OPENINGS: Bellacino’s up and running
Bellacino’s worker Donnell Washington gets the Capitol Street restaurant ready for its grand opening. Gazette photo by M.K. McFarland
If you frequent Capitol Street in downtown Charleston, you have seen renovations underway at the old Mykonos restaurant location at 218 Capitol Street for a long while now Well, they’re finally done. The Bellacino’s sandwich and pizza chain opens there today in the spot, right next door to Tex-Mex restaurant Cazon Southwest Deli. Joe Morris reports on the opening in today’s Charleston Gazette:
“We feel like there’s room for everybody,” says co-owner Jason Morgan. “There are a lot of people downtown from 8 to 5 and not enough places to eat; at lunch, they’re pretty much packed.”
Bellacino’s sells regular-crust and thick-crust Sicilian pizzas baked on the premises in a newly installed stack oven. Prices start at $3.59 for an 8-inch pie, $8.59 for a 12-inch and $10.49 for a 16-inch.
Construction delays forced the owners to postpone installing an ice cream maker, so the restaurant’s ice cream will be shipped in from another Bellacino’s in Barboursville until sometime this spring, Morgan said.
The big draw will be the Bellacino’s “grinders,” or sub sandwiches, Morgan says. He and partner Doug Bright own two other Bellacino’s franchises in West Virginia — the one in Barboursville and in Cross Lanes — through their company, No Limits III Inc. At those restaurants, grinders generate about 70 percent of the business, Morgan said.
January 13th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Thank you for the update
Always great news . . .new place to eat on Capitol Street! Just an observation - but last time I was home the traffic downtown after 7 was more than I expected..considering…. ELLENs Ice Cream closes at 6. Ann Savile was a pioneer when she opened Taylor’s. I’ll continue to visit Taylors on every trip to Charleston - but its nice to have other opions for food.
We love being able to eat in the downtown area - this place has great food and very nice decor. Amazing transformaton.
hjh
January 13th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
pizza sucks! took forever to get our food and it was nothing more than franchised crap. thank god we have new places downtown that offer some kind of flavor. If your looking for over cooked pizzas and shredded iceburg lettuce you will love this joint!
January 13th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I hope they don’t plan on stealing Ellan’s biz. Ellan’s is the deal!!!
January 13th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Cilantro’s offers much better quality than this joint! Hope Delish opens soon.
January 16th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I’m sad that drop ceilings have replaced the beautiful tall ceiling that Mykonos had. I’m also big on buying local, and sadly it is a Michigan-based chain. I think that having more restaurants on Capitol Street is GREAT– but I’m not one to yield to corporate food so much. Graziano’s, Ellen’s, Taylor Books, Sam’s and Cilantros’ will be the places I go for lunch… If I wanted cookie cutter crap food, I’d take my business to the mall!