What’s Going On: Sapore Pizzeria back in business after fire

When Roberto Schiano turned over his former Illiano’s restaurant in Old Lyme to nephew Luigi Conte five years ago, he had a lot of advice after decades in the business, but this was one of the major ones:

“This is your place; you gotta be here all the time.”

Conte, now 33, has taken the advice and run with it. In fact, he’s taken it to a new level at his newly refurbished Sapore Pizzeria & Bar on Boston Post Road near Rogers Lake, which just a year ago had been hit by a devastating fire.

The fire occurred on Jan. 9 of last year, and the restaurant reopened exactly one year later. In the interim, Luigi and his wife Tiffany reimagined Sapore by adding a bar area with hightop tables and spiffing up the interior with cool light fixtures and comfy new booths.

The Contes also have added a happy hour every day from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., with specialty cocktails now being featured as well as occasional live music.

“The community has always been very supportive,” said Schiano, who still owns the building along with former restaurant partner Paul Illiano.

After the fire and his yearlong absence, “I didn’t lose one customer,” Conte added.

Conte was awakened at 4 a.m. on the day of the fire, alerted by a security company that there was smoke in the building, apparently emanating from a fryolator, according to reports at the time. Quick response by firefighters from Old Lyme and surrounding towns contained the worst of the damage to the kitchen.

“Ten more minutes, the fire would have come up to the exhaust fan and burned the whole place down,” he said at the time.

The fire brought out the best in the community, as fellow businessmen Lenny Corto, owner of Soundview Brewing Co. and the former Lenny’s on the Beach at Soundview, as well as the owner of Teddy’s Old Lyme Pizza Palace, pitched in to help with a fundraiser for Sapore employees.

Now the employees are back, dishing out those delicious New York-style pizzas with tomato sauce direct from Italy, where Conte grew up. Conte admits to being a bit of a fanatic about his pizza, taking up to 72 hours to prepare the dough to make it as flavorful as possible and baking the pie at higher temperatures and with fewer toppings than his competition to make sure the finished product is delightfully crispy.

“He took our experience, our product, our everything,” Schiano said, “and built on that. So he perfected it, really.”

Conte has taken the same perfectionist mentality with his grinders as well, buying high-end bread from New York City and adding the best ingredients including imported prosciutto, salami and mozzarella, then adding a dash of fresh arugula.

“My grinders are gourmet grinders,” he said, though most of them go for only $14, not much more than you might pay for a middle-of-the-road product. “You're not gonna catch me selling ham grinder, lettuce, tomato and cheese.”

Trying to be more than a pizza restaurant, Conte also has worked hard to bring up the quality and variety of other offerings, including eggplant parmigiana and the classic Italian Cioppino fish stew. The restaurant also has added classic Italian coffees such as cappuccino and espresso.

Through it all, Conte credits his loyal employees and wife Tiffany, who puts on an apron after her 9-to-5 job to help out at the restaurant. He also marvels at his regular customers, several of whom attended Luigi and Tiffany’s wedding a couple years ago in Italy.

“It wouldn’t be Luigi without Tiffany,” Conte said. “We are the Italians, and she’s more American. So I had to learn the American culture, how it works and how you communicate to people.”

Conte also credits his uncle Schiano with teaching him the business when he first arrived in America at age 22 to help run the former Paesano's Pizza Bar & Bistro by Illiano's in New London. But Schiano said Conte has taken all his knowledge and brought the business up a level, to the point where social media posts are now bringing in customers from the pizza capital of Connecticut, New Haven.

“Consistency is key in quality and service,” Conte said.

And a love for food and people.

“I’m very proud,” he said. “I have a business, and I’m happy to be here.”

Lee Howard is The Day’s business editor. To reach him, email l.howard@theday.com.