CATTARAUGUS – Local residents and travelers along busy Route 353
in Cattaraugus now have a pizza shop and bakery at their
convenience. Customers may stop by The Village Bakery and take out
breakfast or lunch.

Owners John and Heather Deliman opened the business in December
2009, after John’s job layoff the previous summer. It was a big
step, but they decided to blend their skills together to create a
pizza shop and bakery.

The fine art of pizza making and baking comes naturally to both
John and Heather.

“When my grandfather passed away, he left me his dough and sauce
recipes from his former pizza shop in Pittsburgh,” John said. “When
I got laid off I decided it was time to get the recipes out and use
them in my pizza shop.”

John said Heather’s grandmother used to own a restaurant in
Cattaraugus, about 25-30 years ago, called Lucy’s Family
Restaurant. Her aunt Sandy owns Sandy’s Restaurant in Humphrey and
her aunt Sue creates wedding cakes and similar things.

The Delimans started out with fresh, frozen pizzas, Stromboli
and baked goods.

“When summer came, it got to be 90 degrees everyday and sales
dropped. Nobody wanted to turn their oven on,” John said. “That’s
when we decided to start doing the hot pizzas, subs, Stromboli and
wings. We took a gamble and it worked.”

He said he uses fresh dough and makes his own sauce from
scratch. The dough is made the night before and gets used for lunch
and a second batch is made for the dinner hour.

* This is a partial story. The full story is available in the June
16 edition of The Salamanca Press and online in the e-Edition.
*