Nicolinni’s Traces Roots to the North Side

BOARDMAN – “I had decent knife skills when I was 6 years old,” says Pat Lavanty.

He’s talking about the chopping, carving, slicing and dicing that are among the fundamental tasks of a chef.

Lavanty is the owner-operator and head chef of Nicolinni’s Ristorante, a continuation of the family business in which he was born.

“I always worked at a restaurant,” Lavanty says. “There are photos of me [as a child] standing on a milk crate chopping potatoes. I became a busboy at 12 years old, and at 15 or 16 started waiting tables. Then I was a bartender for a short stint.”

But Lavanty was quickly drawn back to the kitchen.

“That’s where my passion is,” he says. “I was artistic in high school. I don’t draw or paint anymore so the kitchen is where I express my creativity. I enjoy the culinary arts.”

In addition to the Boardman location, there is also  Nicolinni’s I – owned and operated by Pat’s brother, John – in Austintown.

The Lavantys grew up in the family business, which grew and changed as the family did.

The restaurants trace their origin to Lavanty’s Pizza, which was started by their father, Nick Lavanty, in 1962 on Belmont and Delaware avenues on Youngstown’s north side, and later moved a few blocks north.

Lavanty’s Pizza would transition into a full-service restaurant in the late 1970s, taking on the name Nicolinni’s.

It moved to the Austintown location, 1912 S. Raccoon Road, in the 1980s.

“Nicolinni translates roughly as ‘Little Nick,’ my oldest brother, who was named after my dad,” Pat says.

The junior Nick died in 1995 and the senior is no longer involved in the two restaurants.

That first Nicolinni’s initiated the Mediterranean look that is carried on to this day.

According to “Classic Restaurants of Youngstown” (2014, History Press) by Thomas Welsh and Gordon F. Morgan, “the main dining area was flanked with 20-foot-high columns and iron arches,” with wrought iron light fixtures, slate walls, tile flooring and stained glass lamp shades. Nick Lavanty, the authors say, wanted his customers to feel as though they were visiting an exotic country.

The Boardman location, 1247 Boardman Poland Road, opened in 2005 with Pat in charge.

In response to a family need, Pat recently cut back hours; the restaurant now closes at 4 p.m.

“I have to take care of my mom,” he says, explaining that she is having health issues. “It’s a family restaurant and family comes first.”

When asked if he considered hiring a chef-manager to handle the dinner service, Pat’s response revealed his focus.

“I don’t want to say we’re control freaks, but my wife [Stephanie] and I, we put a lot of time in here and that’s why everything is so consistent,” he says. “Everything passes through our hands or our eyes. We just had to change to this concept to get through some family matters. I’m not going to say that dinner won’t happen again, but for right now, this is what it is.”

The Boardman location employs a staff of 17, down from the 52 workers it had when it was open throughout the evening.

Fortunately, the Boardman Nicolinni’s always had a strong lunch trade and that hasn’t changed.

“It’s a great location to do a good lunch business,” Pat says. “We also do great carry-out sales at 4 o’clock (just before closing). We make a lot of to-go orders for people picking up dinner to take home.”

The lunch menu still includes all of “the old standbys,” Lavanty says. “We cut very little from it, and there is a separate brunch menu that changes nearly every day.”
The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The Austintown location remains open for dinner, with hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Owner John Lavanty did not respond to interview requests for this story, but Pat noted that the Austintown location has a similar menu and uses the same family recipes.

A Canfield High School graduate, Pat was about a semester shy of graduating from Youngstown State University in the early 2000s, but dropped out because his father got sick and he was needed to take the helm of the Austintown restaurant.

“I’ve been going strong ever since,” he says.

Pat’s wife, Stephanie, creates the desserts for the Boardman restaurant.

“We’re a staple in the Italian food scene,” Pat says. “We’re family run and our roots run deep here.”

Though he did not go to culinary school, working as a chef and restaurateur seems to have been preordained for Pat, who says he learned from the best.

“I was fortunate to grow up in the business, and I worked with some talented chefs along the way,” he says. “I learned from them and was always open minded to learning new habits and new dishes. And I like to eat. I eat a ton but fortunately I have a fast metabolism.”

Even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. Pat stays in peak physical shape as an extreme athlete who is training to compete on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.”

He got his first shot in 2017 when the show had a regional round of competition in Cleveland. Pat did not advance but has been working to get another chance – and that might happen soon.

He recently received an initial callback from the show and is waiting to get the final call, which could happen in the next two or three weeks. He would have to travel to either St. Louis or Washington, D.C., to try out for the upcoming season, which will begin in May.

While Pat regularly works out a gym, he has also installed “Ninja”-style obstacles in his restaurant. If you look closely, pegboards and hooks are visible high up on the walls, from which Pat climbs, swings and jumps.

“They’re hidden all over in plain sight,” Pat says. He installed them years ago to make it more convenient to get a “Ninja” workout.

While Pat has his hands full at the present time, he has given thought to opening another Nicolinni’s in the future.

“We were approached about doing a downtown [Youngstown] location,” he says. “I’m not opposed to it but this is not the right time for it. We’ll entertain that [possibility] further down the road.”

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