Pizza restaurant looks to drum up business in Vermont’s capital city
MONTPELIER – His band released two albums through Warner Bros. records in the alternative-rock heyday of the 1990s. Now the owner of a new restaurant in Vermont’s capital city is making pizza and other Italian specialties at a 19th-century inn.
Open since Feb. 9 – National Pizza Day, coincidentally – Penzo Pizza Co. bears the name of owner Dave Penzo. The native of Quincy, Massachusetts, shows the influence of his Italian heritage in the menu at his new eatery inside The Inn at Montpelier, in a space that previously housed a restaurant called The Social.
What is the place?
Penzo Pizza features traditional pies such as a margherita pizza as well as more-inventive varieties. The Vincenzo Special, inspired by Penzo’s father, is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, onions, mushrooms and peppers. The Maximilian – named for Penzo’s son, Max, due to his fondness for pineapple – features mozzarella, pineapple, capicola and maple drizzle that brings a touch of Vermont to the Italian and Hawaiian flavors.
Another of Penzo’s sons, Tyler, inspired the Tyburger – which comes with a variety of cheeses plus burger, tomatoes, pickles and mixed greens – with his love for cheeseburgers. That concoction, Penzo said, is “almost like a Whopper, which is scary.”
The menu has non-pizza options, too. Those include spaghetti and meatballs inspired by Dave Penzo’s Italian grandmother, fried calamari, antipasto and Caesar salads and chicken wings flavored with Buffalo or barbecue sauce or dry-rubbed with garlic and parmesan. Penzo Pizza also offers made-in-house tiramisu.
“What we were aiming for,” Penzo said of the menu, “was to have enough options to make everyone happy.”
Food can be ordered for takeout – either by locals or guests at the 19-room inn – or in the hotel’s two colorful dining rooms, which Penzo said he redid “with paint and lipstick.” The inn seats 40 customers inside, and in nice weather the spacious porch will accommodate another 60 diners.
What’s the story behind it?
Penzo worked in restaurants in Boston, but his initial career was music. He played drums for the Boston alternative-rock band Tribe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band released three albums, including two on Warner Bros. Records subsidiary label Slash, and got MTV airplay for the video of their song “Joyride (I Saw the Film).”
Penzo found his way back to the food industry and then to Vermont, where he worked in the kitchen at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center. He learned under VTC chef Joe Russo, and the two bonded about their Italian roots and “things we love and things we can’t stand,” Penzo said, with the lack of quality Italian subs in Vermont fitting that latter category.
His time at VTC kindled Penzo’s interest in pursuing his own restaurant business. With summers off from the college, he decided to start a Penzo Pizza food truck, beginning in 2021 at the Essex Experience.
“Last year we really took off,” Penzo said. He started getting requests for other appearances, so the Penzo Pizza trailer showed up at events including the ArtsRiot Truck Stop in Burlington, the Jericho Farmers Market and various private business functions.
A brick-and-mortar restaurant gives Penzo more stability, literally and figuratively.
“We don’t have to worry about the trailer falling off the truck again,” he said, adding that the Penzo Pizza oven escaped that mishap unscathed. “You run a food truck, you have adventures.”
Hours and location
Penzo Pizza Co., 147 Main St., Montpelier. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. (802) 223-0722, www.penzopizza.com
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont pizza restaurant highlights Italian flavors in Montpelier
