SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Pete's New Haven Style Apizza opens second location in Tenleytown-Friendship Heights

Tenleytown Store: 202-237-PETE (7383)
Columbia Heights Store: 202-332-PETE (7383)

Media Contact: Michael Wilkinson
michael@petesapizza.com
(202) 374-6591
Vendors, suppliers and persons seeking employment, please contact the store directly.
Media Contact is not authorized to respond to purchasing and employment inquiries.

UPDATE: Store is open as of 16 June 2010!

Washington DC, 20 January 2010: Pete's New Haven Style Apizza announces today that it has signed a lease to occupy a 3,400 square foot store at 4940 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Fessenden Street, in the Tenleytown-Friendship Heights neighborhood of Washington DC.

The store will seat 84 customers at mostly 2- and 4-person tables, and will feature a separate area for handling take-out and delivery orders. There will be additional outdoor seating for 45 on a large corner terrace from spring to late fall, and the new restaurant, like the first location, will offer wine and beer in addition to all-natural soft drinks from Boylan Bottling Co. and fruit juices and bottled water.

"We looked long and hard for a great location to open our second store," co-owner Joel Mehr stated. "We're thrilled about this 'Ten-Frien' location because it's positioned at the intersection of so many great neighborhoods: AU Park, Forest Hills, Chevy Chase, Reno, not to mention Cleveland Park and Georgetown.

"We've been drawing people from these areas to our current location across the park since we opened, and we're glad to be able to finally say to these customers that we're coming to their neighborhood."

The store is located about halfway between the Tenleytown and Friendship Heights stops on Metro's Red Line. While the lease was just formally signed today, plans are fully developed and ready to be submitted for permit. Construction is expected to be completed and doors opened to the public by early summer 2010.

About Pete's New Haven Style Apizza

Pete's specializes in a style of thin-crust pizza that originated in New Haven, Connecticut, called "APIZZA," (pronounced ah-BEETS). The crust is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and features a very pleasing blend of tan and black. Pies are a full 18" in diameter, and are sold whole or by the slice.

The restaurant also offers a full menu of fresh pasta dishes, salads, soups, Panini and desserts, all made to order in-house. Ingredients are all natural, preservative-free and locally sourced whenever possible.

In less than two years, Pete's has been named one of Washingtonian Magazine's 100 Very Best Restaurants and one of the Top 50 Restaurants in Washington DC by the Washington City Paper; is a reliable entry on Washingtonian's Cheap Eats (2009), Dirt Cheap Eats (2008) and Dining on a Shoestring (2009) lists; and made the semi-finals in that magazine's first-ever "Pizza Pool" (2009). In an unexpected turn of events in October 2009, President Barack Obama cited Pete's in nationally televised remarks about Small Business Administration initiatives, actually endorsing the restaurant in the process. Most recently, in early January Pete's was included on Washingtonian's "100 Very Best Restaurants" list for the second year in a row.

CIA Training Helps in Washington DC

"People expecting a normal 'fast casual' pizza parlor are surprised to discover their no-fuss, family-friendly neighborhood place actually has a fine-dining pedigree," director of development and New Haven native Michael Wilkinson stated. Co-owner Thomas Marr was educated at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA), and practiced fine dining at high-end restaurants in Chicago (Spiaggia), Orlando (Flying Fish CafÈ) and London (Kenton House Hotel) before joining the Pete's team.

"Tom's training and experience comes through in every dish, and in the guidance he provides to the pizza makers and kitchen staff," Wilkinson continued. "Very few customers realize how much thought goes into each ingredient, and each recipe, for every item on the menu, which is part of what makes Pete's so special."

New Haven Roots

Co-owner and New Haven native Alicia Wilkinson-Mehr stated, "We grew up on New Haven style pizza not even knowing what it was. Only when we got to Washington in the mid-1990s did we realize how different, and how special, our hometown pizza was.

"The style, while rooted in a wave of immigrants coming from Naples to New Haven in the 1920s, actually lends itself quite well to prevailing trends in fine dining today: using natural, local ingredients to prepare each item by hand, as it's ordered by the customer, and delivering it to the table in a relaxed, unpretentious setting where individuals and families of all kinds are welcome."

The restaurant is named after Wilkinson-Mehr's father, "Big Pete," who still lives in New Haven, and her son, "Little Pete," who lives in Petworth and attends E.L. Haynes Public Charter School.

What is New Haven style pizza?
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