Alberto's in Norton a True Family Restaurant

Alberto's in Norton has been open for nearly 20 years, and has sliced out a niche in the Norton community.

Owner Tim McCarthy says the restaurant’s success is due to his employees and the loyal customer base.

“We wouldn’t be successful without our employees,” he said. “It’s not just a job to the families that work here.”

McCarthy opened Alberto's in Norton in 1993, and made it through the perilous first two years of a new restaurant business by the skin of his teeth.

“It was very difficult,” he said. “One the first days we only pulled in $110,” he said.

McCarthy said after selling and buying back the business he was able to expand from one room out of three to all three rooms in the building. He said the restaurant changed over the years, from a formal dining area to a sports bar.

“I mean that’s the way it evolved,” he said. “We’re a sports bar, but our customer base is now more like in the 30-50 [year-old] range rather than young kids coming in to watch the game. We have families and such.”

McCarthy said the family aspect of the restaurant isn’t just a selling point for customers, but also a way of recruiting employees. He said he has about 65 employees at the restaurant right now, and many of them were recommended.

 “It’s nice that the waitress wants to hire her daughter,” he said. “That’s telling you that we’re doing something right that they think this is a good place to work.”

In the beginning, McCarthy did all the cooking. Now, however, he has some help.

“Now we have a chef and a kitchen manager,” he said. “But it was always something I wanted to do. When we moved here, there weren’t any Italian pizza shops. That’s pizza I had growing up.”

McCarthy said he first had real Italian pizza growing up in Dorchester.

“Italian pizza is hand tossed,” he said. “The type of cheese is the real mozzarella. Most places just have cheddar, but we use 100 percent whole milk mozzarella.”

McCarthy said he and his staff work on the menu all the time, and have daily specials throughout the week.

“We experiment constantly,” he said. “We encourage the people who work for us to come up with ideas. The young kids will come up with an idea for a pizza or something they tried in another place and we try to put our own spin on it.”

McCarthy said the craziest thing they ever put on a pizza was scallops and bacon, but he said they always experiment with sauces, putting in different dressings and spices.

McCarthy said he knows his base very well, and is always happy to see most people coming in.

“The fact is, I know about 75 percent of the people that come in here by name,” he said. “We’re very lucky to have a real, real nice customer base. The community’s been good to us and I thoroughly enjoy what I’m doing.”

McCarthy said he sponsors as many local youth sports teams and activities as he can.

"Anything to do with kids and athletics, we think that’s huge,” he said.

Alberto's is located at 241 Mansfield Ave., and is open Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to midnight and Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.