Seymour got its own taste of the south this spring, with the opening of Uncle Willie’s BBQ on West Street.
Uncle Willie’s is owned by Diane Lombardi, her husband Bill Lombardi, and Bill’s brother Dave Lombardi.
The three sat down with the Valley Indy recently to talk pulled pork, pig roasts and what drives brides to risk dropping barbeque sauce on their white gowns.
Valley Indy: I remember Uncle Willie’s when you were in Orange on the Post Road a few years ago. I was pregnant and I stopped there so often for cravings that I considered camping out in your parking lot. I am so happy you are here. What brought Uncle Willie’s to the Valley?
Bill Lombardi: (laughs) A lot of customers who went to the Waterbury store came from the Valley.
Valley Indy: Do you still have an Uncle Willie’s in Waterbury?
Bill Lombardi No. We closed it in December 2009 and opened this one in Seymour in May 2010.
Valley Indy: I hear this was a chicken place before you moved in.
Dave Lombardi Yup.
ValleyIndy: So what’s Uncle Willie going to offer this spot that the other place didn’t have?
Diane Lombardi: A real southern smoke barbeque pit. I believe it’s the only wood pit barbeque in the Valley. It’s a traditional southern kitchen.
Valley Indy: Who can give me a brief history on how you got started?
Bill Lombardi: Well briefly, we used to travel to Kansas City, the Carolinas, Atlanta, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. We had a rental equipment business and we used to go to trade shows. We would stop all over and eat southern food and came back to Connecticut and wanted more.
Diane Lombardi: So we decided to get into cooking southern food and barbecuing.
Valley Indy: So Dave, I hear you manage the Seymour spot. How’s business so far?
Dave Lombardi I must say, it’s great.
Valley Indy: How many locations do you have now?
Bill Lombardi: We have two locations now: West Haven and Seymour.
Valley Indy: Are any of you from the South? Where are you from originally?
Bill Lombardi: We (Dave and Bill) are from Waterbury. Diane is from Seymour.
Valley Indy: Diane, you’re a Valley girl? You have come full circle. What’s it like to be back?
Diane Lombardi: It’s great to be back. My family lives here, although I don’t get to see them often.
Valley Indy: What do you think is Uncle Willie’s success?
Diane Lombardi: Again, I think it’s the wood smoke barbeque and everything is fresh made. We smoke everything on site at each restaurant. It’s true barbeque and anyone who knows barbeque knows the difference from this and a chain restaurant.
Valley Indy: How much food can the smoke pit cook?
Dave Lombardi: Four hundred pounds.
Valley Indy: Can you share any of your secret recipes?
Diane Lombardi: Real barbeque people never share their secrets.
Valley Indy: (staring intently with unmovable reporter gaze) Surely you will reveal something for a Valley paper, right? I mean, being from the Valley and all.
Diane Lombardi: (cracking under reporter gaze) Okay, I will tell you this. We smoke with hickory and oak wood and we make everything fresh including our barbeque sauce and seasonings.
Valley Indy: While working part time in a jewelry store in 2009, a customer told me he was having his wedding catered that weekend by Uncle Willie’s. Is that true?
Diane Lombardi: That’s true. They are a young couple. They just stopped in the West Haven Uncle Willie’s six months ago with their new baby. He’s a doctor and they had their wedding catered in Shelton. We cater lots of weddings. We have different weddings. Some couples pick up the food and others have us deliver it and serve it. Bill was at that wedding.
Valley Indy: Wow, that’s kind of interesting. What was the wedding like? Formal? Informal?
Bill Lombardi: The couple was dressed formal. The tables had China and linen. We served ribs, pork, chicken, collards, mac and cheese… There was about 100 people.
Valley Indy: Did the bride wear white and eat spare ribs with barbeque sauce?
Bill Lombardi: Yup. The bride wore white and came up for the barbeque and the groom wore a tux. Everyone had a great time and a lot of people came up for seconds.
Diane Lombardi: We are involved in a lot of catering. We do pig roast where we dressed up the pig. We put a pig in a hula skirt and flip flops. We even did a pig roast for a football party and put it on Astroturf surrounded by footballs.
Valley Indy: The pig was cooked, right? I mean, you didn’t just plop a dead pig down on Astroturf? That can’t be too cool.
Diane Lombardi: (Laughing) Of course. All the pigs are fully cooked and then dressed up. Catering is fun. Everything is fun.
Bill Lombardi: We love everything we do.
Uncle Willies is located at 225 West St. The restaurant is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., Fridays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
Uncle Willies can be reached at 203 – 881-8102 and at [email protected]. They are also on Facebook.
