It’s one of the newest mobile restaurants in the New Haven area, but its brand is more than 80 years old. Zuppardi’s Apizza, renowned in West Haven since 1934, has hit the streets of the Elm City with its bright-red Zupp’s Truck, outfitted to produce the quality brick-oven pizzas that have been the restaurant’s hallmark for eight decades.
After a year of planning, the truck made its debut in early May, parking on the streets of New Haven on weekdays and servicing private parties and food truck festivals on weekends. Jim Ormrod, whose mother, Lori, is the granddaughter of the pizzeria’s founder, Dominic Zuppardi, handles the truck’s operations as a fourth-generation employee in the family business.
Dominic, an Italian bread baker, originally opened a bakery with a partner on Donnelly Place in New Haven. Two years later, in 1934, as he became sole proprietor, he moved the operation to Union Avenue in West Haven. When his son Anthony took over, he changed the menu to strictly pizza, Ormrod says, starting with the traditional plain pie (tomato sauce, grated pecorino Romano cheese, no mozzarella) and eventually adding more meat and vegetable toppings. Anthony Zuppardi died in 1988, and now his daughters Lori and Cheryl serve as owners; their adult children are also part of the family restaurant. “I’ve been working there forever. It’s all I know,” Ormrod says.
Though Zuppardi’s is a landmark restaurant within West Haven, Ormrod says it’s not as well-known outside of the city limits. “Hopefully the truck can bring [our pizza] to more people in Connecticut.”
The truck presents a scaled-down version of the restaurant’s menu, but still offers slices and whole pies of many of West Haven’s greatest hits: the aforementioned traditional plain, another version with mozzarella and its house-made Italian fennel sausage. Zuppardi’s other signature pie, with fresh-shucked clams, is available in one size: a made-to-order 10-inch version. The clams are shucked in the morning before the truck hits the road, Ormrod said: “It’s delicious; you can’t beat it.” Beverage and dessert options stay local, with Foxon Park sodas, cannoli and Libby’s Italian ice.
The truck often offers slices of specialty pies, like buffalo chicken or escarole and beans with garlic and olive oil. Otherwise, “we keep it really simple; we’re pretty classic New Haven-style pizza. We just try to use good ingredients,” Ormrod says. “Our dough is a bread recipe. It’s just water, flour, salt, yeast. We don’t put anything else in it. It’s all about letting it rise correctly, treating it well. … It’s pizza. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but we just want to do it right.”
Zuppardi’s parks frequently in New Haven’s Broadway shopping district, by Urban Outfitters and the Apple store. Ormrod said the truck also will appear regularly at the Orange Community Farmers’ Market on Thursday nights, and plans to vend occasionally at Stony Creek Brewery in Branford.
Ormrod thinks Zuppardi’s has been successful for so long because of its emphasis on family tradition and commitment to quality.
“There’s a lot of history there and we haven’t changed that much,” he says. “My grandfather died when I was 3 years old. I don’t have any real memories of him. People come in, I make their pizza, and they’re in their 80s and 90s, and they say it tastes just like my grandfather made it.”
Zuppardi’s regularly parks in New Haven by the Broadway shopping district on weekdays and is available for private catering. Information: zuppardisapizza.com; facebook.com/zuppardis.apizza; @ZuppardisApizza.
Look for a profile of a new food truck each week through summer in Thursday’s CTNow section, and follow the series, with photos and video, at ctnow.com/foodtrucks.
