Stella Ristorante in Floral Park to close after 64 years

After 64 years, Enza Tomaselli and her sister, Elsa Cerrone, are taking a break. They started working at Stella’s, their mother’s Floral Park restaurant, when they were still children — now they've decided to close the eatery after Dec. 31.

"We’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but now it’s time to retire," Enza said. "We want to enjoy one another, our grandkids — I have five grandkids and they always want me to come see their games. Now I will be able to."

It was 1960 when their mother, Gina Cerrone, bought a tiny shop called Stella that served pizza and sandwiches. Within a few years she took over the antiques shop to the west and the answering service to the east, and the restaurant assumed its current dimensions — as well as its interior, complete with patterned carpeting, plush red banquettes and Tiffany-style chandeliers. "Not much has changed," Elsa conceded. "We just keep it clean."

Gina never changed the name either; instead, she became "Mamma Stella" to generations of patrons. She died in 2016, but her armchair still commands a view of the front door and, opposite the chair, her oil portrait can see into the kitchen.

Elsa runs Stella's dining room. Enza cooks along with her husband, Vincenzo, her brother, Peter Cerrone, and cousin Antonio Martellaccio. It’s Enza who is in charge of the tomato sauce that graces Stella’s signature lasagna (along with homemade noodles) and naps the chicken Parmesan. Other menu standouts include shrimp scampi oreganata, the Stella sausage roll (a much-copied but never equaled take on a Chinese egg roll, filled with sausage, broccoli rabe and peppers) and, for dessert, the enormous, triangular sfogliata pastry, filled with custard.

The decision to close was not an easy one. "It was bittersweet," Enza said. "Seeing our customers have children of their own — they have become like family."

Stella Ristorante, 152 Jericho Tpke., Floral Park, 516-775-2202, stellaristorante.com. Open Wednesday and Thursday 4 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 to 9:30 p.m., Sunday 1 to 8 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday.