Ozzie’s has been on Main Street in Seymour for six years, initially as a pizzeria, but a “reinvented” version officially launched Friday after a three-month renovation and menu expansion.
Owners Ozzie and Leonora Trdevaj said they decided to make the change to have more quality time with their three children.
“We wanted to spend more time with our kids,” Leonora Trdevaj said. “We were here just too many long hours.”
So they got a small business loan from Webster Bank to perform the renovation, which cost about $15,000 and took about three months. John Tahiri of Alco Painting did most of the work.
“It came out awesome,” Leonora Trdevaj said. “People seem to like it.”
Click play on the video below to see the ribbon-cutting.
The work — which included adding about 20 tables, bringing the restaurant’s capacity to about 60 — was done at the end of August, and the restaurant had a soft opening in mid-September.
She said people had worried that the restaurant had closed.
“We’re here to stay, we’re not leaving the Valley,” she said. “I want everybody to feel like family when they come in.”
The couple thanked those who have supported the business through the years and noted that not everything about the business has been changed.
“It’s the same Oz that’s been cooking for six years,” Leonora Trdevaj said. “I changed everything but Ozzie.”
Click the play button on the video below to see more of their remarks.
First Selectman Kurt Miller said the restaurant’s successful re-launch shows that things are moving in a positive direction for downtown Seymour.
“We’re truly trying to make downtown Seymour a destination place where people can come and shop and eat and have social activities and things,” Miller said.
And it’s not just the town pushing the concept, he went on.
“The thing that makes me proudest, it’s the merchants themselves,” Miller said. “The merchants have really come together over the last couple of months, they’ve formed their downtown business association, it’s very active, it’s very vibrant. They’re all trying to work together to make our downtown just a little bit better.”
The “new” Ozzie’s, at 145 Main St., is open seven days a week, Monday-Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The restaurant is open for dinner on Thursdays and Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m.
The phone number is 203 – 881-331.
Click the play button below to see more photos from Friday’s event.
