“If everything goes according to plan, we’re looking at December 1,” said Bobby Seaman, a longtime Folino’s employee and general manager of the new pizzeria.
Folino’s was founded by John Koerner with his son, Buddy. The first location opened in March 2012 on Route 7 in Shelburne next door to Fiddlehead Brewing, from which Folino’s customers can buy beer to accompany their pizzas.
The company replicated that approach in January 2018 when it added a Burlington restaurant in a former funeral home on South Union Street, behind City Market, Onion River Co-op. Neighboring Stonecutter Spirits’ Highball Social, where Folino’s customers could get cocktails, closed in December 2019 and was replaced by Wallflower Collective in May 2021.
The new Folino’s will build on the company’s established model with some differences. For one, it will serve beer and wine under its own license. That was not the initial plan, Seaman said, noting that the restaurant was expected to co-open with a second Fiddlehead Brewing, which fell victim to the pandemic.
In addition to pizzas and salad, the Williston restaurant will offer chicken wings smoked in the pizza oven, as does the Burlington Folino’s. Once the Williston Folino’s is staffed enough to add lunch hours, it will be the first of the trio to offer Italian-style sandwiches made on fresh-baked sourdough focaccia with house-smoked, hand-carved meats.
The Williston restaurant is the first for which the Koerners have had outside investors, Seaman said. “They have a lot of friends who wanted to be involved and support them.”
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2021.
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