philly Pretzel Factory on Mount Hermon Road in Salisbury. And it continued earlier this year with Ripieno's, which essentially is the DiSeveria's test kitchen to see what works and what doesn't before diving into the bigger concept. Instead of investing upwards of a few million dollars in the initial plan, Kirby DiSeveria said it's much easier to spend a few hundred thousand on the test kitchen instead.

“This is all on our heads," he said. "A franchise, they’ve already worked out all the kinks. It’s pretty flawless.”

DiSeveria, 44, is there almost every day and said he's having more fun now than he's ever had in more than 20 years in the food industry,

“This was a way to take control, do business the way we like to on a more personal level," he said.

The Meatball Gigante at Ripieno's in Ocean City.

“I’ve always been involved, but when you’re a franchisee, you’re in a brand and you’re handcuffed with what you have to do."

The freedom has afforded him the ability to change recipes and menu items more than a few times. The Bianca pizza, which features shredded mozzarella and provolone cheeses, rosemary, sea salt and olive oil, has gone through three or four changes.

DiSeveria said he sometimes will reach out to relatives in Italy for recipe ideas. With his father growing up in New Jersey, it made sense to do cheesesteaks and hoagies. And to connect them with the concept, those sandwiches are available in the "half" size of 11 inches or the "whole," which is 22 inches. Ripieno's uses the famous Amoroso rolls from Philadelphia. 

Attached to the Burger King at 33rd and Coastal Highway in Ocean City, Ripieno's Italian Bistro opened in April.

But the star of the menu is the pizza, which is cooked in a 600-700 degree wood-fired oven. Ripieno's now offers a "personal" size, which comes in at 8-10 inches, the normal size for a small pizza at most restaurants. Speciality pizzas include the aforementioned Bianca, the Milan, which is topped with wet mozzarella, herb bruschetta, Roma tomatoes and prosciutto, and the Boscaiola, complete with pork sausage, mushrooms, red onions, chili flakes, sea salt and mozzarella cheese.

Ripieno's, which may stay open in the offseason, depending on business, is also now serving g'latto's gelato. 

DiSeveria has also been working on different cannoli and a tiramisu.

After all, it's a test kitchen.