Westport's Via Sforza Trattoria Celebrates 20th Anniversary

This year, , 243 Post Road West, celebrates its 20th year in business.

Owners Dino and Maria Sforza founded Via Sforza in 1992 when they transformed their pizzeria, Dino’s Pizza, into a family dining establishment, formerly at County Mall in Norwalk.

Dino and executive chef Chris Malagise of Norwalk serve authentic Sforza-family recipes and other classic Italian dishes they invented over the years.

“A lot of people started acquiring a more sophisticated Italian food taste in the early ‘90s, so we went with the trend and created Via Sforza Trattoria,” Dino said. “We started offering Italian dishes like risotto, fresh pastas and brick oven pizzas, with ingredients like porcini mushrooms, saffron, truffle oil, and fresh clams.”

Dino and Maria, Westport residents born in Italy, rebuilt their restaurant in its current location in 2005, modeling it after an Italian farmhouse with the atmosphere of a piazza. Most of their staff are family, including Malagise, who married into the family years ago.

Maria said their customers are also like family. As hostess at Via Sforza, she often greets former students of Norwalk High School who ate at Dino’s Pizza after school. Now they bring their families into Via Sforza.

“We have a lot of loyal customers that we look forward to,” Maria said. “Hopefully they will be with us another 20 years.”