A new Italian restaurant is coming to CT. Pasta, pizza, the ‘food that I grew up with,’ owner says.

The new pizza, pasta and wings restaurant has a focus on traditional Italian fare and it’s a passion project for the owner, he says.

Amoroso’s Pizzeria is set to open next month inside the space where Hot Heaven Pizzeria has operated at 33 East Main St., Avon, after renovation work is completed.

“I grew up with a really big Italian family and my wife and I just got back from Italy a week ago,” owner Jonathan Gorski said.

“It was so interesting to see the food there was so similar to the style of food that I grew up with, so I’m looking to bring that to Avon,” he said. “When my Italian mother got married she was the first in the family to marry a non-Italian. So we got the Polish last name even though we’re more Italian than anything else. I’ve been wanting to open a restaurant for a long time and I wanted to make it a nod to my heritage.”

Amoroso’s is named after his mother’s maiden name.

Gorski, who lives in Burlington with his family, said that he would often travel through Avon for his kids sports games, and realized the potential for a small family-friendly Italian restaurant.

After almost 20 years living in New York and doing market research, Gorski said he wanted to follow his dream of opening up his own restaurant and finding a quieter life in northwestern Connecticut. Gorski signed the lease for the space last month.

“Pizza and wings will be the focus but we’re looking at other items too. My goal is to keep it small,” he said.

“I don’t believe that you can have 100 things on the menu and do that really, really well” Gorski said.

“We want to keep it traditional and so we’re looking at six to 10 different pasta dishes from Northern Italy. Perhaps a spicy dish from Sicily,” he said. “The menu will be a handful of pasta dishes, pizza and wings. The menu is about 90% done at this point.”

Gorski said that there are 12 tables inside the restaurant and renovation work is underway on the dining room area.

“We’re giving the space a fresh coat of paint and we’re taking out some closets to expand it a bit so it feels more spacious,” Gorski said. “There’s also a drop ceiling that we are going to get rid of to make the space seem bigger. We want to open it up a bit and make it a friendly space.”

Hiring has already begun and most positions are filled, Gorski said. A planned grand opening is set for late August.

Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com