Popular Guilford Pizza Plans To Expand Offerings

GUILFORD, CT - What is universally known as the most popular pizza place in Guilford will soon be expanding its offerings at its 1070 Boston Post Road location. Bufalina, the recipient of many positive newspaper and magazine reviews and awards, is undergoing a renovation at its location.

A bulldozer can be seen working most days outside Bufalina. Matt Scialabba, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife Melissa Pellegrino, said the goal is to give the restaurant “a whole new facelift.”

“We want to have a new patio, with expanded parking,” said Scialabba, as he watched the work ongoing outside his restaurant on a recent afternoon.

A big part of the renovation,Scialabba said, “is to have room for a full-size, commercial kitchen.”

He said the eventual goal is to have Bufalina, which currently only handles late afternoon, evening clientele and take out customers to “offer a full lunch menu.”

“We want to be more creative, and have some more items to offer,” Scialabba said.

He said the expansion plan was put into motion when a new land owner took over the property.

“We’re really excited about the potential here,” he said, adding his hope is that all the renovation work will be completed in a few months.

Bufalina’s Neapolitan pizza has won rave reviews from critics, including the New York Times.

On its website, Matt and Melissa talk about their passion for food.

“Early on in our culinary careers we became enamored with wood fired brick ovens. This passion brought us to Italy where we worked in bakeries and kitchens to learn the simple art of cooking with fire in rustic brick ovens. Our travels eventually brought us to southern Italy, to learn about authentic Neapolitan pizza.

“Here we discovered the delicious taste of chewy, charred, and blistering pies baked in searing hot wood fired ovens, and the Bufalina, became our immediate favorite, topped with locally made water buffalo mozzarella. It represents the pinnacle of southern Italian goodness and the adopted name of our pizzeria. With Bufalina, we hope to bring home the flavors of sunny Italy.’’

More about the restaurant can be found on its website at www.bufalinact.com.

Photo by Jack Kramer

Photo of Matt Scialabba outside Bufalina