The pastry case at Royal Coffee House Roasters and Bakery has opened in the same strip mall as Nucci's in Richmond Valley. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — In this episode of The Dish, tune into a chat with Paul Montella of Nucci’s South and his new neighbor, Fares Alarab. Fares recently opened Royal Coffee House, a pastry shop and cafe where green beans are roasted right in the shop.

Nucci's fried calamari (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

We checked in with Paul this week because the restaurant recently made the news with a car crashing into its dining room. All is well now and the restaurant awaits its new plate glass windows.

Sausage crumbles on a pie at Nucci's (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

In the meantime, Paul talks up his Sunday Sauce, pizzas, tripe delivered Island-wide and reflects on life in the restaurant business. He also joked about the delicious, albeit strong, Yemeni-style coffee and tea served by his fellow strip mall food operation.

“I had so much energy I was up for days,” deadpanned the proprietor.

Nucci's and Royal Coffee Roasters (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

After a brief walk over to Fares’ place, the new business owner presented his coffee roasting machine on the Facebook Live. Viewers also gleaned a look at the freshly made glazed doughnuts, apple puff turnovers and Middle Eastern desserts — baklava, konafa, Honey Hive, Basbousa, fatera, croissants and cookies. Not shown in the video but available daily are crepes — Nutella, Oreo, Duce De Leche, nut-filled and cheese.

Fares Alarab, owner of Royal Coffee House (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

Turkish Arabic light roasts and teas are available at Royal Coffee which retails the product for home use. Hours at the cafe are 6 a.m. to midnight and seating is available inside and outdoors in a fully canopied space.

The pair of owners have been impressed by the boom in the neighborhood with restaurants like the former Waterside Grill moving over to the former digs of DaddyO’s on Richmond Valley Road. It will be called Fire & Ice Bar and Grill. They are equally delighted by the activity just across the street from them at the former Ippolito Budweiser Distributorship which is now a movie set.

A peek at freshly baked muffins coming from the oven at Royal Coffee House (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

“It’s kind of cool to see Denzel Washington and some of these actors walking around the neighborhood,” said Paul.

Nucci’s South Italian Restaurant is located at 4842 Arthur Kill Rd., 718-967-3600; NuccisSouth.com. Royal Coffee House can be found at 4852 Arthur Kill Rd., 718-554-5395; RoyalCoffeeHouserb.com.

Tune into The Dish each Wednesday, live, from the Advance/SILIVE.com Facebook page. See where the food news takes us next week and join in the conversation with Staten Islanders near (and afar) who make this food community broadcast so fun to watch and in which to engage.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.

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