Late-Night Snack Put Couple

On Track To Burgerittoville

A cheeseburger on a tortilla, topped with crumbled bacon, romaine lettuce, diced tomato, and tomato mayo, was a late night snack that launched a new business for Amy and Joseph A. Rebecco, Jr. The couple owns the Skybox Café in Fairfield, where the meal, dubbed the burgeritto, originated. They offered it and variations to their bar customers and the food proved so popular, they decided to open a food-only location.

In August 2005, Burgerittoville opened at 57 Church Hill Road, in the old red building that was constructed in 1880 as Newtown’s first train depot and is shared with Cave Comics. The business was so well received — “People often express that they are glad we are here,” said Joe — and Joe and Amy like Newtown so much, that they bought a house in Sandy Hook about six months later.

Joe attributes the popularity of the restaurant to the quality of the food — “We only use quality meat and real cheese, none of that ‘cheese food’ stuff; people can taste the difference” — combined with reasonable prices and quick service. “About half of our business,” he notes, “is people calling ahead and about 99 percent of the time, the food is ready when they get here.”

Burgerittoville offers about a dozen variations of its sandwiches made on tortillas, called “‘rittos,” which range in price from $3 for the bacon, egg, and cheeserito to $7.50 for a chicken cheesesteakaritto, which includes diced chicken breast grilled with black olives, roasted peppers, tomato, onion, lettuce, cheddar-jack cheese, and sour cream. The bestseller by far, however, is the original burgeritto, $5.50.

“We sell close to three times as many of those,” said Joe, “as our next bestseller, the club chickeritto,” made of chicken tenders with bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheddar-jack cheese and mayo, $6. The third bestseller is the cheese steakaritto, grilled wafer steak with onions, lettuce, cheddar-jack cheese, and horseradish sauce, $6.

There are also appetizers and finger foods such as skewered teriyaki shrimp, $4.75, Joe’s rootin tootin chili, $4, and hot wings served with bleu cheese dressing, $7.50; Pittsburghers — a choice of burgers, chicken varieties, or wafer steak served on thick Italian bread with fries and coleslaw on the sandwich — $8.50; hot dogs, $2 to $3; and soup (in the winter months) and salads, $4 each; and side dishes, coleslaw, onion rings, and three kinds of fries, $2 to $5.

For beverages, Burgerittoville serves juice, bottled teas, and the Boylan line of soda, which is sweetened with cane sugar and comes in such old favorite flavors as crème soda, orange, grape, black cherry, root beer, and birch beer, $1.75 per bottle. Then there are the shakes, floats, and malts — full pint size and made with real ice cream — at $4.50 each.

There are six meals for kids, served with french fries and milk or juice, $5, and a family special offered after 4 pm that includes any four ‘rittos, large french fries, large onion rings, coleslaw, and any four sodas or Arizona iced teas, $33.

Burgerittoville is open seven days a week from 11 to 7; to 8 when the weather gets warmer, and customers can eat in or take out, mostly takeout. In the warm weather there are three picnic tables on which to enjoy a meal. To order ahead, call 270-3500.