Pasta and pho? New pizza restaurant opens in Bradenton with Vietnamese food too
A new entrant on the local pizza scene, Fresca Pizza & Pasta, has something extra special on its menu and quite the back story.
Thuong Ly and her husband, Sonny Nguyen, opened Fresca Pizza & Pasta on May 29 in the Marketplace West shopping center, 5348 34th St. W.
It’s in the same shopping center where Detwiler’s Farm Market is readying its second Manatee County store and its sixth overall. The new Detwiler’s could open later this year in what is being renamed Detwiler’s Marketplace.
So, what’s special about the Fresca Pizza menu?
Pizzas account for about 65% of the business — and the rest is Vietnamese cuisine and other traditional pizza parlor menu offerings, such as pasta dishes, salads and sandwiches.
For starters, you can have garlic bread or chicken wings. And here’s where you start to see the difference.
Also on the starter menu are egg rolls: pork, shrimp and shredded vegetables fried in a wonton wrapper and served with a side of garlic fish sauce.
Or maybe fresh summer rolls, a non-fried roll of chicken, shrimp and assorted vegetables wrapped in rice paper and served with a side of peanut sauce.
The menu then segues into a variety of pizza offerings: Margherita, Deluxe (double mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, onions and green peppers), Diavola (mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage and hot jalapeno peppers), vegetarian and more.
Pizza prices start at $14.95.
“We make all our own sauces and dough,” Sonny said.
In the way of salads, there are the standard garden, Greek and Caesar options.
Chicken, veal, meatball and sausage sandwiches are available, all listed at $10.95.
Pasta dishes, five in all, start at $12.95 and top out at $15.95, whether for spaghetti and meatballs or Fusilli Alla Vodka (bacon, green onions, vodka and tomato cream sauce).
Then, tagged at the bottom of the menu are Vietnamese specials.
They include pho (beef noodle soup), bun bo hue (spicy beef noodle soup with vermicelli noodles) and hu tieu kho, which comes as a soup or dry.
Among beverages served are beer and wine, iced tea, soda, lemonade, Thai iced tea and Vietnamese iced coffee.
The back story
Thuong Ly and Sonny Nguyen came to the United States as refugees after the Vietnam War. She was from Vinh Long in the Mekong Delta and he was from Qui Nhon, a coastal city along the South China Sea.
They met and married in Buffalo, N.Y., after arriving in the United States not knowing the language, culture or weather. It was a brutal transition from always hot Vietnam to a place known for its punishing winters.
They started a family and eventually opened several nail shops in Benderson Development properties in Buffalo.
Over the years, they visited friends in the Bradenton area, and the couple yearned to make a new life in Florida.
Sonny Nguyen learned the pizza business from a close friend, Vien Huynh, in Toronto, Canada, and adopted the business name, Fresca Pizza & Pasta, and recipes from him. No wonder that Sonny calls Vien his brother.
Through their history and connections with Benderson Development in Buffalo, the couple were able to find restaurant space in Bradenton.
They got a big boost in setting up the new restaurant from their three children, son Johnson Ly, and daughters Cindy and Tracie, all of whom are college graduates.
“I love it here and I am so proud of my children,” Thuong said.
Cindy earned her MBA at the University at Buffalo, and has aspirations in the corporate world. But for now she is focused on helping make Fresca Pizza & Pasta a success. She helped with the permitting and licensing and is now working on social media for the restaurant.
She’s not surprised that her parents launched a new business in a new country.
“My parents can’t sit still. They have always empowered me that I can do anything, and to go out and do it,” Cindy said.
While the children grew up in Buffalo eating Vietnamese food at home, they were exposed to American food at school and through them, they mother learned to prepare American fare.
“We would come home from school, and say, ‘Mom, can you make this?’” Cindy said.
“I think my parents’ goal here was to merge the two cultures,” she said.
First-time guests will sometimes take a look at the menu, and see the Vietnamese offerings and decide to try something new, Cindy said.
Fresca Pizza & Pasta is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 941-782-8288 or visit the restaurant’s Facebook page.
