Rob Maffucci News Today

As 2022 ends and 2023 dawns, restaurant staffing woes are still a major issue, causing changes in hours, days, menus, prices.

Vito’s Pizza is Rob Maffucci’s new restaurant, the first since closing V’s Trattoria in downtown Hartford as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hartford-area chef and restaurateur Rob Maffucci has launched a new venture in Berlin. Vito’s Pizza, located at 1863 Berlin Turnpike, had a “soft opening” last week in advance of its official debut on Tuesday. The eatery, which offers pizza, fresh pasta and other Italian classics, is takeout only — a response, Maffucci said, to new waves of the coronavirus that have hammered the restaurant industry for close to two years.

“There’s still more that we have to continue to work on but ... we could potentially have a really great spring and summer," said Scott Dolch, the executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Assocation.