Friends' Merchant Series – Tuscany Touch Restaurant

Editor's note: As part of their fundraising efforts for this year, the Friends of the Hasbrouck Heights Library is asking area businesses to offer discounts to library supporters who join their Friends Merchants program. Friends' Justin Watrel has prepared profiles of participating businesses, which Patch has agreed to publish one to two times per month throughout the year. Patch plays no role in selecting the businesses or writing the profiles.

When you find a restaurant that is consistent in every way, service, food and atmosphere, where the owners make you feel like part of their extended family, you want to keep it to yourself.

This is the case with Tuscany Touch Restaurant, which has become a mainstay in Hasbrouck Heights due to the dedication and detail of its owners, Michael and Regina D’Angelo. With a recent renovation to make it more spacious, Tuscany Touch Restaurant has become a leader in the ever expanding restaurant scene of downtown Hasbrouck Heights. It proves that quality and consistency is the key to an excellent restaurant.

The D’Angelo’s have led an interesting path on their way to Hasbrouck Heights. Michael had immigrated to the U.S. from Palermo, Sicily in 1982. He returned in 1995 to spend time with his family. While working as a chef in a 700 year old villa in Florence, he was introduced to his future wife, Regina Branchetti, a college student studying physiology. After their marriage, Michael went to work for the Antinori family, a noble family famous for their wines which are shipped all over the world.

Michael had been introduced to them by his mother-in-law, who at the time was a chef for the family. As a private chef, he cooked special dishes for the guests of the Antinoris when they visited for wine tastings. He used his past talents to perfectly match the wines to the foods of the local region. After spending time perfecting his skills, Michael returned with his wife and daughter, Valentina in 2000 to the United States.

“We wanted more opportunities for our daughter,” Regina explained, “In the US; there is more room for advancement and higher education.” Valentina has since graduated from Hasbrouck Heights High School and has moved on to different positions at Hackensack Medical Center where her mother and uncle also work.

Michael has developed the menu for Tuscany Touch that will please any customer. He keeps the standard traditional ‘Italian American’ menu items such as stuffed shells, eggplant and chicken parmesan, baked ziti and spaghetti and meatballs. His lunch menu also has an array of different sandwiches, calzones and makes a mouth-watering pizza, which is available for eat-in or takeout service.

It’s the chalkboard and specialty menu items that differentiate Tuscany Touch from the dozens of other Italian restaurants in the area. “We change our specialty menu every day,” Michael explained. “We make all our sauces from scratch, the gnocchi and cavatelli are made in house and all of our specials are dishes you would order in a restaurant in Italy. True Italian food is not drenched in sauces and cheese. The food is of the region and uses the freshest ingredients.”

Michael grows many of the ingredients for his dishes from his garden behind his house. “I grow my own zucchini, zucchini flowers, eggplant, oregano, romaine lettuce, basil, parsley and tomatoes that are used in my cooking. That is where you taste the real difference in the food when it is in season. This is where the quality of the ingredients makes all the difference in how the dish tastes.”

The restaurant is very innovative in its menu selection. On top of standards of most Italian restaurants, Michael stays true to his Italian heritage and keeps things simple. Customers will find on any given night mushrooms stuffed with white crab meat, shrimp buonavia, a scampi sauce on toasted bread and fresh mussels with garlic oil. Entrees specials include braciole, meatballs and sausage over homemade cavatelli, stuffed flounder with a crabmeat stuffing and oreganata sauce and orecchiette barese with broccoli rabe, sausage and garlic oil.

“When we make a penne a la vodka sauce, we use real vodka and fresh bacon instead of a tomato cream sauce,” Michael added. For dessert, there is an array of homemade desserts that are made in-house by Michael and his wife. These include Italian cheesecake, tiramisu, almond cake, fresh cannoli with cream and zeppolis with custard cream that are made to order.

The restaurant is strictly BYOB but the restaurant does carry an array of sodas, teas and waters to accompany the meal. Michael will also cater large parties and off premise events.

For the recent street fair, the D’Angelos involvement included setting up a little café outside the restaurant selling sausage and peppers, homemade rice balls and fried calamari. “Customers are like family to us and they come to a restaurant, they see a husband and wife team cooking side by side. We both think that food should be inventive and creative. We have a lot of trust from our customers,” Regina said.

Keeping in the tradition of warm hospitality, innovative dishes made with the freshest ingredients in a well-designed restaurant with a staff that greets everyone gracefully are the reasons why Tuscany Touch has been such a success over the past six years.

“We have been having consistent business due to the number of regulars that come back week after week. We like to keep them happy and give them our very best,” Michael said.

Tuscany Touch Restaurant and Pizzeria
167 Boulevard & Division Avenue
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604
201-288-4000