Lawsuit Dismissed, Owners of Sally's Look to Sell Iconic New Haven Pizzeria

For nearly 80 years, people have come from near and far for the thin-crust pizza baked in Sally Apizza’s in New Haven.

Now a decision by a Connecticut Appellate Court has opened the door for the Consiglio family to move forward and sell the iconic restaurant on the corner of Wooster and Olive streets. 

“My father was born and raised in Italy, and he came here for the weekend and he was blown away by how good Sally’s was,” said Roseann Iuvone, who lives and works in Wooster Square. “And that says a lot.”

“You think its exaggerated until you come here and taste it,” said the family’s attorney, Hugh Keefe, “There is a huge difference.”

After Flo Consiglio, the wife of Sally’s founder Salvatore “Sally” Consiglio, passed away five years ago, the children decided to put the family business up for sale.

“People don’t want to buy restaurants or anything for that matter if it’s in litigation,” Keefe said.

Negotiations to find a new owner will move at a quicker pace now that the appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling to throw out a lawsuit from a local bidder, Keefe said.

“He found that no contract existed whereby the Consiglio siblings were obligated in any way shape or form to sell the restaurant to Carmine Capasso,” he said.

Unfortunately for Kevin Thomas, of Arkansas, he stopped by Sally’s on Wednesday a few hours before the restaurant opens.

“We’re just driving up the coast and we got online and just saw that this was very highly recommended,” Thomas said.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been in Arkansas or Louisiana but they don’t know pizza from Shinola,” Keefe joked.

So maybe Thomas will have to come back to give Sally’s a try.

“Hopefully the institution will last a longer than all of us,” Keefe said, “but maybe with different owners.”

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