[Moncton] Retail Thread

[Mattyyy]

A new restaurant downtown. Excerpt From the T & T.

New pizza restaurant coming to Moncton

GINABETH ROBERTS Times & Transcript
January 16, 2014

A restaurant serving up authentic Neapolitan pizza will soon be firing up its oven in Moncton.

“We think Moncton’s a great city,” Brian Vallis, owner and founder of Piatto Pizzeria & Enotecta, said as to why, after successful openings in St. John’s and Halifax, he decided to enter the city’s downtown dining scene. Vallis partnered with his two daughters on these first two locations, but it will be his 28-year-old son at the helm of the Moncton location, as well as another local partner.

Construction on the Main Street location, which Vallis said is across from the Delta Beausejour hotel, but couldn’t give an exact civic address at this time, will get underway the third week of February, setting up for a June 1 opening.

The design plan for the two-level “cool and hip” restaurant with an open mezzanine is complete, Vallis said, and the “most gorgeous oven (he’s) ever seen” has been ordered from Naples, Italy.

This oven is crucial to the restaurant’s success.

Piatto is the first pizzeria in Halifax, the Maritimes and Newfoundland to receive a VPN-certification (Verace Pizza Napoletana) from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana in Naples, Italy.

To receive this honour, ingredients, production methods, appearance and characteristic details must be so on point the pizza could have been made in the capital of the Campania region in Italy.

This means the tomatoes that make up the sauce on some of Piatto’s pizzas are of the San Marzano variety, grown in the volcanic soils near Mount Vesuvius, which Vallis said makes them richer, sweeter and more acidic.

The dough, prepared by hand and rolled on granite countertop, is made with only four ingredients: fresh yeast, Tipo 00 flour, sea salt and water, Vallis said. It’s also got less gluten than most pizza doughs, he added.

Pizzas take no longer than 90 seconds to cook in the wood-fired oven, which is kept at 900 C.

[MonctonRad]

Excellent!

I presume this must be the Italian restaurant that is supposed to be opening up between Starbucks and The Old Triangle......

[Marty_Mcfly]

Piatto is an amazing restaurant! Get out and try it out. It's a little expensive, but paying a few extra dollars for a top-quality pizza is definitely worth the expense

[BlackYear]

Looks good from here. www.piattopizzeria.com

I hope he has a backup plan for his tomatoes. Apparently Mount Vesuvius is a ticking time bomb.

So now we're looking a three brand new Italian kitchens all within a few blocks.

- Piatto (Main)
- Zio's (Church&MtRoad)
- Angelina's Italian Grill (Westmorland)

Going to be a yummy 2014 summer!

[MonctonRad]

Indeed! The food scene in downtown Moncton has improved (and diversified) tremendously in the last couple of years, and all within a few blocks radius too…….

I just browsed their menu in the link you provided Budyser. This place certainly won't be the typical Italian pizzeria that we have here in Moncton. This will be gourmet pizza served in an upscale atmosphere.

• Video Link

The city block where this will be located will now be fully occupied, and this will be entirely by stable upscale businesses too! Let's all hope that this will serve as the linchpin for the downtown core and that more high quality establishments continue to open on Main Street, particularly to the west.

Businesses on this block facing Main Street:
- Starbucks Coffee
- Piatto Pizzeria & Enoteca
- The Old Triangle Restaurant & Pub
- Colpitt's Men's Wear
- Timothy's World Coffee
- National Bank of Canada

Oh, and BTW, Angelina's Italian Grill should be open by March 1st. I was at the Brooklyn Deli last week and I asked our server about this and this is what she said. I believe they were awaiting delivery of a wood fired oven and this has been the hold-up. Yet another place for gourmet pizza in the downtown!

[JasonL-Moncton]

Boy we sure love our pizza in this town don't we?

I wonder if some of this influx to downtown is in anticipation of the events centre?

[David_99]

Originally Posted by JasonL-Moncton

Boy we sure love our pizza in this town don't we?

At this rate, we'll be the Pizza & Coffee (and surfing?) Capital of Canada!

Seriously though, I wonder how many Pizza Places we'll be able to sustain. Will there come a time when Imvescor needs to diversify and convert one of our 5 PDs into a Scores? That'd be nice. (Won't hold my breath, though)

[Monctoncore]

Summerside Pizza D is now serving scores food, its no different than Swiss chalet or St. Huberts. The city does have a lot of pizza places, but its time with have some Authentic pizza, I mean don't get me wrong I love the greasy places, but we need a bit of change from the typical takeout places.

[OUIR@random]

I don't know why people are talking about Scores like it's this big thing. It's an expanded Pizza Delight menu, PD with ribs and chicken, BIG deal. It's not even worth talking about, why I am talking about this?!

note: that authentic pizza place looks great!

[Monctoncore]

Originally Posted by OUIR@random

I don't know why people are talking about Scores like it's this big thing. It's an expanded Pizza Delight menu, PD with ribs and chicken, BIG deal. It's not even worth talking about, why I am talking about this?!

note: that authentic pizza place looks great!

I couldn't agree more! its nothing special.

