As with a lot of business owners, Artie Praino faced a problem when he was opening his latest venture, Gino”™s Parlor of Sandy Hook.
But in Praino”™s case, it wasn”™t the uncertainty of opening a restaurant in the midst of a still-active pandemic or lacking the wherewithal to get it off the ground: It was an unexpected shortage of available employees.
“We were supposed to open Aug. 2,” he told the Business Journal during a visit to Gino”™s, at 102 Church Hill Road in Newtown”™s Sandy Hook section. “But we couldn”™t find enough cooks, so we ended up stretching it out another month.”
Praino”™s partner Alfredo Molinari ”” whose family started the Gino”™s chain that includes 12 locations in Queens and Long Island ”” readily agreed. “In my 30 years of opening restaurants, I”™ve never experienced anything like this,” he said. “I”™m spending five days a week making the pizzas myself.”
Whether Newtown actually needed another pizzeria ”” a long-running joke among residents was that every building going up was either a bank or an Italian restaurant ”” was never a serious consideration, Praino said.
“Part of it is reputation,” he said. “I”™ve been in town a long time.”
Praino”™s first venture in town, The Newtown Deli, opened in 2001, followed a few years later by The Sideline Café at the Newtown Youth Academy and the Sandy Hook Deli, which used to be where Gino”™s stands today. Praino sold the Sandy Hook Deli ”” but not the building ”” to two separate entrepreneurs, neither of whom were able to copy his success.
“Artie and I grew up together,” Molinari said. “We”™ve known each other for something like 35 years and we”™d been thinking for a while about starting a pizzeria in Connecticut if only we could find the right spot. And this turned out to be it.”
There is a difference between Gino”™s Pizzerias and the two Gino”™s Parlors (the other is in Roslyn, Long Island). “Besides pizza, our menu has salads, entrees ”” it goes a step beyond just being a pizza place,” Praino said. “This Gino”™s Parlor is exactly like the other one ”” same fixtures, same modern vibe, and exact same recipes.
“I”™ve got my own meatball recipe,” he laughed, “but I have to use Alfredo”™s.”
Praino said the restaurant”™s menu is now “about 75% complete,” and that delivery service will likely begin over the next few weeks. The store now has about 40 employees, roughly half of whom are part-time high school students.
Molinari said that his father, a seasoned pizzamaker also named Alfredo, emigrated from Italy at the age of 15, and bought his first operation in the Hillside section of Queens two years later. When he bought another in Great Neck in 1981, he decided to honor its former owner by naming the burgeoning chain Gino”™s.
Praino also operates Dolce Italian Ice & Gelato, which opened on July 19 across the street from Gino”™s at 117 Church Hill Road. Again, personal connections played an important role.
“I”™m good friends with the Lemon Ice King of Corona,” he said, “and we came to an agreement that we”™d get 40 tubs at a time. The original idea was to sell it here (at Gino”™s) but there wasn”™t enough space, so we took over the vacant spot across the street. That way when you”™re done eating here, you can head over there for dessert.”
Dolce, which is staffed by nine high schoolers, is open seven days a week but will probably scale back to a Friday to Sunday schedule once winter sets in, he said.
Praino only laughed when asked if he was building an empire ”” he also owns Zaragoza, a tapas restaurant in New Milford ”” but indicated that further expansion could be in the cards.
“We”™ve had our hands pretty full with Gino”™s and Dolce,” he said. “But I could see us maybe doing another Gino”™s up here. It”™s a definite possibility.”
