Chicago-style pizza and craft beer restaurant to construct a large Columbus location
A restaurant company that serves Chicago-style pizza that can be washed down with a large variety of craft beers is jumping into the Columbus market, with construction on the building starting in a couple of weeks. It will be the first location in Georgia, and there are none in Alabama as well.
Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, using a local franchise group, is bringing a full-service restaurant to Whittlesey Boulevard at Columbus Park Crossing, across from the property where Academy Sports and Outdoors is now building its new store.
“We’ve been here in the Columbus area and have opened a few businesses. This is something we thought was missing in the Columbus market,” said Dhruv Patel, who will be opening Old Chicago Pizza with his brother Ronak Patel and another associate, Suresh Kumar, under the incorporated name, Shiv Restaurant Management.
“Old Chicago, they’re definitely big on the food with its pizza selection,” Dhruv Patel said Monday. “They have a well diverse menu. They have a good selection on appetizers, wings, burgers and sandwiches, and from calzones to pastas. And the other thing was the craft beer.”
The Old Chicago Pizza menu includes a variety of pizzas with names that include Chicago 7, Double Deckeroni, Hawaiian, Meat Me, The Classic, Veggie 7, Classic Margherita, Italian Grinder, Steak and Beer Cheese, Thai Pie and Tuscan Chicken with Spinach.
The restaurant chain, which has more than 100 restaurants in nearly two dozen states under its brand, offers more than 110 craft beers, with it also known for its “World Beer Tour” that rewards customers who sample the array of brew. More than 30 of the craft beers are on tap.
Pete Hart, a broker with Jordan Commercial Real Estate in Columbus, also confirmed Monday that Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom is headed for the parcel of land that already includes a Dairy Queen outlet, with a Fazoli’s Italian fast-casual eatery also being built on the 6589 Whittlesey Blvd. site. Fazoli’s hopes to open by late May. Old Chicago will be adjacent to El Carrizo Mexican restaurant, which has been open several years.
Dhruv Patel said the new Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom restaurant should be under construction in a couple of weeks, with site work beginning and it taking five to six months to complete the nearly 6,500-square-foot structure that will seat just under 300 diners. It will employ between 100 and 150 people.
“You’ll have a sit-down dining area and there will be a patio area that’s going to be covered up completely. But it will also have a roll-up door that can be opened when there’s nice weather,” said Patel, who owns and operates Players, a restaurant and billiards business on 54th Street in Columbus.
More: Academy Sports and Outdoors now taking job applications for new Columbus store
The Columbus business partners have a franchise agreement to open five Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom locations in Georgia and Alabama. Aside from Columbus, they are targeting areas in the Atlanta metro area, including Newnan-Peachtree City, McDonough and Douglasville. In Alabama, it plans a location in the Auburn-Opelika market.
Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom dates to its founding in 1976, but it is now owned and operated with a mix of company and franchise locations in 22 states by CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries Inc., which has corporate offices in Broomfield, Colo., and Chattanooga, Tenn. CraftWorks also owns two other brands, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants and Rock Bottom Restaurants & Breweries.
This story was originally published March 19, 2018 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Chicago-style pizza and craft beer restaurant to construct a large Columbus location."