Updated – 12:05 p.m. – Pi Pizzeria, which specializes in deep dish ?cornmeal and thin-crust pizzas, is coming to Bethesda.
Chris Sommers, Pi's founder, said Wednesday the restaurant is hoping to open April 1.
The restaurant chainlet announced Saturday on the Facebook page for its Washington, D.C., location that it’s looking for managers and other employees to staff its new Bethesda location.
The restaurant will open at 7137 Wisconsin Ave., the former location of the Neapolitan pizzeria Pitzze Table.?
Pitzze was closed by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in March after the owner reportedly failed to pay rent. The restaurant space is already home to a large coal-fired oven for baking pizza.
Sommers said he liked the location because it had already been built out for a pizzeria. However, he said they don't plan to use the coal-fired oven, although it will remain in place.
"We're not doing much to the space because we don't need to," Sommers said. He said in addition to the restaurant's staples it will also offer 15 beers on tap and a large craft beer list.
Pi's restaurants offer a variety of pizzas, craft beer, appetizers including wings and garlic bread, salads and desserts such as “apple pi.”
Sommers said the Penn Quarter location in D.C. does the most volume of any of their locations.
"D.C. has been really good to us, that's why we're doubling down here," Sommers said.
Pi Pizzeria was founded in St. Louis on March 14, 2008 and takes its name from pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter that is commonly approximated as 3.14, and St. Louis’ area code, which is 314. The pizzeria has seven locations; five are in St. Louis. The pizzeria’s deep dish pies are reportedly President Barack Obama’s favorite type of pizza.
Deep dish Pi Pizzas with cornmeal crust. Via Pi Pizza on Facebook.
