John’s Best Pizza to become Ponza
Veronica Sandolo says a few days in Ponza, the picturesque Italian island where her extended family lives, is “like therapy.” For the newest iteration of her family’s Norwalk restaurant, she is highlighting the best of the island, including its traditional food, culture and warm, family-friendly service.
Sandolo is a second-generation restaurateur, and she has been transitioning her father’s eatery, John’s Best Pizza, into Ponza Italian Kitchen & Bar over the past few months. John Sandolo has owned the Connecticut Avenue Italian restaurant since 1980, and the next generation is taking over, she said.
“The concept is just bringing authentic, homemade recipes, the traditional recipes from Ponza, with a new generation flair,” she said. “We’re kind of putting our own twist to it.”
Ponza’s refreshed menu will feature the “simple, rustic cuisine” eaten in households on the island, while also keeping many of the restaurant’s time-honored favorites: pastas, chicken and veal entrees, and seafood specialties like zuppa de pesce. An emphasis on freshness may transition some former menu items into occasional featured specials, like lasagna.
“Our menu’s going to be based on giving you the freshest food out there; it’s not going to be based on trying to give everyone everything,” she said.
Ponza will introduce new Italian “tapas”: small plates like calamari agrodolce with a sweet and sour sauce. Sandolo said she chose to focus on appetizers, as she’s found guests enjoy coming out and sampling a number of items instead of committing to one entree.
“I think people do enjoy coming out ... and instead of a full meal, having five or six appetizers, and previewing a glimpse of different things instead of locking down to a big filling meal,” she said.
As fishing has been one of Ponza’s main industries, Sandolo wants to offer more fish-based dishes as featured plates in Norwalk. Other traditional foods include ciambotta, a vegetable stew similar to ratatouille, she said.
Sandolo noted that the recipe for the pizza, a staple at the restaurant, will stay unchanged. But guests will be able to specify their preferred crust thickness. Ponza’s standard pizza is known as “hearty,” she said, but if a diner wants a thinner crust, they’re able to accommodate that. Pies are available with red and white (no sauce) bases, with classic and gourmet toppings.
With a bi-level space — marked
by a live ficus tree growing through the center of the restaurant, with arching branches — Ponza offers an upstairs private dining room and event space, in addition to its main dining areas and what Sandolo calls a “tremendous” outdoor patio. This offers diners plenty of seating space if they have varying levels of comfort with dining out, she said.
Live entertainment is available on the patio Thursday through Sunday; recent acts include Tangled Vine, Tom Hartlett and AG3. Sandolo said music has been a key part of restoring some sense of normalcy to the restaurant, as everyone has grappled with the mental impacts of COVID-19.
“The customers have become our extended family, in the sense that we’re trying to promote phenomenal food with friendly service and the music that kind of feeds your soul,” Sandolo said.