Zuppardi's Apizza to open Ansonia takeout spot
Zuppardi's Apizza, a West Haven staple since the 1930s, has plans to open a prep kitchen and takeout storefront in Ansonia.
The space at 58 Beaver Street will operate as a prep kitchen for its pizza truck, Zuppardi's announced in a Facebook post. The new takeout-only storefront will also serve daytime slices, some sandwiches and to-go prepared items, and it will accommodate takeout pizza orders with limited hours.
Jim Ormrod, a fourthgeneration Zuppardi family member who owns and operates the pizza truck, said the space should open this winter. He's aiming for early January.
"This is a nice time to open, because it is off-season for the truck," he said. "So I can take the time to make sure it operates properly, work out all the kinks."
Ormrod said the Zupp's Truck, which has been on the road about six years, kept outgrowing its prep space, first at the West Haven restaurant and then at its satellite location at The Hops Company beer hall in Derby. As he was purchasing equipment for the new Ansonia building, including a walk-in cooler and a mixer, he said he finally decided he might as well put in a pizza oven.
In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, Ormrod began making "driveway calls," taking orders in specific towns and dropping pizzas at customers' homes. The truck serviced a lot of guests in Shelton, Seymour, Monroe and Trumbull, he said, making the new Ansonia location a good fit.
"I think [the town] is pretty excited about it," he said. "It's cool to be wanted
and welcomed."
Over more than eight decades, Zuppardi's has become a celebrated pizzeria
in greater New Haven, sticking to generations of tradition.
In 1934, bread-baker
Dominic Zuppardi moved his business, Salerno Bakery, to what is now Zuppardi’s landmark Union Street location in West Haven. When he had a stroke in the late 1940s, his son Anthony took over and focused on pizza, specializing in plain tomato pies and eventually adding more toppings like housemade fennel sausage.
Anthony’s children (including Ormrod's mother, Lori) and grandchildren
now run the pizzeria. The sausage is still a best-seller, along with a white clam pie featuring fresh bivalves shucked to order. A white pie with escarole and beans is another favorite.
Ormrod said he wants his customer base to know it's still a family-run brand, even with the recent expansion.
"We're not franchising. This is a family making this move, having this growth," he said. "It's still Zuppardi's. There will be a Zuppardi there, as far as I can imagine, at all times."