Owner/Mixologist Vito Fornarelli and the Italian Lemon Icetini.

The Pearl Sports Bar
623 Main Street
Manchester, CT

The Pearl Sports Bar, which was opened in late 2024 by restaurateur Vito Fornarelli, offers guests an elevated sports bar experience. Patrons can choose from upscale American, Italian and Mexican pub fare, which is enhanced by dozens of state-of-the-art flat screens for a multiscreen, immersive viewing experience for fans of all types. Designed by Rick Donohue, the venue’s 50-foot-long L-shaped specially designed bar with a brick backsplash creates the ambience of a mid-century English pub. Handcrafted cocktails “are the rule, not the exception” at The Pearl. On the lower level of the restaurant, there is a speakeasy for VIP customers, offering only top-shelf spirits brands and a more intimate sipping experience. Fornarelli, who also owns Fornarelli’s Ristorante & Bar in Colchester, takes seasonal cues from ingredients in crafting the bar menu.

Owner/Mixologist: Vito Fornarelli

Cocktail: Italian Lemon Icetini

Ingredients:
» 2.5 oz. Triple Eight Nantucket Vanilla Flavored Vodka
» 1 oz. lemon juice
» .5 oz. orange juice
» .25 oz. Fabbri Orzata
» .5 oz. limoncello

Method: Add ingredients and stir in a martini glass.

The Pearl Sports Bar’s signature summertime cocktail is called the Italian Lemon Icetini. Using Triple Eight Nantucket Vanilla Flavored Vodka gives it extra New England flair. The Pearl’s Owner and Mixologist Vito Fornarelli said his signature cocktail was inspired by his father taking him to Hartford’s Little Italy as a boy to enjoy Italian ice on Franklin Avenue.