Maybe you can imagine an Italian-American who doesn’t eat meat or cheese. But how about an Italian-American chef in an Italian-American restaurant? But that’s just the case with Brian Ricciardi, the owner of Mozzarella Fellas, 336 Summit Square Blvd. Ricciardi is a vegan — a vegetarian who also eats no eggs, cheese, butter or milk or other animal by-products.
 
Not only that, but Ricciardi also eats gluten-free much of the time because his girlfriend has celiac disease, a hypersensitivity to the gluten in wheat, barley and rye. As a result, Ricciardi has crafted a menu at Mozzarella Fellas that gives diners a lot of options. Yes, customers can get a traditional New York-style pizza with regular from-scratch wheat dough, house-made mozzarella and pepperoni and sausage.