Slice on Broadway owner Rico Lunardi says getting his new location open in time for the start of the Pirates’ season is like having another kid, who just happens to be arriving in a month.
Slice, the popular South Hills pizzeria with locations in Beechview and Carnegie, will soon open its third location at PNC Park, adjacent to Atria’s on Federal Street. The race is on to be ready for customers in time for the home opener on April 3, or shortly before.
“There are a lot of moving parts, but we’re really excited,” Lunardi says. “We’re hoping all the stars align.”
Lunardi says he had been talking to Pirates officials about opening a PNC Park location for a while, but wasn’t interested in a space inside the park.
“I think to do pizza the way we do pizza, we need space to move around,” he says. “And we wanted to be able to be open year-round, not just for Pirates’ home games.”
Slice regularly makes the best-of Pittsburgh pizzerias lists, including NEXT’s 7 Top Places for Serious Pizza in Pittsburgh. Our reviewer praised Slice’s thin, crispy crust “the perfect vehicle for rich red sauce and a bubbly, browned layer of cheese,” at a very reasonable price. He called Slice “a hole-in-the-wall pizza parlor that can hold its own against the larger, ritzier competition.”
Lunardi says for the PNC location he’s planning some game day specials but will stick with Slice’s current menu for the most part. And Slice will be hiring for the new location, Lunardi adds, but he’s not yet sure exactly how many people he’ll need to add.
Slice joins other local joints in PNC Park like BRGR and Atria’s.