Barstool Sports found Dave Portnoy has reviewed roughly 40 pizza places throughout Connecticut, and on Wednesday he made a surprise visit to Sapore Pizzeria and Bar.
“It was just business as usual, just a regular Wednesday,” Sapore manager Sarah Saunders said.
It was just a regular Wednesday, for a basic cheese pizza order at Old Lyme’s Sapore Pizzeria and Bar.
“He called and placed a to-go order, used a fake name, I had no clue,” Saunders said.
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On the ticket - the name Austin.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that name for the rest of my life,” Saunders said.
Because the pie wasn’t for Austin, but Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, stopping in Old Lyme as part of his latest pizza review tour through Connecticut.
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“It brought me happiness to be honest, because it’s the real world. People need to know how much effort I put into my job,” Sapore owner Luigi Conte said.
Conte moved here from Naples, Italy back in 2013.
“I say I am born in Italy, I was born in Italy, but I’m made in America,” Conte said.
His passion is pizza, but since taking over in 2019, building a business has been much harder than just tossing dough.
“Him and his wife, his wife’s family, they’re here all the time and they put everything into this and they just deserve it, they deserve the break,” Saunders said.
Last January, a fire ripped through the restaurant, closing the shop for an entire year.
“I woke up, they told me there was a fire, it was a nightmare,” Conte said.
After months of remodeling, Conte is back to what he loves, as are his customers.
“When he reopened, I’m trying to finish the menu. I've killed about all of the entrees, the appetizers,” Old Lyme’s Sterling Nesbitt said.
“To see a place like this open up and to see it busy and to see Portnoy come by it’s all great things,” Old Lyme’s Graham Aird said.
“After Dave Portnoy, I think it gives me the push to do just better, and think differently,” Conte said.
According to Conte, the pizza scored a 7.9 out of 10 on Dave Portnoy's scale.
