Good Old Days Pizza & Cocktail Den — Restaurant in Newtown

This was a very solid find. My mom and I came here for Thanksgiving Eve last week; this place had gotten on my radar months ago for its square pies and cocktail prowess, and I noticed it was a pretty short drive from Redding (where we were celebrating Thanksgiving). We'd both scouted it ahead of time and knew exactly where to find it, but I could see a newbie easily missing its subtle basement location, as the restaurant above it (Marygold's) definitely commands more attention from the outside.

We were seated at one of the high tops in the bar section (my mother found the seating comfortable, which is saying something), which was pretty close to the music but we could still hear each other with a little effort. I ordered the plain square pie ($20), along with the Adulting 3.0 cocktail ($14), which included several types of berries and vodka. The square pie was very good, and I can see how this place has developed its reputation for same - the crust is crispy without being charred/burned, and the sauce was on the sweeter side and pretty smooth, which is a selling point for me. I would have liked to see a LITTLE more cheese. With these types of pies, there's definitely an expectation that the sauce is going to be the dominant cast member, but it was often more of a 90/10 split instead of what I would have preferred, which was 70/30. The cheese was so minimal I wasn't able to really distinguish it at all from the rest of the pie, which suggests to me a few extra sprinkles of cheese could have gone a long way here.

I was a big fan of the cocktail - I don't always agree with hipsters on their musical choices, but they have absolutely mastered mixology. If I see a beard and a plaid shirt behind the bar, I'm going for it. Perfectly blended, and tasted like a deliciously boozy sorbet bar. I had a second one without hesitation. Also a nice touch - the martini glass it was served in was frosted, very similar to what Friendly's does with their sundae dishes.

Once we sat down, I thought the service was perfectly fine. The menu warned that ordering the deep dish pies was a 25-minute prep time, but when you have a nice cocktail, the time flies by. Our waitress was very friendly and stopped by pretty regularly to check in - I think they could have used one more person on that particular night, but we didn't encounter anything egregious in that regard.

The only real issue we had here was prior to being seated, and I think this could be remedied with a little additional management/training. We didn't make a reservation because I had no idea how long it was going to take to get up to that area after work on Thanksgiving Eve. As a result, there was a wait time. Perfectly understandable. The hostess told us it would be about a 20- to 25-minute wait. Okay, fair. It actually turned out to be 50 to 55 minutes. Obviously you can't accurately predict how long dining parties are going to linger, etc., but as a general rule, absolutely overestimate than underestimate. Beyond that, when we finally decided to just go in at the 50-minute mark and stay until seated (we had been waiting in the parking lot), there was no sense of urgency from the staff in cleaning off the recently vacated tables, and there were several. One waitress decided to roll up some napkins by the front, and another was just looking at some papers by the lectern area. One waiter was slowly/methodically cleaning up tables, but it took another several minutes before the hostess decided to clean up the table we ended up at. I think a lot of that was just lack of awareness, but if you know have customers who have been waiting for close to an hour, get them seated. So hopefully they tighten up in that department.

The food/drinks are very, very good. I'll definitely come back but I'd likely hesitate on a busier night...

Got together with my siblings tonight and kids and one of my sisters decided to order from Good Old Days-yes, it was their first night BUT she called later in the afternoon to see how long wait for food was and Sara said it was 25 minutes so she called back and placed order and was told it would be ready by 5:30-ordered 2 pies for the kids because we were making seafood together. 10 minutes later after placing order and giving CC info, young man call back and said that they cannot process any To-Go orders until 6 pm because their system wasn’t cooperating. She calls them back and he tells her if she continues with the order it will be ready for 6:30 pick up-it’s just 2 pizzas, one cheese and a cheese with sausage. So we decide to give kids snacks and My sister and niece head out to pick up the pies and the newtown sister gets a call at 6:23 that unfortunately due to system overload, our order has been cancelled! Back at the ranch, we already have someone heading to pick up the order being that it should be read in 7 minutes. She’s calls back again (now the 6th exchange) and Sara apologizes and says their system is not working but order can probably be picked up in 90 minutes...that brings us to 8:00 pm and who knows if that even happens! Literally we went from 5:30 to 8 pm! FB says that you can only do phone orders and we tried and got nothing but the run around! Very disappointing. I understand it’s first night BUT if you cannot handle the orders than make a recording saying that you are I able to take phone orders and to try back in an hour. Our kids waited and never got pizza and luckily we were able to rely on good old Figs to help us out promptly. Newtown GOD is far from godly! The wait is like a punishment in purgatory! Good luck to this place and hopefully they can get their act together!

UPDATE: Gave this place a try because everyone deserves a second chance. Due to COVID, very much still on the fence about dining in so picked up 2 pies for adults! Went for one square cheese pie and also tried one thin and crispy. Ingredients are very good and they have a great sauce-wish it had a little more sauce but crust was good and it had nice flavor but grated cheese on top is a bit salty. The square pie was very good-the crust was fabulous and not heavy although very thick but cooked to perfection. Again, the grated cheese in our opinion is very salty and this knocked down the rating to 3.5 stars (gave it 4 tho). We will go back to sample other pies but hands down the square pie was the big winner-very tasty but just a little salty and that’s an easy fix for the next trip.

Truly happy to be able to update my previous review-staff is very nice and they do make a good pizza! Maybe if they expand or open another place, opt not to do online orders...

We were really excited to try Good Old Days and it did not disappoint! We are on a mission to try restaurants around Connecticut as we have lived here for years but really only frequent a few local places. We ordered the vodka square pizza, the chicken bacon ranch square pizza, and the white lighting thin crust! The vodka was by far my favorite but I think I would have liked white lightning the best if we were dining-in and not taking out, the thin crust does not lend well to a 45 minute drive home! We also ordered a mocktail, cocktail, and lemonade. The mocktail and cocktail were so good and both super well balanced and unique. The lemonade was classic restaurant lemonade, I love it lol. We got the veggie pizza roll and unfortunately that was undercooked and doughy but everything else was so good that this is still 5 stars! We decided to drive to Good Old Days, grab a drink, and order takeout. They do not do traditional take-out apparently but the hostess helped us out and said if we ordered a drink the bartender can sneak in an order for us. If they do reservations I highly recommend getting one if you are going on the weekend, and know that the bar top will be busy as well! It is a...