{"id":17741,"date":"2026-05-19T09:39:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17741\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:39:30","slug":"new-ct-pizzeria-so-serious-it-imported-an-oven-from-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17741\/","title":{"rendered":"New CT pizzeria so serious it imported an oven from Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bernardo family is said to have pizza and stuffed bread running their veins.<\/p>\n

It started a few grandfathers ago and now, a fourth generation later, a Bernardo brother is making it a business with his wife and five daughters.<\/p>\n

Christopher \u2018Bruno\u2019 Bernardo, a longtime West Haven resident, and his family, are preparing to open Bruno\u2019s Apizza in their hometown.<\/p>\n

The pizzeria will be at 17 Wagner Place and the 7-foot by 7-foot Forno Bravo pizza oven<\/a> imported from Italy is already in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born into it,\u201d Bernardo said of the business. \u201cPizza and Italian bread. That\u2019s in my blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

While growing up his now late parents, Catherine and Luigi \u201cGiGi\u201d Bernardo owned the popular GiGi\u2019s pizzeria and bakery in the Fair Haven section of New Haven.<\/p>\n

From the time he was a youngster, Bruno headed there after school each day to help. His grandfather, great grandfather and other family members have been in the business.<\/p>\n

\"BrunoBruno Bernardo making pizza. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201dAll of my parents children were in the business at some point either working or owning,\u201d he said. One brother is retired.<\/p>\n

Bruno Bernardo, is the youngest of seven children, five of them boys.<\/p>\n

At present, brother Luigi owns Little Italy pizza truck<\/a> out of North Haven, Arsenio owns the wildly popular New Haven Pizza Place restaurant in Milford<\/a>, brother Frank owns New Haven Pizza Truck and catering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

National and local pizza expert Frank Zabski, who owns New Haven Pizza School<\/a>, is friends with Arsenio especially, and said of Bruno Bernardo\u2019s business, \u201cIf the new pizzeria in West Haven is close to Arsenio\u2019s pizza or Frank\u2019s pizza trucks, it\u2019s going to be a homerun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruno Bernardo said he\u2019ll take the best of all he\u2019s learned working with his parents and brothers and put it together with his own twist. He expects to open sometime in August.<\/p>\n

The restaurant, also serving stuffed breads, pasta and other Italian basics will be run by he, his wife Selene, whom he has been with for 35 years and to varying degrees, his five grown daughters, Catherine, Brianna, Christine, Selena, and Rosina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be part of my journey as I was with my parents,\u201d Bruno Bernardo, 54, said. \u201cI always joke with them that I wanted a son, but in reality he couldn\u2019t live with them all more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the girls are \u201cvery hip,\u201d and will do a great job.<\/p>\n

The second oldest wants to work side-by-side, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all want a piece of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make something for myself and them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from working for family members throughout his life, Bruno also worked for Big Green Truck<\/a> pizza and the inimitable Doug Coffin.<\/p>\n

Wife Selene is also fabulous with pizza, he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from doing the paperwork and everything else behind the scenes, Selene is a pro at working the intricacies of the oven, working the heat just right, Bernardo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s my oven person. Occasionally she\u2019ll make a pizza, he said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant space is about 2,700 square feet and has seating for dining in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you walk in you won\u2019t be able to miss our wood-fired pizza oven that was brought in on an 18-wheeler,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The place will have, \u201ca real pizza vibe,\u201d as it is \u201cthe real deal,\u201d Bruno Bernardo said.<\/p>\n

As for the stuffed breads, \u201cI know how my brothers do it and took that and put my own twist on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrunoBruno Bernardo is proud of the 7 foot by 7 foot Forno Bravo pizza oven imported from Italy that he recently had delivered to future pizzeria in West Haven. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Bernardo said a lot of people take pride in making pizzas quickly, but he likes to cook it slow so \u201cthe mozz\u201d has a brown tinge and is \u201cbubbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBubbling, bubbling, it\u2019s so good. I can feel it bubbling,\u201d he said of his New Haven style pizza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cook it to your perfection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all I know,\u201d he said of the business. \u201cI love it, people are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019s a lot of competition and customers always talk about, \u201cwho has the best spin?\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea, he said, \u201cis to try to get it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernardo said of specialty pizzas he\u2019s known for his Margherita pizza with fresh basil and basil oil.<\/p>\n

Selene Bernardo said getting to know customers is her favorite part of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re super excited,\u201d about opening, she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the restaurant will have a modern vibe with Italian themes.<\/p>\n

It will also include a tribute to Catherine and Luigi Bernardo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deserve it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bernardo family is said to have pizza and stuffed bread running their veins. It started a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13011,13017,244,13013,13012,13023,1002,13024,13019,13021,5,13014,13010,13020,13022,13018,996,13016,13015,1003,773,13009],"class_list":["post-17741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-ansonia","tag-best","tag-business","tag-connecticut-news","tag-ct-news","tag-fair-haven","tag-food","tag-forno-bravo-pizza-oven","tag-imported","tag-italian-themes","tag-italy","tag-margherita-pizza","tag-milford","tag-modern-vibe","tag-new-haven","tag-oven","tag-pizza","tag-pizza-truck","tag-places-to-go","tag-restaurant","tag-things-to-do","tag-west-haven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}