Little did Henry and Sarah Aguilar know that when their eldest children began working at Vincenzo’s Pizzeria that they would be the parlor’s next owners.

Funnily, though, the parlor’s founder Jimmy Johnson knew.

“Jimmy mentioned it one day,” Henry Aguilar recalled. “I dropped off Valentino, and I just came in to say ‘hi.’ He said, ‘Come on, Valentino. Come learn the pizza oven so that when your dad is ready to buy the place, he will have his right-hand man.”

That casual comment came at the end of July 2023. Aguilar chewed on the idea, checked with his wife, and had a serious conversation with Jimmy and Renee Johnson a few weeks later.

“I was really nervous,” Sarah Aguilar confessed.

On Oct. 15, the couple unlocked the Windsor Forest pizza parlor doors, the new proprietors of Vincenzo’s with Eva and Valentino already on the payroll.

Only a few months into its new existence under the same name, Vincenzo’s is nominated for Best Pizza in both Connect Savannah and the Savannah Morning News’s separate polls.

With three kids whose names are decidedly Italian, the Aguilars have considered a restaurant renaming contest by which a pizza purchase comes with a vote, though choosing one kid over the others sounds like the centerpiece of a Shakespearean squabble.

Aguilar’s own nickname is among the pizza-bilities: Big Hank’s has a nice ring to it.

For now, it remains Vincenzo’s, and if this has been your pizza place since 2003, you will recognize these pies.

FAMILIAR FLAVORS WITH FAMILIAL FLARE

With the purchase of the restaurant came the recipes, and Aguilar said that he “worked alongside [Johnson] for a month before it became official, so I could see how the essentials are done.”

The dough recipe is basically the same, though Aguilar has “tweaked [it] a little bit.”

“It’s mine now,” he coyly commented.

The “beauty” of it all is that Aguilar “plays production by ear,” making new batches of dough as they are needed, mixed and then rested overnight before being proofed at room temperature prior to pulling.

“We don’t buy frozen dough,” said the proud proprietor-chef. “I am here stretching out pizzas at 10 a.m. I make my own pizza sauce. I make my own marinara. That’s what sticks us out from everybody else.”

The Aguilars’ version of Vincenzo’s has also added cauliflower crusts, flourless crusts, and vegan cheese to serve pizza lovers with dietary restrictions.

“Not many people do that here on the Southside,” he said.

At the turn of the year, Aguilar also began introducing specials that run from Tuesday through Sunday, like this past week’s carnitas pizza, playing on his Guatemalan and Chicago roots. Seasoned pork shoulder is slow-roasted and shredded and portioned per pie with house-made sauce and mozzarella, topped with red onions and cilantro.

He estimates that Vincenzo’s bakes up as many as 70 pizzas on a weekend evening, and chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, baked ziti, and chicken alfredo with or without vegetables remain on the menu.

One of Aguilar’s first Italian kitchen gigs was at the bygone Oliva, where he learned how to make pasta from scratch. Those skills are in use here, and his pair of cooks are learning how to make these dishes “Henry’s way.”

“The best part is that I have a place of my own,” he said with a genuine smile. “Now, it all depends on me. I thrive on this.”

FOOD AND FAMILY

The names of the Aguilar children resound Sarah’s heritage and Henry’s passion for Italian culture and cuisine, and all three are part of the new family business.

Eva (17) is the delivery driver when she is not running front of house with her mom. Valentino (15) runs the ovens, just like Johnson trained him to do, and even little Giovanni is on the job as the restaurant’s unofficial host.

“Our six-year-old has his own chair up front, and he greets everybody,” Henry Aguilar shared. “Actually, last night, everybody was out of the front, and he comes to the door and says, ‘Daddy, there’s a customer!’”

In every way, this family food affair was meant to be. In Fort Campbell’s kitchen, the couple met as U.S. Army cooks and were married almost a year to the day later. He was deployed twice to serve in the Iraq War, first in the 2003 initial push and again in a 2005 tour in the Green Zone.

Both Aguilars are now ex-active duty, and from 2006 to 2008, Henry served as a Chatham County corrections officer while Sarah worked part time and raised their kids.

In 2009, they moved to Chicago, but Sarah Aguilar “hated every minute of the three years we were there,” her husband shared, though they still have a Cubs license plate frame.

The family returned to the 912 in 2012, when Henry Aguilar enrolled at Savannah Tech and worked “all over downtown Savannah,” his last post at The Naked Dog, whose operations during this past year concentrated on its namesake food truck.

“When I was hired by them in 2015,” he recalled of his time with Jim and Patsy Hood, “I told them, ‘I’m going to work for you, we’re going to do some good things, but I have ambitions to buy my own place.’”

“It took me eight years, but I finally did it,” Aguilar said with a big smile before heaping praise and thanks on the Hoods and their support of his new venture.

“We’re voting for each other for Best of Savannah,” he happily added.

PIZZA PREMIER

“This is my first pizzeria,” said Henry Aguilar, a native Guatemalan who immigrated to Houston and then Austin and then eventually to Chicago.

Having managed kitchens, food trucks, and stands for more than a decade, his initial entrepreneurial dreams were of opening a taqueria, hearkening to his heritage, though Italian rivaled his roots as his favorite cuisine to make.

“I have all that experience. The kitchen part I could do with my eyes closed, so I always had ambitions to buy my own place,” he said.

What made him say ‘yes’ to owning Vincenzo’s Pizzeria was “a huge following” and “a lot of support.”

“I know a lot of industry people that I can lean on,” Aguilar added.

“The business is the tough part, but we’re figuring it out,” he admitted. “I’m just trying to prove myself and push myself to become a better chef.”

Vincenzo’s Pizzeria (12417 White Bluff Road) is open Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (4 p.m. to 8 p.m.) and Thursday through Saturday (4 p.m. to 9 p.m.).

This article appears in Connect Savannah I February 2024.