Takeout Pizza, Pasta Restaurant Opens In Berlin: Reports

BERLIN, CT — A new Italian restaurant promising gourmet takeout cuisine has opened in Berlin — and its operator is a nationally-recognized chef.

Vito's Pizza is located on the Berlin Turnpike, and its menu includes pizza, pasta, salads and Italian entrees like chicken parmesan and sausage and peppers.

Its operator, Chef Rob Maffucci, is a nationally-recognized, award-winning chef who has appeared on Food Network and in Restaurant Business Magazine, according to the restaurant's website.

Maffucci told Fox 61 he's been working in the food and culinary industry for 40 years — and he even competed against celebrity chef Bobby Flay in 2014.

He learned to cook from his family, he told the TV station: His parents opened a pizza shop in the 1970s, and he said his grandmother was a "great pasta maker."

Vito's Pizza will offer only takeout and catering, which Maffucci told Fox 61 will allow him to forgo running a full-service restaurant — meaning he can "stick with the culinary excellence" instead.

Maffucci's motto is "When life grinds you into flour, make more dough," he told WTNH, and he said he hopes to bring everything back to its simplest form.

Vito's Pizza is now open at 1863 Berlin Tpke.