By Atene DiLuca
Staff Reporter
Finding great local Chinese food takeout, amazing pizzeria, or a 24-hour diner is almost necessary to make it through a college career. Although, finding a decent local eatery alone is a difficult task.
However, when it comes to pizza I know that I could have it at any time of the day, but it depends on where I get it is from.
Many students from Sacred Heart University head to Colony Grill or Goodfella’s for their pizza night cravings. However, I may have overlooked Jerry Shakespeare’s Pizzeria that is also in the Bridgeport area.
Only about five-minute drive from campus, Jerry’s is located off Main Street slightly hidden amongst other stores. I was not sure what to expect when I pulled into the parking lot, but my friends and I were excited to try a new place.
As I walked in, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming as the owner Frank Durso placed a menu in my hand. Durso was very friendly and waited patiently for our orders to be placed.
He briefly spoke about owning the pizzeria for 20 years with his wife Tina Durso and how popular it is among Sacred Heart students.
“We try to give our customers the best experience possible, and we love the Sacred Heart students that come here all the time. They are always welcome,” said Durso.
Their menu offered a variety of choices from traditional Italian home-style pasta dishes to hot sandwiches.
When I grazed over the menu I was happy to find that most of their dishes were affordable and moderately priced. After all, everything starts to add up when you’re trying to save money, especially for college students like myself.
After a few minutes of deciding what to get, I chose a basic meatball parmesan grinder. My friends and I then took a seat at one of the open tables inside as we anxiously anticipated our meals.
About ten-minutes later we all received our food that was piping hot and fresh from the oven. I started to eat my sandwich right away and it was delicious. My friends were very pleased about their entrée choices and raved about their meals as well.
“My experience at Jerry’s was great, I had the chicken parmesan grinder and it was awesome. It was better than most grinders I have had in the past, the chicken was crispy and there was not an overwhelming amount of sauce on the sandwich, which I liked,” said junior Jen Mahoney.
Other friends that came along with me shared a large cheese pizza and they had great things to say about it.
“Surprisingly, for Connecticut pizza, it tasted good.Being from New York though, it definitely wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had, but I was very impressed,” said freshman Micah Alexandre.
I decided to try the pizza too after all their comments, and to my surprise it was just like having a slice of New York pizza. Since I live very close to New York City it is very hard to find that type of pizza because so many
restaurants have their own flare.
Overall, I would recommend this pizzeria to anyone in the area. My friends and I enjoyed the food and had a great experience while we were there. The next time I am craving New York-style pizza I will definitely make my way over to Jerry’s.
