Three restaurants might come to mind when you think of pizza in Hamden: Tonino’s, Eli’s On Whitney and the new Whitney Pizza, which all sit on Whitney Avenue. A new restaurant now joins the ranks of pizza on Whitney Avenue – Rizzo’s Original Pizza Tub.
Founded by Kevin Rizzo, Rizzo’s Original Pizza Tub was not his original line of work. Rizzo had his own home renovation business before opening up Rizzo’s Original Pizza Tub. He credits his wife, Carole, for coming up with the idea.
“Because when we have normal pizza, she likes my crust. She’s always stealing my crust,” Rizzo said. “She said to me one day, she’s like, ‘Wouldn’t it be kind of cool if somebody did something that focused more on the crust than anything else?’”
That’s when the idea was planted in Rizzo’s head. After two years of sitting around not doing much with his home renovation business due to COVID, he started his current business in April. Or, as he said, “Swapped. Closed one and started this one.”
“I didn’t actually think he would do it, honestly,” said Carole Rizzo, who works at the restaurant.
That doesn’t stop the pair from working together making the food with each other. Carole Rizzo pointed to the fact that they don’t fight.
“Since we get along so well we work 24 hours together,” Carole Rizzo said.
Carole went on to jokingly say that the restaurant is her “anniversary gift.”
Customers might think that from the moment that the idea came to be, Rizzo’s current version was the one that he went with. He points out that there was another version of the pizza tub that was more labor-intensive. Since the current version wasn’t as time-consuming, he went with this one.
The challenge wasn’t making pizzas for Rizzo. It was about finding the right kitchen that could handle the restaurant’s necessities. After some searching, he found their current location at 2411 Whitney Ave.
“This was the only actual place that I found that I could work out of where it’s ours,” Rizzo said. “Every other place I found, we’d have to share it with somebody, and you’d have to pay for freezer space, a shelf, or refrigeration space, shelves, and then time. You’d have to work around other people.”
For a lot of people, they can’t eat pizza due to the dough and gluten. At Rizzo’s Original Pizza Tub, customers don’t have to worry about gluten. That’s because they are completely gluten-free after talking to the community.
“We were talking to a lot of people, and I ran into a lot of people that said that if they weren’t gluten-free, they knew somebody that had a family member that had celiac,” Rizzo said. “We just kind of decided it was the best thing to do. We’re just going to go all gluten-free, completely dedicated gluten-free.”
The process of making the pizza starts with the dough, which they place in a refrigerator overnight. Kevin points out how he and his wife work together to form the pizzas. He is mainly responsible for cutting and shaping the dough, while Carole works on the toppings.
“I’m basically able to just lay it out flat, and then I have a particular cutter that I use that cuts the shape out,” Rizzo said. “Once I cut the shape out, and drop it into a tub my wife sauces it, and then cheeses it.”
The pizza doesn’t cost a lot for customers. For four pizza tubs, Rizzo’s Original Pizza Tub only charges $10.
Customers who may want desserts will be pleased to find out that Rizzo’s has included chocolate cupcakes, oatmeal chocolate cookies, and a vegan pumpkin maple whoopie pie. Kevin credits another local Connecticut business, which is also committed to being gluten-free.
“The woman’s business is Dee’s One Smart Cookie, and they’re out of Glastonbury,” Rizzo said. “We shop up in Thyme and Season, and we saw these. I contacted her, figured they’d probably be a pretty good match for us to bring that in and sell to our customers too.”
Since opening its location on Whitney Avenue in April, the restaurant has seen positive feedback. Utilizing advertising and social media to help attract new customers, the couple has received five-star reviews across services such as Google, Yelp and Find Me Gluten Free.
“It’s been going pretty good. People are still finding out about us. Been doing a lot of advertising and social media,” Rizzo said. “Everybody that tries it, they have nothing but really good things to say.”