Last semester, students traveling to campus often passed a new restaurant, Bobcat Pizza. After the new year, the restaurant chanaged its name to Falcon Pizza
The updated home page of their website currently reads, “Welcome to Falcon Pizza, formerly known as Bobcat Pizza, home of the legendary gourmet pizza.”
The names and owners of the restaurant have changed many times in recent history but the building has housed various pizza parlors for some time now.
Steve Sahin, owner of the restaurant, hopes to leave a lasting impression on the Hamden community.
“Actually, it was Papa John’s, Roma Pizza, Aladdin, they kept changing the name. So hopefully the Falcon will be the last one,” Sahin said.
When the restaurant was named Bobcat Pizza, they had a logo that could have been mistaken for the Quinnipiac Athletics logo with a bobcat whose paw was reaching out of the “O” in Bobcat. The eatery also sported the same blue and gold color scheme as the university’s athletics department.
Sahin was unable to discuss the name change. Although, after reaching out to the university, Lynn Bushnell, the vice president for public affairs, did not appear to know of the issue.
“We are not aware of any lawsuit at this time and are currently in discussions with Mr. Sahin concerning the use of the name ‘Bobcat Pizza,’” Bushnell said.
When changing the name of the
restaurant, Sahin chose to make it more personal.
“We changed it to become Falcon,” Sahin said. “It’s our last name.”
The Turkish translation of “Sahin” is “falcon,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
Falcon Pizza has ten employees, six of these employees being Quinnipiac students. The small restaurant has a full menu ranging from grinders, pasta dishes, burgers and of course, it’s “Legendary Gourmet Pizza,” according to Sahin.
“People say to us, ‘You just opened a few months ago. How could you have a gourmet pizza?’ But they don’t know the history. We’ve been in the business since 1998,” Sahin said.
Sahin has been making pizza since he w as 14 years old with his father. He currently owns this restaurant and another with his father and has had three more in the past. His father’s restaurant is called “Pizza Heaven,” and is located in Meriden. Sahin also recently sold his restaurant, “Pizza Heaven” in New Haven last year.
In addition to the full eat-in and delivery menus, the restaurant also offers catering, daily lunch specials and specials for events such as the upcoming Super Bowl. Beginning this week, they will also be accepting QCards.
Colton Roberts, a freshman biomedical sciences major, frequently enjoys Falcon Pizza.
“It’s really good. It’s a nice thin crust pizza. Almost New Haven style, I’d say. I love it,” he said. “The cheese is really good, the crust is my favorite part.”
Roberts would recommend Falcon Pizza over other choices in the area.
“Over Domino’s, of course. Domino’s is garbage compared to them, honestly,” Roberts said. “We’ve gotten [Falcon Pizza’s] garlic bread too and that’s really good.”
The location of the restaurant is also popular among Quinnipiac students.
“We get a lot of Quinnipiac students,” Sahin said. “After 10 o’clock until two in the morning, we really get crazy.”
Falcon Pizza is open until 2 a.m. weekdays and 3 a.m. on the weekends.
Sophomore Matt Manzo health science studies major finds Falcon Pizza more useful than other pizzerias in the area as well.
“I like how you could order a giant pizza. It makes it easier if you’re having a superbowl party or if my fraternity is having an event, we could order a lot of pizza at once,” Manzo said. “I think that compared to Tonino’s, it’s a little bit better honestly.”
Sahin wants the community to know that nothing but the name has changed.
“Just don’t forget us,” he said. “We’re still the same, same family members, same personnel that was working with [Bobcat Pizza]. It was just a quick name change. All the food and quality are the same. We do the best service.”
