A popular Downtown Pittsburgh restaurant that closed during the pandemic is reopening.

Pizzaiolo Primo, an Italian eatery in Market Square, will reopen with takeout food available by mid-April. In-house dining is scheduled to begin May 1.

The restaurant, which closed last December, has been purchased by the Ron Sofranko Group. However, Pizzaiolo Primo’s original executive chef Richard Sphatt will return and previous general manager Michael Zimmerman and several staff members will be retained.

“We’re thrilled to bring Pizzaiolo Primo back to Downtown Pittsburgh and provide the great Italian food and wines the restaurant patrons love so much,” said Ron Sofranko, who was a partner in the restaurant when it opened as Il Pizzaiolo Market Square in 2013.

“Bringing back the general manager, the original executive chef and members of the staff was important to us and we’re thrilled we were able to do that. We’re very confident Pittsburgh’s restaurant scene will rebound from the pandemic soon and purchasing Pizzaiolo Primo was a way for us to put our money where our mouth is,” said Sofranko, who also leads the Sofranko Advisory Group, which serves the hospitality industry in the region.

Pizzaiolo Primo features Neapolitan cuisine including pizza, pasta and Italian wines with seating for over 90 people over two floors. Pizza is prepared in a wood-burning oven assembled by Italian artisans that cooks at nearly 1,000 degrees, according to the restaurant’s owners.

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