Food trucks are a hot trend in the restaurant business, but a New Haven-area pizzeria founded in 1934 is using a pizzeria on wheels to bring its Pizza Hall of Fame pies to the streets.     

According to the Hartford Courant, Zuppardi's Apizza, a West Haven, Connecticut, institution since 1934, has been operating its bright red Zupp's Truck since May. Parked on New Haven streets, operator Jim Ormrod serves up a scaled-down sampling of Zuppardi's signature pies. The menu includes Zuppardi's traditional New Haven-style standard with tomato sauce, grated pecorino Romano cheese and no mozzarella. Other favorites, says Ormrod, great-grandson of the pizzeria's founder Dominic Zuppardi, are pizzas with mozzarella and house-made Italian fennel sausage and one topped with fresh-shucked clams.

On weekends, Zupp's Truck services private parties and food truck festivals. Ormrod says his goal is to make Zuppardi's, already a landmark restaurant within West Haven, well known outside the city limits. Ormrod's great-grandfather opened the restaurant originally as a bakery. When Dominic's son Anthony Zuppardi took over, he changed the menu to strictly pizza. Today, Anthony's daughters Lori (Jim's mother) and Cheryl serve as owners. "I've been working there forever. It's all I know," Ormrod says.

For more information about where you can catch the Zupp's Truck, read more.