My Three Decades of Pizza at Sergio’s in Connecticut | Bon Appétit

"A suburban Connecticut red-sauce joint that functions as a family ritual and neighborhood takeout institution: large pies (often half cheese, half sausage and peppers), a classic salad bar with iceberg lettuce and pickled antipasti, and a windowless white back room used for kids’ birthday parties and group dinners. The restaurant is sensory in memory—the red-tinted, pebbly hard-plastic cup, birch beer, and the deli counter in the back where takeout is picked up and slices of cheesecake or biscotti are grabbed for dessert. The pizza is familiar and slightly flawed—sauce a touch too sweet, crust with a mild char and what some call too much cheese—but that predictability is exactly why generations return. Phone orders are handled by the same voice who knows your family, and the place is woven into decades of personal moments, from noisy adolescent birthday chaos to fraught family dinners and even a frightening medical emergency in the dining room." - ByAmanda Shapiro