Pizza anticipation may be at an all-time high in Houston.
Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana owner Bill Hutchinson has revealed that he will be opening a second location in a yet-to-be constructed strip center in the former Bobbitt Glass building at West Gray and Montrose. When it opens next summer, Pizaro's will be the anchor tenant with a 2,500 square-foot restaurant and a 300 square-foot patio.
Beyond saving Inner Loopers a drive outside the Beltway to the original Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana on Memorial Drive, the new location will offer two other benefits. First, Hutchinson tells CultureMap that the space will have two Italian-imported, brick wood-burning pizza ovens instead of the singular oven at the original location.
While the interior may be fancier than the bare-bones original, the straightforward menu of well-executed pizzas and salads won't change.
Second, as with the original, the new location will forego a liquor license and maintain a no corkage fee BYOB policy, because, he explains "Our customers love bringing their favorites to our restaurant, and we love tasting them."
Hutchinson chose the new location after a nine month long search, because it met all five of his criteria for a location inside the Loop.
"We looked at 15 to 20 other sites in Montrose and the surrounding area," he says. "This location has great visibility, the right square footage and the look we were going for."
While the current building doesn't look much like a restaurant, Hutchinson says that the rendering shows it will be "a really nice place."
That extends to the interior where Hutchinson acknowledges Pizaro's needs to "Enhance our decor with a little more atmosphere . . . We want an old-school look with concrete floors and granite countertops."
While the interior may be fancier than the bare-bones original, the straightforward menu of well-executed pizzas and salads won't change at all.
The next step is to begin working with an architect on the restaurant's interior. Hutchinson estimates that will be complete in the next couple months and that construction will start by the beginning of 2014.
Pizaro's joins an already crowded Montrose pizza scene. In addition to the rejuvenated Dolce Vita, The Pass & Provisions and Pizza L'Vino have both given neighborhood residents better tasting pizza options in the last 12 months. Still, Pizaro's success with what Hutchinson calls a "proof of concept" location in an anonymous Westside strip center demonstrates that it's ready to compete with anyone.
For neighborhood pizza lovers, July 2014 can't get here quickly enough.
Pizaro's will anchor a new strip center at the corner of West Gray and Montrose.
A to-go window will expedite orders for people in the Stomping Grounds' green space.Courtesy of Stomping Grounds