Via Veneto Founder Dies at 58

Natale "Nat" Stabile, Norristown legend and founder and co-owner of , reportedly passed away on Saturday, Aug. 11, after a long battle with cancer. He was 58.

Stabile moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. from his birthplace of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily in 1969 but soon settled in Norristown in 1973 at the age of 18. It was then he opened Via Veneto. According to a moving feature about Stabile on PhillyBurbs.com, he opened Nat's Pizza in Doylestown three years later and became a beloved figure in that town as well. 

"He’s the best pizza man I’ve ever seen and probably the fastest I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen him make a pizza in 26 seconds from beginning to end," Tim Wylie, manager of Nat's Pizza, told PhillyBurbs.com.

Stabile, who lived in Plymouth Meeting until his passing this weekend, was known as a Renaissance man. When Stabile's water ice operation began to pick up steam, he reportedly designed the layout for his water ice factory in Norristown and even did much of the construction work himself, including the welding. 

Services for Natale "Nat" Stabile will be held at Boyd-Horrox Funeral Home, at 200 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, this Thursday, August 16, from 6 to 9 p.m. and again on Friday from 8 to 9:15 a.m. A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. at St. Paul's Church on Johnson Highway and New Hope St. Stabile will be entombed in St. Patrick's Mausoleum.

Read more about Stabile's life at PhillyBurbs.com and read his full obituary on The Times Herald's website.