Pa's Pizza Opens in Oakdale

Claudio Miceli graduated from Johnson and Wales, and has spent his life making food. He’s had restaurants in New Britain, Cromwell, Vernon and more, including Uncle D’s Log Cabin in Lebanon.

Now he lives in the Montville area, and, according to Danielle Butzgy, his daughter, when the building across the street from the Oakdale post office became available, he snapped it up.

Pa’s Pizza opened on Monday, and even on its first day, it felt busy and happy, and it smelled delicious.

Pa’s has pizza – red, white, gourmet and gluten-free, too! Some of the specialty gourmet pizzas include a Mexican pizza, tomato pesto and Pa’s potato pizza.

You can get all sorts of grinders, including Pa’s Steak Bomb.

You can get breakfast there, bagels and coffee, breakfast sandwiches.

You can get deli meat, and dinners to go or freeze, including home-made stuffed shells, lasagne, manicotti, ravioli and more.

You can get fresh, homemade bread, including sausage bread (impignolata) – and eventually, Miceli says, they will make their own sausage, too.

Also coming soon are arancini, a Pa’s special, which he described as rice balls stuffed with cheese and fried.

The store has the kind of convenience-store items you might need from a neighborhood place – milk, soda, eggs, bread, juice, etc. You can have your pizza or grinders or manicotti or whatever delivered, says Butzgy, and Pa’s will be happy to deliver grocery items, as well.

Pa’s also does catering, and has a whole catering menu, including sheet pizza, party grinders, and all sorts of entrees and platters. If you want something and it’s not on the menu, you’re encouraged to ask.

The restaurant is open seven days a week. Sunday through Thursday, it’s open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. For menus and more, check out Pa’s website, pas-pizza.com. The address is 712 Route 163; phone is860-367-0330.

While there’s no indoor seating, in the fine weather you can sit outside, at picnic tables beside a stream.

“Pa’s” is more than a name. Miceli is joined in the restaurant by Butzgy, who is his daughter, and Joseph Miceli, Claudio’s son, and Sandy Scavetta, Claudio’s ex-wife, who says they get along better now than they did when they were married.

Claudio says he’s happy to have a place in the area.

“Montville is a great town,” he says. “It’s a growing town.”