Pizza store owner Robert Rubino can’t wait to welcome his many customers on Friday to his Cellar Door restaurant in New Toronto.

Rubino’s popular wood-burning pizzeria at 3003 Lake Shore Blvd. W. can now welcome 60 customers indoors and on his lovely patio, instead of 30, now that the province has hit Stage 3 and reduced COVID-19 limits.

“We are thankful to be getting back to our normal capacity,” he says. “We are lucky in that we have had great support from the community. They have been great to us.”

The internationally-trained chef has owned the Cellar Door for seven years. The eatery has been receiving good reviews and hundreds of likes on social media. Area residents love the taste of the wood baked pizzas and pastas.

Pizza doesn’t monopolize Rubino’s wood-burning oven; he uses it to obtain smokey, meaty flavours in his produce as well. Instead of regular gnocchi, he serves wood roasted potato gnocchi with mushrooms cooked three ways, peas and truffle pecorino.

Rubino, who is from Etobicoke, studied cooking with master chefs in Italy, France, the U.S. and Canada. He developed his skills from the various countries and believes in hiring his staff from the community and outsourcing local food items.

One of his growers, he points out, cultivate food items in a small space in the Lake Shore Blvd. W., and Kipling Ave. area.

After graduating from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York before heading to Italy where he learned to make fresh pasta at the Il San Domenico restaurant. He also has experience cooking in Buenos Aires and in France under Michelin-starred chefs Edouard Loubet and Joel Robuchon.

His staff of about six have been cleaning and shining the patio and inside the Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Ninth Street restaurant to get ready for their customers.

“People love our wood baked pizzas and pastas,” Rubino says. “They can taste the smoky wood flavour since it burns at a higher temperature and raises the crust.”

Orders can be placed by visiting their website at www.cellardoorrestaurant.ca. They can also be reached at 416-253-0303.

Nearby barber shops, salons and spas are also getting ready and pumped to open after a long closure to battle the virus.

Andrew Dinner, of Your Neighbourhood Barber shop, says he has been closed for months and is booked solid for haircuts from his returning regular customers.

Residents are again returning to bars to catch live bands and shows as days before the virus.

Darlene Simpson, a co-owner  of Dakotas Sports Bar & Grill, at 2814 Lake Shore Blvd. W., said they kicked off their live bands with The Grady Brothers on Friday at 7 p.m. to celebrate Stage 3 opening.

“It will be a great show,” Simpson says. “It has been a while and people cannot wait to see live entertainment again.”