[bigrivernb]

Be sure to keep any eye out... word on the street is....Grand reopening of the Plaza walmart is next week, and Champlain mall is in 2 weeks time. Plaza is a duel entry full service supercentre with a full service deli. Champlain will offer allot of the same with out the full service deli however looks like they will have hot meals to go, there kitchens are apparently in the back where the old tire lube was. looks like the food wars are about to begin.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by Monctoncore

Summerside Pizza D is now serving scores food, its no different than Swiss chalet or St. Huberts. The city does have a lot of pizza places, but its time with have some Authentic pizza, I mean don't get me wrong I love the greasy places, but we need a bit of change from the typical takeout places.

Summerside has a crazy amount of Pizza places! There is one for every 2000 people.

Musical chairs in Champlain continues. Eclipse is moving up across from the Walmart entrance next to Quilts Etc. I wonder what could be moving where Eclipse is. Sirens is roughly the same square footage. Who what was all the other stores moving around?

[micks5477]

I certainly hope Piatto's will know how to make a good deep dish Chicago style pizza. No one else in town seems to know how to do it.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by micks5477

I certainly hope Piatto's will know how to make a good deep dish Chicago style pizza. No one else in town seems to know how to do it.

Sorry micks, Piatto will be an authentic Neapolitan style pizzeria, using only authorized ingredients so that it can achieve industry certification.

http://www.piattopizzeria.com/menu

In other words; no deep dish pizza for you!!

Maybe we can convince Pizzeria Uno to open a franchise in Moncton (just kidding, they haven't franchised in Canada yet).

[OUIR@random]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Sorry micks, Piatto will be an authentic Neapolitan style pizzeria, using only authorized ingredients so that it can achieve industry certification.

http://www.piattopizzeria.com/menu

In other words; no deep dish pizza for you!!

Maybe we can convince Pizzeria Uno to open a franchise in Moncton (just kidding, they haven't franchised in Canada yet).

The only place with real good Chicago Deep Dish is in Chicago; Giordano's or Gino's East. I've never seen the real thing in Canada. Deep dish in Chicago is sweet!
UNO Pizzeria is ok, but it's not the real stuff... I don't even eat the deep dish when I'm there (UNO).

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Musical chairs in Champlain continues. Eclipse is moving up across from the Walmart entrance next to Quilts Etc. I wonder what could be moving where Eclipse is. Sirens is roughly the same square footage. Who what was all the other stores moving around?

- Actually, Eclipse is just renovating. The space they are (currently) occupying next to WalMart is just a temporary location.
- Also, Suzy Shier has already opened in their new location (old Sirens store). That was quick!!

Also, renovations appear to be well underway in the old Suzy location, where Children's Place is moving too. The existing Children's Place store is beginning to empty out their inventory, and the other "temporary" stores adjacent to the Children's Place all have "final sale" notices in their windows. Things are beginning to move quite rapidly here. If I was to guess, I would think the construction drywall will be up by March 1st, and that the new large "signature retailer" will be up and running in this consolidated space by no later than mid October - just in time for Christmas. My money is still on Victoria's Secret/Pink, but we should know for sure within the next couple of months.

This will leave two vacant storefronts in the mall - the old Bluenotes location, and the Costa Blanca location. It will be interesting to see what moves in here…….

[stephan.richard]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

- Actually, Eclipse is just renovating. The space they are (currently) occupying next to WalMart is just a temporary location.
- Also, Suzy Shier has already opened in their new location (old Sirens store). That was quick!!

Also, renovations appear to be well underway in the old Suzy location, where Children's Place is moving too. The existing Children's Place store is beginning to empty out their inventory, and the other "temporary" stores adjacent to the Children's Place all have "final sale" notices in their windows. Things are beginning to move quite rapidly here. If I was to guess, I would think the construction drywall will be up by March 1st, and that the new large "signature retailer" will be up and running in this consolidated space by no later than mid October - just in time for Christmas. My money is still on Victoria's Secret/Pink, but we should know for sure within the next couple of months.

This will leave two vacant storefronts in the mall - the old Bluenotes location, and the Costa Blanca location. It will be interesting to see what moves in here…….

The other two empty storefronts I do not know... I have lost hope to see a variety of mens stores. I was at the Regent Mall in the fall and i saw they had Journey's witch we do not have here. Also I would like to see Hollister as I have said for five years here but that might or will not happen. But only time will tell.

And Marshalls should open sometimes in March and I hope that they will bring the same type of prices that they offer in the US but a good addition to the retail scape to the City.

[gehrhardt]

Originally Posted by micks5477

I certainly hope Piatto's will know how to make a good deep dish Chicago style pizza. No one else in town seems to know how to do it.

Actually, Piatto will be the polar opposite of Chicago deep dish. If it's true to the style, that means thin crust, no grease, fresh ingredients. I've had pizza in Italy and it is a totally different experience.

[L'homard]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Summerside has a crazy amount of Pizza places! There is one for every 2000 people.

That IS crazy.
I once asked a high official with Tim Hortons if it is true that Moncton has more coffee shops per capita, or Tim's outlets per capita, than anywhere else.
He said that is not so, that their research shows that Summerside has the most coffee shops per capita in Canada.
It seems folks in Summerside like their pizza and their coffee!

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Summerside has a crazy amount of Pizza places! There is one for every 2000 people.

Yeah, but those kind of stats don't really scale well... 7 pizza places in a town of 14,000 people is 1:2000 yes, but then you can just go down a bit more and look at a place like Richibucto, NB... 2 pizza places for 1,500 people. Or Shediac with 4 pizza places for 6,000 people.