My Place Is The Place

Whether breakfast regular, meeting friends for lunch, or having dinner with the family, My Place Restaurant on Queen Street, featuring traditional Italian dishes, is a friendly place to gather and enjoy a meal.

My Place was opened as a luncheonette by Louise Tambascio in 1979, in one of a string of storefronts that later became Big Y. It was a popular place for breakfast and lunch, known for its sauce and meatballs. In 1989 her sons John and Mark took an adjacent store to start a New York-style pizzeria in combination with provincial Italian cuisine dinners. Three years later, the wall between the two establishments came down and My Place began serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.

When the Big Y came to town and took over its current space, the Tambascios relocated their operations in 1998 to the extensively renovated building fronting Queen Street that had long served as Newtown’s post office before the post office moved to Commerce Road. The building’s past life is reflected in My Place’s logo and menu design: the breakfast menu opens like an envelope and the stamp motif is evident in all of the menus.

Dinner entrees, served with a choice of salad or soup, generally range from $10.95 to $15.95, with some specialties costing a couple of dollars more. The specialties include chicken scampi ($14.95) and Caribbean duck ($16.95). The menu offers a number of pasta selections, including six ravioli choices ranging from cheese to lobster. One of the favorite meals is the lasagna at $11.95. Mr Tambasco notes that this is one of three menu items that his mother insists on making herself every day; the other two are meatballs and chicken soup.

Although the red brick building with green awnings fronts on Queen Street, customers use the side entrance off the parking lot between the restaurant and Bank of America. This brings them into the takeout area — all of the dishes on the menu are available as takeout — which is a very busy place on weekend nights. Mr Tambascio says about 300 thin crust pizzas are processed on a typical Friday night, some 150–200 on Saturdays. My Place uses a computer system to keep track of all orders, which enables the employees to give accurate wait times to anyone calling in for pickup or delivery. My Place delivers daily to all of Newtown between the hours of 4 and 9 pm only.

The dining room accommodates 160, which includes an enclosed section that can hold private parties up to 40. My Place strives to be family friendly, offering “great food at reasonable prices,” and provides toys and coloring material for children while they wait. The menu also reflects the growing trend toward healthier eating: rather than “everything on the children’s menu coming with fries,” Mr Tambascio notes that children now have a choice of a tossed salad, fruit cup, or applesauce with their entrees as well.

Menus and other information about My Place can be found at its website, www.MyPlacePizza.com.

For the adults who enjoy a drink with their meal, not only does My Place offer a full bar service, and any wine that is in a bottle can be ordered by the glass, but My Place is renown for its extraordinary selection of beers from around the world. Mark Tambascio is a master brewer and a national beer judge. With his expertise and connections, My Place regularly offers brews found only in select bars.

In addition to weekly specials — which include fresh fish, steak and “creative” dishes — the specials menu at My Place always offers a half dozen beers and a like number of wines. Additionally, beer aficionados will always find seven rotating choices on tap in the small bar off the main dining room, as well as a wide selection from microbreweries. The bar, which has five stools and seats about a dozen more at tables along the wall, also has two television sets and is the scene of a friendly sports rivalry: Mark is a rabid Red Sox fan, while John and Louise both prefer the Yankees. It is not uncommon during the baseball season to find the TVs featuring both teams’ games simultaneously. It was an interesting place to be during last year’s World Series.

My Place Restaurant, 8 Queen Street, open daily from 7 am to 10 pm, 9 pm on Sunday; 270-7061, www.MyPlacePizza.com. All major credit cards accepted.