This classic Williamstown restaurant serves up inspired Italian fare in Wood County.
At Da Vinci’s Restaurant, the overwhelming feeling is of abundance. It’s there in the food—mounds of pasta covered in rich sauces, glasses brimming with generous pours of wine, layers of sugar rising high off the plate to form luxurious desserts. It’s there on the menu—a two-page spread that reveals an impressive slate of options, from pizza and subs to pasta and steak. And it’s there in the restaurant itself—a huge building that spans three floors and seats hundreds. As a hostess leads you to your table you’re swept past one room after another, each filled with guests chatting, laughing, and eating. And that’s likely to be true no matter when you go—Da Vinci’s in Wood County is always busy.
In 1978 Jim and Marilyn Pettit bought an old Sunoco gas station in Williamstown and set about turning it into a pizza shop—as the story goes, they took out a variable rate loan to do it, and the interest rate eventually grew to a whopping 23 percent. But they persevered and opened for business in 1980, serving a simple menu of pizza and subs. “We started out as one little dining room and a salad bar—we had 13 tables,” says Chris Bender. Chris has been at Da Vinci’s almost since the beginning. She started working for the Pettits as a server three decades ago, and rose through the ranks over the years until she was managing the entire place. “This wasn’t what I wanted to do forever—this was just a stepping stone, this was to pay my way through college,” she says. “But I loved the people—I loved the customers, I loved the employees. They’re my friends. So I never left.” Two years ago Chris bought the restaurant from the Pettits, who were by then living in North Carolina and helping their daughter run a restaurant there. “I’m here every day, all day,” Chris says. “I figured if I’m going to live here I may as well own it.”
They also request their favorite dishes, of course, and Da Vinci’s isn’t short on crowd pleasers—several creations are unique to Da Vinci’s. Take the German Pizza, for example. It’s a Da Vinci’s pizza crust topped with horseradish sauce in lieu of tomato sauce, plus corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese. “You either love it or you hate it,” Chris says, but most people love it. Jim Pettit invented the dish back in the early days of the restaurant, playing around in the kitchen, and it quickly caught on—it was soon so popular he had it trademarked. Then there’s the Pasta Mona Lisa, another bestseller that’s trademarked. It’s thin spaghetti baked with meat sauce, mozzarella cheese, green peppers, and pepperoni. “We build it from the bottom up,” Chris says. “It’s like we’re building Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa—everything is artfully topped.”
written by SHAY MAUNZ
photographed by CARLA WITT FORD
Leave a Reply