Mike DiMauro: When the baseball scout partners with the celebrity chef

Dec. 15—EAST LYME — In pursuit of a batting cage, he pivoted to a sandwich shop, partnering with a celebrity chef.

(Bet you've never read THAT line before.)

But this is what befell Todd Donovan, the East Lyme native and baseball scout for the Phillies, who bought property in town he thought might become a baseball facility. Turns out it's become a sandwich shop under the direction of chef Mark Vecchitto, who has appeared on Beat Bobby Flay and Guy's Grocery Games.

And now Vecchitto and the deliciousness that follows him are awash in "Seven Napkins" at 310 Flanders Road, a modestly sized former hair salon next to Liberty Bank.

Donovan could at any time break into song, namely Johnny Cash and his tune about being everywhere, man. Donovan's baseball life rendered him with residence in Idaho Falls, Fort Wayne, Mobile, Las Vegas, Ottawa, Peoria, Lake Elsinore, Bowie, Akron, Midland, Manchester, Winter Haven and Jacksonville.

But the tug of his hometown inspired him to raise his family here. And so the story begins.

"I'm from here, it's my fabric, right?" Donovan said earlier this week from a table inside Seven Napkins. "We've got young kids. And we decided to raise them here. I love being here. I think it's a great spot compared to all the places I've been. It's got everything. Two hours from Boston, two hours from New York. You can drive 20 minutes away (to Mohegan Sun) and feel like you're any city in America.

It's got four seasons, the water.

"I was always looking for a spot to do something baseball related. For years. And I ended up talking to the owner of this (property) because I was considering blasting out the backside of that barn (which is now the new home of the Parcel Centre) to put in batting cages. I live right around the corner. At that point, I needed a partner."

Enter Joe DiBuono, who has revitalized the Midway Plaza. The father of DiBuono's wife, Michelle, is the brother of Donovan's dad, Bill.

It was making more sense, though, to turn the buildings into something else. There are three commercial units, four residential units, plenty of parking in back.

The "for rent" sign appealed to Vecchitto, who has cooked in New Mexico, Texas and Long Island and was the chef at the old Big Bubba's and Seehund as well as hotels throughout Connecticut.

"I got tired of fine dining. I threw my arms up," Vecchitto said. "I see a big sign in the window 'for rent.' I called and told the guys what I wanted to do."

Donovan: "I looked at Joe and it was almost too good to be true to get Mark here."

Vecchitto, born in Meriden, hails from the same family that owns Vecchitto's Italian Ice, a staple in Middletown since 1930.

"I've been cheffing all my life," Vecchitto said, ping-ponging his way through life stories that landed him partying one night with Guy Fieri in California. "My old man looked at me after high school and said, 'you're not gonna hang around smoking pot. I'm gonna send you to culinary school.'

"I went to Flagstaff (Ariz.) Culinary Institute and when I came back, I thought I was a hotshot. My first job, they threw me in a dish pit at an Italian restaurant on the Berlin Turnpike. But I worked my way up all over the United States."

Vecchitto's third foray with Food Network programming comes next month when he'll appear on "Supermarket Stakeout," where chefs compete against each other in a pop-up kitchen outside a grocery store.

The shop's name, Seven Napkins, has roots in the time Vecchitto was in New York City judging a hot sauce contest.

"We're walking around the city and we pass a restaurant that says, 'try our five napkin burger,'" Vecchitto said, alluding to something that looked big enough to have four-wheel drive. "Really good. My son goes, 'I bet you can't make a seven-napkin burger.'"

Challenge accepted.

"So I had a chef competition a couple months later," Vecchitto said. "One of the challenges was to make a handheld sandwich or a pub burger. We made this massive burger. Huge, huge, huge with mac and cheese, chili and bacon. Good for the heart. We called it the 'seven napkin burger' and won the competition."

Now he's all yours, East Lyme. The little blue building next to Liberty Bank. Breakfast and lunch, tasty and tempting. Sure beats a batting cage.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro