It's taken Rockland County native George Jamieson nearly 4 ½ years to build, but Novino, a two-level restaurant that resembles an Italian villa, should open by early July in Mahwah, New Jersey. The 50-seat restaurant, which specializes in Neapolitan style pizza as well as other Italian specialties — chicken parm, Sunday gravy, lasagna, pasta and meatballs — is a quarter mile from the Suffern border.

Novino, by the way, is a play on "no vino," meaning you can bring your own wine. Jamieson grew up working at pizzerias in Orangeburg and Valley Cottage; later the Tappan Zee High School grad had a career selling restaurant equipment before owning and running gourmet delis in Manhattan and several restaurants in Boston and Washington, D.C.