By Susan Stone

News Star Reporter

For some people pizza and beer go hand in hand and they can’t or don’t want to have one without the other.

Until recently there was no place in Stratford that people could go into for a sit down meal and enjoy a beer with their food.

Now, Norabella’s Italian Restaurant has changed all that.

Norabella’s recently received their state license from the ABLE commission on April 3 and started serving beer on April 4.

“As far as we can tell by the books, we are the first restaurant in Stratford to ever serve alcohol,” Norabellas owner Nick Venezio said.

“The main reason we decided to start serving alcohol is due to the fact we had a lot of customers from out of town coming in wanting a beer with their pizza,” Venezio added.

Even if it’s hard for some to admit, Stratford is a town that doesn’t accept some changes with open arms or open minds.

That was not the case with this change. Surprisingly everyone seemed to support Norabella’s decision to taking serve alcohol.

Norabellas owners Nick and Sandee Venezio put a lot of careful thought and consideration into this decision. They also sought input from other people.

“We talked to a bunch of people around town to get their opinions about the issue and out of all the people we talked to nobody was opposed to the idea of us serving alcohol,” Nick stated.

“Norabella’s is still first and foremost a family establishment. It is in by no means going to turn into a bar or have the atmosphere of a bar,” Nick said.

“In order for people to drink they must order food and I will cut people off or refuse to serve anyone that I think has had enough. We will have a zero tolerance policy for people who want to get drunk and want to start trouble,” he went on to say.

They have also started having karaoke on Saturday nights from 9:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. or later depending on the number of customers.

One more change coming soon is the new smoothie bar that is being put in.

“We should have it up and running in about 4 weeks,” Venezio said.

“We will be offering just regular fresh fruit smoothies and if people want we can add nutritional supplements to their smoothie. It’s the same supplements that Gold’s Gym and Planet Fitness carry,” Nick said.