Carla (Maffe) Boudreau ’92 (CLAS) likes to tell everyone that when she met her future husband, Todd Boudreau ’93 (CLAS), he swept her off her feet. They both lived in Alumni Quad at the time. “He was running late for rugby practice and knocked me down,” she says.

Todd and Carla are co-owners with her brother Jay Maffe ’94 (BUS) of Square Peg Pizzeria in Downtown Storrs. Jay and Carla, who grew up in Hartford, say they’ve loved UConn forever but as students 30 years ago would never have imagined what it’s become today.

Jay opened his first Square Peg Pizzeria in Glastonbury four years ago and now has two more stand-alone restaurants in Storrs and Vernon, with another opening soon in Columbia. Five more shops operate inside existing establishments, with another set to open soon at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Plainville. Chefs at a commissary in East Hartford prepare the homemade dough (never frozen, says Carla) and sauce for all the sites.

The Storrs location is unique, Carla says, for the constant foot traffic and how fun it is “being back home.” She and Todd are reconnecting with friends old and new — hosting a rugby reunion and all manner of postgame gatherings, and filling team buses with phoned-in orders.

“We feel very much a part of UConn,” says Carla, “which is what all three of us were hoping for — not just to have a restaurant here but to really be back here as part of the community. I love saying I went to UConn.”