WINSTED — Ali Nassari and Amer Almasoudi are living the American dream, one pizza pie at a time.Nassari and Almasoudi are co-owners of Papa’s Pizza, which recently opened up at 896 Main St., the former home of Charcoal Bob’s and Savory Thyme.For the past four years, both men have also co-owned the Twin Stop convenience store at 787 Main St., not too far away from their new restaurant.“We decided to open Papa’s Pizza because we wanted to put some life into this side of the town,” Nassari said. “It seems that all of the businesses are in the east part of town. We want to change that.”Almasoudi moved to America 16 years ago from Sudan to be with his wife, Debbie.From 1998 until 2005, Almasoudi was a cook at Dunkin’ Donuts in Winsted.“That was when they used to make doughnuts and their baked goods from scratch at the store,” Almasoudi said. “They don’t do that anymore. Now everything is trucked in from someplace else.”Almasoudi left Dunkin’ Donuts to work as a cook at Restaurant Italia in Avon for several years until he opened up Twin Stop with Nassari.Nassari moved from Yemen in 1993 in search of a better life.His first job was in Avon as a machinist at Eastern Color Printing, where he worked until 1997.From there, he moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., and opened a restaurant that he owned until 2000.After he left Brooklyn, he returned to the area to work as a machinist at the Technical Coating Laboratory until 2007.After he left his job at the Technical Coating Laboratory, he purchased a convenience store in Norfolk, which he eventually sold before purchasing the Twin Stop with Almasoudi.The two opened Papa’s Pizza because they said that there is a demand for it in town.“We are both in business for the people,” Nassari said. “We are here to give what people like.”The restaurant offers multiple types of pizza, including specialty pizzas featuring ham and pineapple, white pizza, barbecue chicken pizza and buffalo chicken pizza.Papa’s Pizza also offers a variety of grinders, salads, calzones and pasta dinners.Both Nassari and Almasoudi said their secret weapon at the restaurant is chef Lou Strano, whose family owned the Palermo Restaurant in Torrington from 1944 to 1979.“Lou makes the best pizza in town,” Nassari said. “He is using a recipe for double baked pizza that has been in his family for over 50 years.” Another feature that sets Papa’s Pizza apart from the other stores in town is that it offers free delivery.As for the name, Almasoudi said that “papa” is his nickname.“All of my kids call me that,” he said. “We’re calling in Papa’s Pizza because everyone loves a papa.”Papa’s Pizza is open Monday to Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.For more information call 860-238-4235 or 860-238-4236.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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