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Mark Sudol

CT7aMarkPizzaLARRY_2025-01-24-07-28-13

Well, we made it to Friday, which means it's time for Main Street, Connecticut, a chance to showcase our local towns and cities and the things that they have to offer. This week we're visiting Westport. News 2's Mark Sudall is at Renato's New Haven style pizza this morning with more. Oh, and he's already fast at work, huh, Mark? Yeah, I'm trying to keep my hands warm. It's so cold outside and boy this oven feels so good. Wood fire here, not the coal fire like you see in New Haven, you know, with Pepe's and Sally's. This is a little bit different, the wood fire and it's a nice heat. Carlos Monroe is here. He is the owner of Renato's. Thank you so much for being here today. You've been in the restaurant business a long time. You've had this place for a little over a year. Tell me about your passion. My passion is have a nice tasty pizza, fresh ingredients and. And Really, you know, put my heart on them so people can enjoying fresh food. Yeah, you really do. I mean, you really do. Tell us what you've made here already. Yeah, we, I made it here at the, the local burrada pizza. And then we have the spicy one which I call the firecracker, so it's a hot oil with the peppers, yeah, exactly, and this one is the Italian farmer. I call it Italian farmer sliced tomato, caramelized onions, pesto dressing and burrado on top also fantastic. Rico is gonna come around here. Our photographer, yeah, and we should also mention too is you don't just do. You have a phenomenal menu as well, full menu, yeah, yes, we have a complete menu, restaurant menu. Yeah, I mean you've got pastas. You said you got a good chicken parm here, right? Show us your your fresh ingredients here. Absolutely. I mean that, I mean that certainly makes it as well. All of these goodies, all fresh, even the basil, the marata, right, so everything is mozzarella, that's correct, yeah, yes. So what uh what have folks been been saying? You're getting a lot of customers coming in. We get a lot of people keeping coming and talking about good things for our pizza. Yeah, I mean, it's delicious. It only takes like 10 minutes to make one of them's quickly, and again I've had the New Haven style, uh, you know, which is the coal fired. It is a different taste, you know, it is a different taste and I like the taste now. Now this pizza, which is which one is this? This one is called the burrata burrata. That's right. So this was a full pizza not too long ago. Uh my photographer Rico and I have eaten this whole thing and trust me, I'm going to eat the next one when we're done here. This I've never had this before. It's got the burrata and the mozzarella, the tomato sauce and the fresh basil on it. So much time tomato sauce and yeah, I mean. Even cold it is amazing. It is so good. I mean, if you haven't been here, God, you gotta try this place. It's phenomenal. In our next hour we're gonna grab a cup of coffee uh over on Main Street. All right, that's your new favorite there, Mark. OK, we'll see you in a little bit.

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CT8aMarkMainCoffeeLARRY_2025-01-24-08-27-03

All right, it's Friday. Time for Main Street, Connecticut, a chance to showcase our local towns and cities and what they have to offer. This week we're in Westport. News Twelve's Mark Sudall is at Gigi and Joe this morning with more. Tell us about it, Mark. Well, Becca is a great little breakfast place for coffee and goodies, all kinds of stuff. Look, look at these beauties right here. We're gonna get into these in a little bit, but, uh, if you love fruit, oh, gotta check this out. Gina Porcello is here with me this morning. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you. Uh, her and her husband started, started this place back during COVID, right, the middle of COVID, May of 2020. And then what happened? Well, things obviously got better, went well. It's been almost 5 years and things are going strong. And then you had a little girl, right? Yes, she's almost 4 now and she's home with dad today because she's home from school, I guess. So tell us, what are some of your signature, uh, uh, foods and things like that here? Sure, so the Gigi and Joe. is one of the most popular. It has ace on the bottom, which is like a sorbet texture with granola, fresh fruit, coconut flakes, chia seeds and honey, and then we have a fruit toast. It has a homemade coconut whipped cream. We make that from scratch. It's gluten free, dairy free, vegan, and paleo topped with fresh fruit, um, and then we make all of our coffee. Uh syrups from scratch. So if you want a vanilla in your coffee, mocha, caramel, those are all made from scratch and they're all gluten free, dairy free, and vegan, and paleo. And so what about some of the items you have here in the case? Yeah, sure. So we have a bunch of different goodies. We make our breads from scratch. We have a zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, banana bread. We have 7 layer bars. Brownies, cronuts, um, and yeah, there's really something for everyone and you even have a little bit of merchandise here too, huh? Yeah, so we have a signature scent that we sell in a candle or room spray and Joe scent. What is that like bread or what is it. I wanna smell like bread, it's just a beautiful scent of non-toxic, of course. Well, I've got to try some of this deliciousness. Tell me again the name of this one. So that's the Gigi and Joe Acai bowl. Gigi Ascai is native to South America. It's a berry. High in antioxidants, high in fiber. These are all things I need, yeah. My cardiologist told me this. Yeah, we definitely, we wanted to do I got to the granola, now you get the whole that is really good. And then this one is the um so that one is the fruit toast that's really good this is homemade bread, right? Yes, well, that's made for us. We don't make it here, but we make the coconut whipped cream. Oh, the coconut whipped cream, that's what got me, and it's delicious, but it's still healthy for you, so delicious and healthy. Becky, this is something that we all need. You, you'll have to try this. I'll bring some back for you. You look very happy. I'll let you finish eating. Very happy.

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News 12 is checking out all of the best spots in Westport.

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