Hot summer takeout used to be all about the Cortina Kitchen Sink pizza and its cheesy meatball subs back in the day.
Those days are now reincarnated thanks to the new Cortina 64 Restaurant on Notre Dame Avenue.
Next to the hum of Sudbury Kartways, in the old bus station, sits the new dine-in restaurant.
Troy Kirkwood has partnered with his father Darren for the venture.
In recent years, Troy Kirkwood was managing three of the Greater Sudbury Cortina locations, but decided to pursue a honours bachelor of business at Cambrian.
On the heels of graduating this spring, he jumped back into the business to manage Cortina 64.
“My last day off was the Jays home opener in March,” said Kirkwood. “Since then I’ve been building a restaurant, team and menu.”
That menu is extensive.
Kirkwood says it needed to be for a full service restaurant.
“There were some non-negotiables,” he said. “Take the all time favourites like the Kitchen Sink pizza, lasagna, meatball subs or spaghetti and meatballs.”
Then there were some opportunities to level up with classic mushroom caps made in-house with portobello mushrooms, along with the homemade spinach dip, beef carpaccio and the charcuterie board.
There are lots of local connections to the menu, with Troy’s wing recipe coming from his uncle’s restaurant Grumblers, along with buns and pasta from Regency Bakery, sauces from Saucy Pete’s, meats from DNA Meats and decadent desserts from Gourmet World.
Customers will be happy to hear about a juicy and tender Damascus Shawarma pizza collaboration too. There are more than 10 pizza options on the menu.
In order to meet the needs of patrons, Kirkwood said they had to develop more sauces than the one sauce that had been used since 1964.
“We used the same tried, tested and true meat sauce for 61 years on everything but knew dining in meant we needed to add options like a garlic cream sauce, an oil based sauce and a spiced rose,” he said.
The restaurant started as a financial risk in 1964.
The story goes that Tony Masotti, who hailed from Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy started the venture with only a quarter in his pocket.
Kirkwood’s dad, Darren, bought the whole franchise in 1997.
Troy Kirkwood says his team at Cortina 64 has far exceeded its forecasted expectations for this year.
He’s partnered with a marketing team composed of recent business grads who have started New Horizons, a new marketing firm.
In time, they plan to add a turf greenery area for outdoor eating and delivery options.
Cortina 64 is located at 854 Notre Dame Ave. and is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day of the week.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.