The New Waterbury Outpost of Stone’s Throw Goes Beyond Pizza 

click to enlarge

• Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
• Caruso pizza

Each location of Stone's Throw Pizza has its own personality. The original, in Fairfax, is a cozy hometown spot. In Richmond, the restaurant is surrounded by lush gardens where staff grow vegetables that end up topping the pies. Charlotte's tiny takeout joint doubles as the best wine and beer shop in town.

With the opening of its latest outpost, on Stowe Street in Waterbury, Stone's Throw has added a luxe wine bar to its multicounty lineup. The elegant, almost Gilded Age décor nods to the space's history as a haberdashery. So do the names of the new-to-Stone's Throw cocktails, such as Ribbons Down My Back and Top Hat and Tails. The wine list spans the globe, the beer is local, and the cider is available by the glass. But don't worry, there's still pizza.

Childhood friends Silas Pollitt and Tyler Stratton returned home to open the first Stone's Throw in November 2018, along with Stratton's wife, Allison. The three co-owners opened their second location, in the former On the Rise Bakery beside Richmond's Volunteers Green, in January 2020. Their takeout-only Charlotte spot opened a year later, in the height of COVID-19 winter.

In Waterbury as in Richmond, the trio ended up in their new location thanks to a cold call from the building's owner. The restaurant's predecessor, the Blue Stone, closed in late 2021; the building sat empty for six months before the Stone's Throw team toured it.

"We thought it was perfect," Pollitt told Seven Days in December. "We've always really, really enjoyed Waterbury. There's just so much fun going on here."

They joined that fun in late December, when the restaurant started offering takeout. After a gut renovation — replacing old booths, rebuilding the bar, swapping out the bar top and changing the dining room layout — Stone's Throw Pizza & Wine officially flung open its doors in Waterbury earlier this month.

click to enlarge

• Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
• Beverage manager Adam Goddu and general manager Rachael Brown

The 70-seat restaurant — Stone's Throw's largest — has everything its regulars have come to expect on the pizza front. Among its classic and creative pies are the Homesteader, with red sauce, kalamata olives, spinach, feta and preserved lemon; the Nomad, with white sauce, glazed pork belly, housemade kimchi, shaved leeks and drizzled egg yolk; and the Forager, with white sauce, broccolini, mushrooms, roasted garlic, shaved Asiago and fresh sage.

The new outpost also has a few only-in-Waterbury additions, including seasonal small plates, an expanded dessert menu, cocktails and nonalcoholic mixed drinks.

"We knew we wanted to expand before we actually had the location," Pollitt said. "So we invested in management and had a lot of mental firepower going into this big project. The size and the scope of this place lets us experiment a lot more."

I witnessed that firepower in action on a recent Wednesday visit. Stone's Throw beverage manager Adam Goddu and Waterbury general manager Rachael Brown were working together, pouring wine and shaking dirty martinis. The two share a background working in the cheese biz in New York City — Brown at Bedford Cheese Shop and Goddu at Murray's Cheese — and they were quick to point out the martinis' olive garnishes, which are stuffed with blue cheese in-house.

Goddu has been with Stone's Throw since February 2021. Originally hired to develop the retail beverage program in Charlotte, he's filled in where needed, working as general manager in Richmond and behind the bar in Waterbury while things get up and running. Brown, who lives in Waterbury, joined in January to steer the ship.

"We needed this in town," Brown said. "It's a place that's still casual: It's pizza. It's good wine. But it feels a little more adult and upscale."

Stone's Throw's beverage options have always been a draw for me. Occasionally, I'll stop at the Charlotte location just to buy a bottle of wine or local cider or a four-pack of beer, though I'm a fan of the pizza, too.

click to enlarge

• Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
• Ribbons Down My Back cocktail and the Beaded Dress mocktail

On this trip, I chose seats at the bar, eager to sample the restaurant's brand-new cocktails. While the martinis were tempting, I opted for a nonalcoholic drink from the menu's brief yet thoughtful "Zero-Proof Potions" section: the Beaded Dress ($8), with rosemary tea simple syrup, lemon and club soda. The other option, the Sequined Gown, features grapefruit, lemon and Athletic Brewing's nonalcoholic Upside Dawn golden ale.

"Having a couple of nonalcoholic things on the menu is important to me, because I have a lot of friends in town who don't drink," Brown said. "They still want to be able to come out and drink something delicious that's not just club soda."

The six-item cocktail list is meant to be accessible, Brown said, with twists on classics that people will recognize. My husband opted for the Ribbons Down My Back ($14), which combines mezcal, black tea simple syrup, cherry and lemon.

Most of the restaurant's beer is from Vermont producers, with one sneaky exception: Goddu loves Maine Beer's Lunch, a clean, straightforward American IPA.

"Without really telling anyone, I made that our house IPA," he said with a laugh. "But it's gotten a great response. People are excited that they can get it here."

The wine offered in Waterbury is in line with the retail program Goddu has built for Stone's Throw's Charlotte and Richmond locations: It's all sustainable, if not biodynamic, and made with the minimal intervention and native fermentation common among natural winemakers. Bottles come from around the world, including Austria, Italy and upstate New York.

What makes the Waterbury location's list special is that much of the wine is available by the glass at very reasonable prices. If diners have questions about a particular grape variety, wine style or producer, Goddu will open a bottle to let them try it. Then the restaurant will sell glasses of it for the rest of the day.

Cider, too, is available by the glass. Goddu, who previously worked for Eden Ciders, is an advocate for Vermont's small-batch producers, such as Eden and the Mad River Valley's Tin Hat Cider.

"Folks have been super surprised to know that cider can come in a 750-milliliter bottle," he said. "Especially for those who don't want wine or beer, it's another option that's really freaking good."

A month into sit-down dining, Stone's Throw already has regulars who stop in for a casual drink and a snack. The front of the restaurant, with floor-to-ceiling windows, features a lounge area that is ideal for lingering while sampling marinated olives ($7); house dilly beans (made with "too much dill," according to the menu, $6); or mozzarella pearls with preserved lemon, chile flakes and fresh basil ($8).

click to enlarge

• Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
• Marinated broccolini

As excited to try the small plates as the cocktails, I quickly ordered the mozz pearls, marinated broccolini ($8), and a mezze trio ($8) with white bean dip, baba ghanoush and tapenade. I also opted for a special: shaved asparagus with cherry tomato, black garlic ricotta, cured egg yolk and lemon ($9).

I often get a small, 12-inch pie for myself at Stone's Throw — usually the Hunter ($18), with red sauce, glazed pork belly, charred peppers, grilled onions and fresh rosemary; or the Forager ($18), which is the restaurant's default veggie pie. But even the glowing neon "Hot Pies" sign above the bar couldn't sway me to make my typical order once the small plates started arriving. They were a meal unto themselves.

My husband stuck to the usual plan — smartly, as I ate most of the fresh, spring-on-a-plate asparagus dish — and ordered a small Caruso ($18). The slightly spicy red-sauce pie is loaded with bacon, pickled serrano peppers, smoked pineapple sauce and fresh basil. A recent Stone's Throw Instagram post described it as "ham and pineapple pizza's fancy older relative."

The current pizza menu will be the same all summer across all of Stone's Throw's locations. The restaurant also offers an excellent gluten-free crust, vegan pies and create-your-own options.

"The pizzas we wanted to have a little bit more uniform, for dine-in and takeout," Goddu said. "But Waterbury is its own thing, because we can do the small plates and change up specials, desserts and cocktails really quickly."

That adaptability of décor, offerings and personality might be the real secret to the restaurant's success. Whatever mood you're in, the right meal is just a Stone's Throw away.