Waterbury pizza shop the Blue Stone is opening a second location, in Waitsfield, on Wednesday, January 27. The new shop will serve exactly the same food as the original location — innovative seasonal creations and classics, all cooked in a brick oven. Same recipes, same specials, same methods: “It’s really just copy and paste,” says co-owner Vinny Petrarca.
After three years running the first location in Waterbury, owners Petrarca and Chris Fish felt like they had hit a ceiling. “We have a good team, but if you want to keep them long-term, you have to give them more opportunities,” says Petrarca. They were drawn to the space at 5351 Main Street in Waitsfield (formerly Akes’ Den) because it had character and history, they say, just like their original location.
The new Blue Stone will start with 16 beers on tap; Petrarca and Fish say they would like to raise that number soon to 24, or five more than the Waterbury venue. They’ll continue to use local food producers such as Misty Knoll Farms, Vermont Creamery and Vermont Smoke & Cure.
The only thing missing from the Waitsfield location will be the actual blue stone. The owners tossed around ideas for replicating the vintage resurrected well stone, the namesake for their eatery, but eventually decided against it. “It would have been disingenuous,” explains Fish.
He and Petrarca say they are excited to bring their pizza to Waitsfield, where they’ll be able to snag new local customers as well as tourists. “I think there are a lot of people in these areas that live here year-round that need a place to go,” Petrarca surmises. Given that locals already know what to expect from the Blue Stone, Fish adds, the second location could be under a microscope. But “I think we’re up for the challenge,” Petrarca says. “It’s stressful, but we’re going to deliver.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Pizza in the Valley”
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2016.
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It’s not that I’m not excited to have Blue Stone in Waitsfield. I just think it’s unfortunate that Melissa Haskin missed the mark by titling the piece (in print and initially online) about its opening in the January 27, 2016, issue “Pizza in the Valley,” which is the name of another successful and tasty pizza place right on Route 100 in Waitsfield less than a mile north of Blue Stone. Pizza in the Valley has been there for five years, and Don makes the best thin crust, New York-style pizza I’ve had in Vermont.
What’s more alarming is that in your September 30, 2015, issue (http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/blue-stone-brings-pizza-to-waitsfield-morse-block-deli-adds-beer/Content?oid=2917536), Hannah Palmer Egan made it sound like we, in the Valley, have been denied good pizza for ages. One might recall that Waitsfield is the birthplace American Flatbread, one of the original farm-to-table advocates, with other amazing options right around the corner at Bongiorno’s on Route 17 in Fayston, Pizza Soul in Sugarbush Village, Warren, and Terra Rossa on Sugarbush Access Road, Warren.
I wish Blue Stone success in Waitsfield. We always welcome new restaurants as they each have something special to offer. (I, for one, am sad to see Phantom go.) Do your research, people.
Hi Jen, thank you for your comment. I am the author on the article, and you make a very good point. We regret the error.
Melissa