Pizza has been in Anthony Peluso’s family since 1934, and along with wife Giuseppinna and son Carmine, he’s bringing the family tradition to Johns Island with Tolli’s Trattoria, a modern Italian restaurant that quietly opened on Maybank Highway in September. “We moved down here about a year ago,” Anthony said. “The growth potential is there — it’s not like back home. Within a 10-minute drive you can go to like 50 pizza places.”

Connecticut is “back home” for Anthony, a third-generation Peluso who started working at his great uncle’s restaurant, Tolli’s Apizza in East Haven, at age 16, learning how to make classic Neapolitan pies. Tolli’s roots date back to 1934, when Anthony’s great uncle Antonio Tolli owned a series of pizzerias in New Haven, Connecticut before eventually opening Tolli’s Apizza in East Haven in 1954.