The wait that Massapequa Park has watched play out on Instagram for six months has a date. Dario's, the West Hempstead pizzeria whose videos regularly draw thousands of likes, announced on its own account that its second location opens Friday, October 30, at 4952 Merrick Road in Massapequa Park.

The shop is calling the new restaurant Dario's 2, and the opening stretches across a week. A grand opening party follows on Sunday, November 1, and the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a ribbon-cutting at the Merrick Road storefront on Wednesday, October 28, at 5 p.m., two days before the doors open to customers.

Six months of buildup

Dario's told its followers in the spring that Massapequa should get ready, and the announcement video drew roughly two thousand likes before a single pie came out of the new oven. The opening-date reveal this month passed three thousand. The account that carried the news has grown to roughly 54,000 followers on the strength of behind-the-counter videos from the original West Hempstead shop, where the pizzeria built the following that is now moving east along the South Shore with it.

The buildup included a stretch this fall when the shop posted from Italy and asked followers whether a Dario's should open there. The Massapequa Park answer came this month: Friday, October 30, with the party to follow that Sunday.

A busy corridor gets busier

The new shop puts Dario's on Merrick Road, a corridor through Massapequa and Massapequa Park lined with pizzerias, delis and bakeries. A second location is a different bet than a first one: the shop arrives with its reputation already made and part of its following already local, a short drive from the Nassau-Suffolk line.

For the original location's regulars, nothing changes in West Hempstead, where Dario's continues to operate. The expansion gives the South Shore its own counter for the first time.

Opening week

The chamber's ribbon-cutting is a public event, announced on the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce's own account as a grand opening celebration for members and neighbors alike. It is the kind of welcome the chamber stages for new storefronts along the Merrick Road and Park Boulevard corridors, and it puts local officials and business owners in front of the new counter before the first customers line up.

The ribbon-cutting with the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce is Wednesday, October 28, at 5 p.m. at 4952 Merrick Road. Doors open to customers on Friday, October 30, and the grand opening party runs Sunday, November 1. Dario's posts hours, menu drops and opening updates on its Instagram account, @dariospizzali, which is where the shop says news lands first.

Sources