NEW HAVEN -- After two months of refurbishing and transitioning to a new ownership group, a New Haven landmark reopened its doors Wednesday afternoon
Lineage Hospitality is the new owner of Sally's Apizza, which celebrated the grand re-opening and their 80 years in business by rewarding the first 80 tables to be served with a free pizza.
At the head of the long, mid-afternoon line on Wooster Street, stood a man, who rode his bike in from Branford.
"In between my job making pizza, when I wasn’t working for someone else, I always came here (to Sally's)," said a man who calls him Herbie J.
For a man, who's been making pies at Sally's virtually his entire life, the reopening was bitter sweet.
"My father was a young boy when he started working for his uncle, Pepe, down the street and he was 21 when they opened here," said Bobby Consiglio, one of the former owners of Sally's,
"Sally's is the best, the best," said Danny Scarpellino, who grew up on Wooster St. "I’ve been eating here since I could eat, maybe five years old."
The first pizza served in the new Sally’s: a white potato pie with onions and rosemary.
Bobby Consiglio said he never keeps track of how many pies he makes every day, but he can feel his age.
"I’m 69 years old," he said. "I’ve been doing this for a long time. Right now, it’s early in the day and my back's already killing me."
But he wouldn't have it any other way.
The new ownership group has plans to replicate Sally's by opening additional locations across the nation.
