New Location of Joe Pizza Nears Completion on University Boulevard

Joe Pizza interior under construction at 6045 University Blvd.

Well before Joe Pizza even broke ground at Carrall and West Cordova in Gastown two years ago (to open a year later), the owners signed a deal to launch a second location out at UBC, specifically in the new building that was going in at Wesbrook and University Boulevard.

Back then it was just a grass field, but if you fast forward to today it’s all come together rather nicely. The ground floor of the new building is loaded with three other food and beverage operations in various stages of completion; its garage door-style frontages already home to Nori (open), Jamjar (imminent) and JJ Bean (imminent).

Joe Pizza exterior. Note the garage door-style frontage.

The landlord had originally sought out Joe Pizza’s sister restaurant – Pizzeria Farina – but because of volume considerations the parent company (Kitchen Table Restaurants) was able to sell them on the new concept instead.

If you’re unfamiliar with Joe and what it does, these images – provided by the company – should give you an idea…

The new spot is still a couple of weeks away, but when I looked in yesterday afternoon it appeared as it was in its final stages of construction. The 1,200 sqft space will only have 10 seats, so I expect they’ll be anticipating a lot of takeout business (I saw neighbouring Nori enjoying a line-up some 20 people deep during the lunch rush, so count on it they should).

They’ll serve about six pizzas at a time, all done in the same “al taglio” style as the original location in Gastown (more on that here). Hours will be 11am to 8 to start, and that’s 7 days a week. It’ll also be similarly licensed.

As a post-script, have you noticed the ongoing renovations at the original Joe Pizza? Half of its considerable square footage is being set aside for a new restaurant, the exciting details of which we’ll fill you in on shortly.

In the meantime, take a look inside the new Joe below…