Good Food Is Still The Main Course

At New Sorrento

The New Sorrento Italian Ristoranté and Banquet Center at 32 Newtown Road (Route 6) in Danbury is owned by AnnMarie and Tony Loukrezis, who took over the location about two years ago. In addition to changing the name from Old Sorrento to New Sorrento, the couple began implementing a number of changes, including to the menu, in the table arrangements — “We got rid of those small tables no one wanted to sit at,” noted AnnMarie — and the décor.

Early in 2005 New Sorrento also became a location for Treehouse Comedy Club, which offers live comedy acts on Saturday nights (there is a cover charge for each show, which averages $12.50; start times vary). There is also karaoke in the lounge on Thursday evenings, beginning at 9:30.

The building is deceiving; it is much larger than it looks from the street. The 175-seat restaurant is divided into three areas: the dining room and lounge downstairs, and the banquet room upstairs, which accommodates the most people, seating up to 100 for private parties or the comedy club.

New Sorrento is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, from 11:30 am to 10 pm, with the lounge open later. It offers lunch and dinner menus as well as pizza, all available for takeout as well, plus senior and early bird menus. New Sorrento also does a lot of catering, both on and off premises, and is a popular place for rehearsal dinners, birthday and anniversary parties and the like as well as business dinners and meetings, generally held in the banquet room.

Italian appetizers and entrées dominate the dinner menu, but the salads have a more international flavor. Appetizers range from ca prise bruchetta — fresh mozzarella made on premises and fresh basil leaves on crostini toast — $5.95, to brocc de rabe and sausage sautéed with garlic and olive oil, $7.95, traditional clams casino and calamari, $8 each, to a shrimp scampi boat for $11.95.

Salads include Greek ($9.95), antipasto ($10.95), Thai chicken ($9.95), chicken cordon bleu ($10.95), and seafood ($14.95).

There are eight chicken entrees, ranging from $15.95 to $18.95, and six veal, $18.95 to $21.95. The latter is veal Ortalando, medallions of veal sautéed with mushrooms, artichoke hearts, asparagus, and green peppercorns in a champagne cream sauce.

There are also steaks and chops, $18.95 to $22.95; pasta and fish and pasta combinations, $13.95 to $20.95; a half dozen fish dishes including coconut shrimp and seafood with stuffed mushrooms, $17.95; and blackened swordfish, $19.95; as well as a choice of 13 house specialties, including such items as scrod and shrimp en papillote, with an assorted palette of  julienne vegetables in parchment bag, $18.95; pollo baci, breast of chicken with mozzarella, zucchini, and eggplant served over spinach fettuccine with vodka sauce, $17.95

For lunch, Italia Deli-Express luncheon sandwiches are available Monday through Saturday from 11:30 to 4. The $4.50 special includes a cup of soup de jour or paste e’ fagioli and a choice of seven half-grinder sandwiches. Among the selections are blackened chicken breast with roasted peppers, melted mozzarella, and romaine lettuce, and grilled Portobello mushroom with similar toppings.

The regular lunch menu also serves as the early bird menu, available Sunday through Thursday until 7 pm, and has many of the same dishes as the dinner menu.

The senior menu is served daily, offering soup, a choice of ten entrees, coffee or tea, and dessert for $10.95. There is a children’s menu for guests 12 and under.

Pizza, of course, is a stable at New Sorrento, both eat in and takeout, and the restaurant offers a pizza club, where after five of the same-sized pizzas have been purchased, the sixth is free. Pizzas come in four sizes from personal, ten-inch, to large, 16 inches. Prices for cheese pizza range from $4 to $8 with several toppings priced at 50 cents each.

Eleven specialty pizzas are available in three sizes and cost $12.95, $14.95 and $16.95. The Sorrento special is sausage, pepperoni, meatball, onions, peppers and mushrooms. There is also a goat cheese and eggplant pizza with sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and mozzarella, and a wild west, with ham, bacon, sliced olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes, no sauce.

The New Sorrento Italian Ristoranté and Banquet Center is at 32 Newtown Road (Route 6) in Danbury. The dining room is open seven days a week from 11:30 to 10, the lounge is open later. For information and reservations, call 748-1322. For information on the Treehouse Comedy Club visit TreehouseComedy.com or call 744-5575.