Pop-Up Pizza
A wood-fired pizza party brought to your space. Everyone gets their own hand-stretched pie, topped to order and pulled straight from the fire. I bring the oven and everything with it.
Buffalo, New York · Hospitality Professional · Private Events & Consulting
Every gathering deserves
a table this good.
Three decades of opening restaurants, cooking for crowds as large as fifteen thousand, and presenting at Harvard. Now available privately for dinners, weddings, and consulting in Buffalo and Western New York.
Harvard guest presenter
30+ years in hospitality
Fully insured
Guest Presenter
Harvard Science of Cooking
Restaurant Openings
Dallas · Mexico City · Coral Gables · Fez
Co-Owner
Nur Restaurant · Fez, Morocco
Presenter
World Science Festival
A meal is rarely just a meal. After thirty years of building restaurants and running large-scale events for people who matter to each other, I’ve learned that hospitality is mostly attention. Attention to the room, to the guest who didn’t ask for anything, but should get it anyway.
Signature Experience
Pop-Up Pizza,
wherever you gather.
I bring the whole setup to you. The oven, the fire, the dough, and everything around it, wherever your people are: a backyard, a lakehouse, a vineyard, a rooftop. Every guest gets their own pizza, hand-stretched to order and topped however they like, then pulled straight from the live fire and handed over hot.
Wine pairings and bar coordination can be arranged where appropriate, with fully insured service. Most nights I run the whole thing myself, up to about twenty guests, and bring a team when the count climbs higher.
Pizza is the centerpiece, but the menu bends to your night. Spanish tapas, a Moroccan tagine, or a backyard cookout that happens to be the best one you’ve been to. The food meets the occasion, whether that’s white tablecloths or paper plates by the lake.
Pricing stays simple and transparent: my time plus the real cost of ingredients and rentals, nothing hidden. Fully insured where it’s needed, especially when there’s a bar.
What I do
Services
Handmade Pasta
Fresh pasta made the way my family has for generations, from pinched-by-hand ravioli to a simple, perfect cacio e pepe. Served family-style, for a table that stays long.
Private Dinners & Catering
Every event is built from scratch around your occasion. No set packages, no catering-hall food. Someone who takes the whole room personally.
Hospitality Consulting
For restaurants that know the operation could be better:
- Operations
- Guest experience
- Menu development
- Staff training
- Concept development
Workshops & Classes
Hands-on pizza and fresh-pasta workshops for private groups and partner venues, with ravioli nights on request.
About
Three decades, one table at a time.
I grew up in a kitchen where Sunday meant flour on the counter and a long table that kept getting longer as more people arrived. The ravioli came from my family, pinched by hand, argued over, never quite the same twice. That table is still the thing I’m trying to recreate, whether it seats eight or fifteen thousand.
I’ve owned and run restaurants, built catering operations from scratch, and opened concepts from Texas to Morocco. I’ve presented as part of Harvard’s Science of Cooking, where I learned to explain why a dish works, not just that it does. The science sharpened the craft. The craft kept it human.
This is the quieter version of all of that. Private dinners and catering for people I’d cook for anyway. Consulting for operators who want their guests to feel the difference. Premium, but never precious. Always glad you came.
— Charlie Accivatti
“I would expect that quality at a nice restaurant ordering individual meals, not at a buffet dinner.”
Kayleen H., Bride
A look
Gallery
Portfolio
The work.
Recent work includes a 100-guest wedding built around handmade food and full-room service.
A twenty-guest dinner by the lake and a hall full of guests in black tie ask for the same thing: food that holds up and a floor that runs quiet. I bring both, and travel to do it. Buffalo is the home base, not the boundary.
Based in Buffalo · Available to travel
The detail
Locally sourced stuffed pork chops with herb stuffing
Cut thick, stuffed by hand, and seasoned the morning of service. Plated for the whole room and treated like it was going to one table.
What guests say
Reviews from the table
From clients and guests across restaurant kitchens, weddings, private dinners, and events.
★★★★★
It’s one thing to make a few meals and an entirely different thing to cook for 100.
★★★★★
Whatever you paid for the chef was worth every single cent. That was the greatest food.
★★★★★
I just had leftovers for dinner tonight, and it was better than all of the weddings I’ve been to before when the food was fresh.
★★★★★
You handled our special day with care, class, and a level of skill we will not forget. Everyone has been raving about the food.
★★★★★
Chef Charlie has elevated the food. Homemade pasta, pizza, and attention to detail. There is nothing like his food.
★★★★★
If you want a New York City SoHo feeling experience, go to Alchemy in Hamburg. The food made by Chef Charlie Accivatti is absolutely delicious.
★★★★★
The pizza was the best I’ve ever had. That’s saying a lot as a Buffalo native with a thousand pizza options in the area.
Best chef in Buffalo.
★★★★★
Everything Chef Charlie makes is top notch. If you have allergies or anything, he will work with you to create something special.
★★★★★
Pasta and pizza made from scratch. The marinara had a great depth of flavor and the crust was light and tender. Fantastic.
Get in touch
Let’s set a date.
Planning a private dinner or a larger celebration? Tell me about your event. I read every message myself and reply within a day or two.
Currently booking fall 2026 and beyond.
Charlie AccivattiBuffalo, New York
(716) 697-3697
caa@crystallinemgmt.com
Tell me a little about your event. I’ll read it and respond within a day or two.
In The Loop
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