They say it's a place where everybody knows your name. The city of Norwalk honored Norwalk Pizza & Pasta for being a staple of the community for three decades.

Mayor Barbara Smyth issued the business a proclamation during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday night.

"This is a Norwalk institution," Mayor Smyth says.

Kristen and Luis Solis run the restaurant together. Their love story began thanks in part to pizza.

Back in the early 1990s, Kristen Solis says she would bring the kids she nannied for to Rowayton Pizza when her now-husband Luis was working behind the counter there.

"We started dating a couple of years after that," Kristen Solis says, "and we've been married now for 26 years."

The business was originally on East Avenue in East Norwalk, but moved around the corner to Winfield Street about three years ago.

Norwalk Pizza & Pasta now has a bar and a dining room to accommodate more customers.

"I remember going to them down the street when it was a little takeout place," longtime customer Jennifer Giannino says. "Now I hang out here every Friday night... and sometimes more."

Customers rave about the well-known pizza club sandwich.

"We take breaded chicken, bacon and cheese, and bake it," Luis Solis says. "When it comes out nice and golden brown, we take it out of the oven, cut it in half, and then do mayo, lettuce, tomato, and red onion... and then we close it up like a sandwich."

Kristen Solis says the restaurant is ready for its next 30 years of keeping the East Norwalk community fed.

"Bring it on!" Solis says with a chuckle.