A company that started as a maker of gourmet pizza pies with flavored pizza dough is considering opening a restaurant on Haven Street, its first in the Commonwealth.
Portland Pie Co., which opened in Portland, Maine, in 1997, has expanded its menu with appetizers, salads and sandwiches and full liquor service in five locations, according to its website: in Maine, in Portland, Scarborough and Westbrook and in New Hampshire, in Manchester and Nashua.
“We’re excited about the prospect of potentially building a restaurant in Reading,” Joe O’Neil, who co-founded the company with Dan Thomson, told Patch.
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“We’re in the information-gathering phase,” he said, and went on to say that becoming part of the Reading community is a hope of his and Thomson's.
The restaurateurs and Oaktree Development, the owner of 30 Haven Street, the prospective restaurant site, are working out details to lease space in the new 30 Haven Street building, according to the Gwen Noyes, Oaktree partner and senior vice president in charge of marketing.
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Pie company representatives met with the town’s Development Review Team in September, according to town Staff Planner Jessie Wilson.
They have not yet submitted an application to the Community Planning and Development Commission for site review approval, Wilson said Tuesday.
They expect to open the restaurant in February, according to the town.
The Reading restaurant would have a capacity of about 190 diners, inside and outside 30 Haven Street, with a family dining area and pub area next to a full-service bar.
Portland Pie Co. offers a choice of blonde, wheat, basil, beer, garlic and gluten-free basil and honey dough, according to its website.
Customers can also build their own pizza, from a selection of sauces, meats, veggies and cheeses.
Portland Pie Co. opened as a take-out and delivery business specializing in premium gourmet pizza with flavored pizza dough. The concept caught on; so, according to their website, did the demand for a more diverse menu. Five years later, the company debuted a sit-down, dine-in restaurant and, later, full liquor service.
Portland Pie also developed a wholesale manufacturing company, It’ll Be Pizza, that produces the company’s signature flavored pizza dough balls. They’re sold at Hannaford Brothers, Shaw’s and Big Y Supermarkets.
