Romanacci expanding into Fairfield
FAIRFIELD — The Ricci brothers said they had their eyes on Post Road for years as the “missing piece” of their growing Fairfield County Italian restaurant portfolio.
Romanacci, their homey Italian kitchen and bar business, has opened locations in Norwalk, Trumbull and Westport over the past 11 years, and the brothers said they hoped to "connect the dots" with commercial space between downtown Fairfield and the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport. The mix of ages moving through the heart of one of Connecticut's biggest towns seemed like the perfect match for a restaurant that prides itself on a versatile selection of pizza, tapas and newly-introduced macand-cheese burgers, they said.
Maurizio Ricci, one of the owners of the restaurant, said opening in Fairfield was “Just a great opportunity. It was a great town and it feels like Romanacci kind of fits Fairfield.”
Maurizio and his brother Graziano opened Romanacci's Fairfield location March 6, moving into the former site of the Fairfield Social restaurant on 116 Post Road. The recent opening comes during a busy month for the Ricci brothers and marks the second extension of Romanacci's footprint in as many months.
The Riccis took over the 105year-old Old Mill Grocery and Deli in Westport in February, branding it as a Romanacciowned business — the second in the town alongside the Romanacci restaurant bordering the Westport train station. By the time the Riccis unlocked Romanacci's newest set of doors on Post Road March 6, it was the chain's fifth location and the brothers' seventh in Connecticut, alongside their two Osteria Romana restaurants in Norwalk and Monroe.
“We're not corporate or we (don't) work from the office,” Ricci said. “Before I came to Fairfield, every morning I go to my Norwalk location, Westport, stop by Trumbull, I come to Fairfield just to make sure everything's OK. My brother do the same thing. And that's what I feel like people like about us.”
Born and raised in a suburb of Rome where their parents ran a local restaurant, the brothers have looked to bring their Italian heritage to the Romanacci name — which translates to "from Rome" but refers to a more working-class economic background, Maurizio Ricci said. Their Italian influence is on active display inside the Fairfield restaurant, where the planks of the wooden crates that transported the Ricci family's wine from the Veneto region of Italy decorate the artificial grass-covered walls.
“Immigrating to this country, we had this dream,” Ricci said. “We want to show our roots, what we really come from, coming from a very modest family. That's why when we registered the name Romanacci, the lawyer said ‘Whoa, whoa guys, I don't know if you know what you mean.' Romanacci, it doesn't mean — it's not a glamorous name. It means almost peasant. I said, ‘Oh no, we know. That's what we are. We come from a very modest family.' ”
Romanacci Fairfield picks up where its Westport train station location left off, embracing a hearty small-dish menu inspired by the increasingly popular Spanish tapas that offer smaller, sub-$20 portions for tables to share. The Westport location had been Romanacci's first to serve an Italian take on Spanish tapas, and Maurizio Ricci said they've become one of the restaurant's most popular menu options.
“We noticed that, more and more, the restaurant industry is shifting little by little on people, they don't want the classic meal, but they want to try different things without spending $100,” he said.
The Fairfield and Westport menus offer more than 20 tapas and piatti — meaning larger dishes — that center around seafood, pasta, meat or vegetarian options. Maurizio Ricci said cacio e pepe, octopus and branzino have become the most popular tapas picks.
Romanacci has also debuted its first line of burgers in Fairfield, a menu addition Ricci said matches a younger crowd than its clientele in a town like Westport. He said he expects a more diverse group of ages, including college students from Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities, to filter through the Post Road eatery and take a liking to the burger options. The signature burger layers mac-and-cheese atop an angus patty, while another consists of a patty topped with bacon and melted gorgonzola.
“Italians ... burgers are not our thing, but this is what we had to adjust to, what the market wanted,” Maurizio Ricci said.
Fairfield has been quick to jump at the Romanacci experience during its first week in town, the owners said. Maurizio Ricci said so many people flocked to the restaurant over the weekend that staff had to turn customers away while the kitchen worked at its maximum capacity with roughly an hourlong wait for customers.
He said the restaurant has enlisted some staff from Norwalk who know the business' system, and the restaurant is hiring for more positions. His hope is to match the size at the original Norwalk location where the story of Romanacci and the traction it's gained in Fairfield County all began, he said.
The Riccis said they plan to stick around Fairfield for the near future to make sure the fledgling restaurant rises to the succeeding brand name.
“It's our new baby,” Maurizio Ricci said.