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Geppetto's Osteria co-owner Michelle Pulixi.
Geppetto's Osteria chef and co-owner Carlo Pulixi prepares a dessert.
Geppetto's Osteria co-owner Michelle Pulixi with her son, Federico.
Geppetto's Osteria chef and co-owner Carlo Pulixi grates cheese on a serving of tagliatelle.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
Geppetto's Osteria held a soft opening for guests Sept. 20 at the new restaurant on East Main Street. The owners decorated it with items they collected, as well as handmade furniture, tables and chairs.
TORRINGTON – The long wait is over, and visitors to Geppetto's Osteria now can sample a variety of pastas, dry-aged steaks and other culinary creations at the East Main Street venue.
It has been nearly two years since husband-and-wife team Carlo and Michelle Pulixi began renovating the site at 26 E. Main St. during the height of the pandemic. The site formerly housed Dick’s Restaurant, then Tequila’s Restaurant and most recently O’Connor’s Public House.
The planned opening, originally set for November 2021, was delayed by supply chain issues and a fire in December, which Michelle Pulixi said was caused by combustion of sawdust from sanding the floor.
“That set us back nine months. It’s been hard,” she said.
Geppetto’s is named for the fairy-tale woodworker who created the puppet Pinocchio. Michelle’s husband, Carlo, also is a woodworker, she said.
On display in the restaurant is a woodworker’s table the Pulixis purchased years ago from an antique shop in Collinsville. Paintings and other Pinocchio-themed objects decorate the space. “We think it’s a great theme,” she said.
For 22 years, the couple have owned Convivium Osteria in Brooklyn, N.Y., which features many of the menu items Geppetto’s now offers, including a 48-ounce, oven-roasted, bone-in ribeye steak for two or more people.
“We slice it as they eat it,” Pulixi said. “We have a bone-cutter here, so we can be precise.”
They have a new refrigeration unit made in Germany for dry-aging steaks, she said. “We’re going to have a dry-aged porterhouse, 35 days (in the) refrigerator, kept between 32 and 36 degrees with air circulating constantly and pink Himalayan sea salt as a disinfectant.”
The salt forms a crust around the side of beef, protecting the inside while enhancing the flavor and making the meat tender, she said. And a New York strip rounds out the steak selection.
Geppetto's pastas are made fresh and in-house, including ravioli, gnudi, tagliatelle and more.
“We’re going to have a squid ink linguine with shrimp and tomatoes, so it will be black, beautiful on the plate,” Pulixi said.
Appetizers include octopus in an antipasto, Roman-style artichoke, and soft polenta with cheese and mushrooms or pork belly. A salmon appetizer with fennel is also featured.
Main courses include braised rabbit, French rack of lamb with a red wine reduction and fish filleted at the table, she said.
“There is something very fun that we’re going to do here,” she said. “We have set days for specials. Every Tuesday and Friday will be seafood and fish. Every Wednesday, we plan on doing a stuffed pasta, ravioli or agnolotti or something like that.”
On Thursdays, they will feature local cuts of braised meat from a local butcher, she said.
Michelle Pulixi formerly was involved in the arts and taught dance, and was the first graduate of choreography from SUNY-Purchase, she said. But now, she sees food preparation as another art form.
“With Carlo, it’s a whole other level,” she said. “He pays very much attention to detail, the atmosphere, the music, the presentation of the food, the food quality, the wine. The restaurant business is a lifestyle. It’s a way of living.”
The space already had a bar, and she looks forward to creating a late-night atmosphere around it even after the kitchen closes for the evening, she said. “We don’t have a full bar in Brooklyn, just wine and beer. So here we’ll have cocktails. We have a really nice bartender.”
There will be a charcuterie section at the bar, she said.
She believes Torrington has a great infrastructure for dining and entertainment. “It’s got a quaint, old-fashioned downtown, and it should be utilized,” she said. “It’s got the structure for it, because it’s not sprawled out. Downtown has a nice concentration.”
Geppetto’s Osteria is open for dining 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with the bar and charcuterie open until midnight. On Friday and Saturday nights, hours are 4:30 to 10 p.m. and the bar and charcuterie remain open until 1 a.m. The restaurant is closed Mondays. For reservations, call 860-618-0721.