After seven years as owners of Daddabbo's Pizza, Carey Eidel and his wife, Angela Daddabbo, are moving on.

On Tuesday the Auburn couple sold their pizzeria on Genesee Street in downtown Auburn to a New York City couple with a young child wanting to establish a life outside the hustle and bustle of city living.

Guillermo Salinas, a professionally trained chef who studied in France and Italy, and his wife,

Gabriella, will take over and renovate the restaurant, Eidel said. They plan on adding fresh pasta, traditional Italian and grill pizzas as entrees while keeping what the restaurant is known for: the pizza, charbroiled wings and homemade bread.

“I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of our customers and supporters over the years that have been so great,” Eidel said. “We hope they continue to support this new person that is bringing energy and money into the town. I think this is the way Auburn is going to grow.”

Eidel and Daddabbo will now turn their attention fully to their family - they have two children, an 8-year-old and a 14-month-old - as well as the Auburn Public Theater, a nonprofit entertainment establishment they founded two years ago.

Eidel, who is also a teacher at Cayuga Community College, will become managing director of the theater with the goal of creating four or five full time jobs.

“I really believe if I focus on that we can really help Auburn with our passion, because our background is in show business,” he said.

The couple worked in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry before relocating to Auburn.

In 2001 they took over the ownership and operation of Gino & Joe's Pizzeria Cucina, renamed it Daddabbo's Pizza, and later on opened other locations in Union Springs and Jordan.

They sold off the pizzeria in Union Springs about four years ago and the location in Jordan about three years ago, he said.

There is no loss of jobs expected under the new ownership, Eidel said. In fact, the Salinas are planning on sending employees to New York City to work with experienced chefs and to train to become a professional chef.

All and all, Eidel has mixed emotions about the change.

“It's bittersweet,” he said. “I'm very excited to move on to a new phase in our lives. I'm going to get to spend more time with my family, which is of the utmost importance. I'm also sad because we took it from a pizzeria that wasn't doing very well and built up a reputation. I felt like we became part of the community.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net