Durham chef Matt Kelly to help open a pizza restaurant in University Hill

Axios

31-01-2025

Matt Kelly, one of Durham's most prominent chefs behind restaurants like Nanas and Mateo, and Tom Cuomo, who previously worked at the renowned Carbone restaurant in New York, plan to open a new pizza restaurant in Durham together this spring.
Why it matters: The collaboration brings back a partnership that was forged at Kelly's beloved seafood restaurant Saint James, where Cuomo was the chef.
Saint James closed unexpectedly in 2022 after a developer filed plans to redevelop the property.
The latest: Kelly and Cuomo plan to open the pizza shop — named Dino's — in Durham's University Hill district inside the former BB's Crispy Chicken space.
Kelly told Axios that the goal is to bring a new "family restaurant" to Durham and invest in Cuomo, whom he has wanted to work with since Saint James. "I love working with Tom," he said.
What to expect: Kelly told Axios that the menu will focus on many of the Italian American favorites of Cuomo's native New Jersey, like pizza, hoagies, chicken parms and made-to-order pizzas.
It will also have salads and Buffalo-style wings, an ode to Kelly's western New York background.
The restaurant space will include a wall of televisions and a large outdoor patio, and it'll offer delivery service.
The goal is to be open seven days a week by the start of the next NFL season, Kelly said.
What they're saying: "The goal is to do simple pizza. Nothing too crazy. It will be an ode to places I went to as a kid in New ... something that is a throwback to the Italian red sauce joints of the 80s," Cuomo told Axios.
Zoom in: Kelly said he and Cuomo have been experimenting with what type of pizza they will serve at Dino's for months.
"During the week, work is all Nanas and then on Sunday and Mondays, I make doughs and [Cuomo] makes dough at his house and we throw pies," Kelly said. "Then we go into Alimentari, which has the same pizza oven that we will use at Dino's, and make about 25 pies."
The end result of all that experimentation, Kelly said, is a pizza that "has the crisp of New Haven-style, the lightness of Neapolitan-style and the chewiness of a New York slice."
Location: 3109 Shannon Road, Durham