Popular Pensacola Beach pizza shop is bringing paninis, subs and salads to new location

Pensacola Beach’s New York style pizza shop Piazza Pizza has big relocation plans cooking.

The restaurant, formerly located inside the beach's Hampton Inn at 2 Via De Luna Drive, has temporarily closed and started making the move to a much larger location down the road at 5 Via De Luna Drive, Suite G, slated to open in late-May.

The renovated restaurant will include indoor and outdoor seating dine-in seating, a deli serving made-to-order paninis, subs and salads and a small marketplace that developers are coining as a “beach bodega.”

Heather Hice, the director of food and beverage marketing for Innisfree Hotels, which owns Piazza Pizza and Beach Bodega, imagines that the restaurant's design will combine the coastal atmosphere of Pensacola Beach with traditional elements of Italian cooking.

“We were previously known for the delicious food, now we’re a multi-faceted dining destination,” Hice said. “The idea was to take our Italian pizza concept and further expand the concept.”

Many of the most-loved 14-inch New York style pizzas will be making a return to the menu, in addition to a few popular "pizza of the month" specials that have found a permanent place on the new menu. There will also still be a build-your-own-pizza option that allows customers to customize their perfect pie, like opting for a gluten-friendly crust instead of the traditional.

The simple ingredients speak for themselves in staples like the margherita pizza, made with whole milk mozzarella, fresh torn basil leaves and balsamic drizzle. However, Piazza is known to also introduce playful flavors, like the Spicy Hawaiian which takes a twist on the traditional pineapple pizza by adding crumbled bacon, jalapeno peppers and cream cheese.

While Piazza got its start at the Hampton Inn in 2022 as a to-go only format due to limited space, the expanded location will offer both shaded outdoor seating and indoor tables where the cherry red Italian brick pizza oven serves as the dining room’s centerpiece.

Customers can watch as their pizza is made to order, or shop around the bodega for specialty grocery items such as olive oil, pasta sauces, beer, bottles of wine and gourmet cheeses. They can either pack for a picnic at the beach or stock their pantry, catering to both tourists and locals alike. While there will be some core items stocking the shelves, the bodega’s offerings will be changing regularly, Hice said.

For those looking for a quick lunch on the way to the beach, the deli part of the restaurant will specialize in quicker, high-quality items like made-to-order Italian subs, caprese paninis, signature salads and deconstructed cannoli cups.

While the menu will be simple and approachable, the staff doesn't take any shortcuts. This will be noticeable in the pizzas' homemade sauce and dough, the paninis' homemade focaccia bread and the from-scratch spreads, like the onion balsamic jam.

Hice said she thinks that the restaurant will fill a void on Pensacola Beach for a quick-service style restaurant only steps away from the Santa Rosa Sound.

“It could add a lot of value to the Pensacola Beach community,” Hice said.

Once open, the restaurant will cater to dine-in, carry-out and delivery orders to Pensacola Beach.

More updates and information can be found on Piazza Pizza and Beach Bodega social media pages.

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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Piazza Pizza relocating on Pensacola Beach this May