Tony’s Pizza Cafe owner branches out with sandwich shop called Toasted Amo
BUFFALO TWP — The township is quickly becoming a growth center in Butler County, with new businesses and residential developments seemingly popping up along the Route 356 corridor.
One of those new businesses is an Italian sandwich restaurant called Toasted Amo, located in Buffalo Plaza shopping center and built on the site of a former Kings Family Restaurant.
The restaurant marks the second Buffalo Township venture for owner Tony Coppola, who also operates Tony’s Pizza Cafe on Mulone Drive. Coppola, who says he’s been in the restaurant business for 30 years, set up his first restaurants hundreds of miles away from Butler County, in Newark, Del. Those locations — Tony’s Cafe and Tony’s Bistro — still exist today.
“I came here because my wife’s from here,” Coppola said.
Toasted Amo, which opened in April, marks a departure from Coppola’s previous restaurants, all of which centered around pizza.
“We wanted to do something good and healthy, close to the idea of Italian street food,” Coppola said. “Toasted Amo is a new concept, so it needs a little bit of time, but we’re going to get there.”
Already, Coppola’s gamble seems to be paying off. Diners come to sample Italian sandwiches as well as fruit smoothies and farro salads.
“Lunch is pretty good right now,” Coppola said. “A lot of people already come in three or four times in a month, so it means they like the food. So that's what we're looking for.”
In a given week, Coppola splits his time between Tony’s Pizza and Toasted Amo, although he said he spends more of his time at Tony’s. When he isn’t at Toasted Amo, he said his cousin, Andy, is managing the establishment, while other family members are also on the restaurant’s staff.
Although Toasted Amo is only 4 months old, Coppola is already looking to the future and has designs on potentially opening another location in or near Pittsburgh.
“We’re looking to open one closer to the city where there’s more of a crowd,” Coppola said. “I don’t know about the city, but close to the city.”
