After opening upscale hotel restaurants in Hartford and New Haven over the past 18 months, Tyler Anderson is switching gears, opening Square Peg Pizzeria in Glastonbury, a project he calls “100 percent fun” — a pizza joint with red-sauce Italian dishes and arcade games.
The casual restaurant, in the Hebron Avenue space that formerly housed Piatti Restaurant & Bar, opens Friday at 5 p.m. for dinner. The opening menu features starters, salads, sandwiches, calzones, pastas and pizza.
With indoor seating for 92 and a sizable outdoor patio, Square Peg also features a large bar area, open cooking space that showcases a wood-fired Mugnaini pizza oven, and arcade games lining the back wall. Inspired by the pizzerias of his youth in Southern California, Anderson wanted to add the arcade component to the mix from the start.
“It seems like a fun thing, and our feeling is if you catch the right vintage of games, not only are those going to be games kids are interested in, because they can’t play them at home, but adults, too,” he says. Games include NBA Jam, Big Buck Hunter and Street Fighter, with the possibility of more to come.
The restaurant is a collaboration between Anderson and longtime business partner AJ Aurrichio; Dante Cistulli, formerly of Max Restaurant Group’s Savoy Pizzeria & Craft Bar; and Bruce Kalman, Anderson’s fellow “Top Chef” contestant from the Bravo competition show’s 15th season. Kalman, a California-based chef, specializes in Northern Italian cuisine.
“Bruce makes the best red-sauce food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life,” says Anderson. “To comfortably meld these things together with pizza … that’s how it all came together.”
FEATURED/NOTEWORTHY DISHES: “We want to keep [the menu] small, concise, because we want to do it perfectly,” Anderson says.
Appetizer plates ($6 to $12) include warm olives, pork meatballs in “Sunday gravy” sauce, mozzarella sticks, parmesan garlic bread and housemade mozzarella sticks. Prosciutto, served with housemade focaccia, giardiniere and olive oil, will be sliced tableside.
Pizzas are available in thin-crust “neo-Neapolitan” style ($11 to $15) or thick, square-edged Sicilian pies for a $4 upcharge, with classic Margherita, cheese and pepperoni toppings; fennel sausage with hot sweet peppers and eggs, burrata with sopressata and “hot veggie,” with seasonal vegetables, hot sweet peppers and smoked mozzarella. The “Prince of Paramus,” named for New Jersey native Kalman, is topped with pork meatballs and mushrooms.
Gourmet constructions include potato with guanciale, Brussels sprouts, smoked mozzarella and rosemary Parmesan cream; Bianco with garlic, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, ricotta and Parmesan, and prosciutto, with fresh mozzarella and wild arugula salad. Create your own pie from a slew of additional toppings, with various meats, cheeses and vegetables on offer.
Sandwiches on Philadelphia-style hoagie rolls ($12 to $14) include chicken and pork meatball parm varieties, along with burrata with roasted peppers and arugula and “hot gabagool,” with mortadella, spicy capicola, sopressata and provolone. Baked rigatoni with ricotta, spaghetti with Sunday gravy or tomato basil sauce, and pasta alla vodka ($11 to $14) start with fresh pasta, which is crafted in-house at Anderson’s New Haven restaurant, Hamilton Park at the Blake Hotel.
Dessert options will be simple, Anderson said, with gelato, cannoli, zeppoli and affogato. Square Peg also plans to add gluten-free pizza crust and gluten-free pasta to the menu soon.
THE BAR: Square Peg’s full bar features Italian-influenced cocktails (an Aperol spritz with Cocchi Torino vermouth, grapefruit and prosecco; a negroni with gin, Gran Classico bitters and Cocchi Torino) and other classics, like an espresso martini with Irish whiskey, a margarita and a tiki-style Jungle Bird with rum, Campari and pineapple. Drinks are $6 to $12.
Red and white wines by the glass and bottle ($9 to $14; $32 to $50) are also heavy on Italian selections, and beer options include local craft picks from Connecticut (Thomas Hooker, Two Roads, Black Hog, New England Brewing) as well as Miller High Life and Budweiser.
HOURS AND LOCATION: Square Peg is at 1001 Hebron Ave. in Glastonbury, and will be open only for dinner at first, Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. (bar is open later.) The restaurant will expand its hours to seven days a week, and will add lunch, weekday happy hour and carryout options, in the next few weeks. squarepegpizzeria.com; instagram.com/squarepegpizzeria.
Leeanne Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@courant.com.