Papa J's, a restaurant institution that ended a more than 30-year run in Carnegie when its building was lost in a fire in 2018, is set to return in the Strip District.
Owner Michael Troiani has applied for a new liquor license for a corporate entity called Papa J's at the Twin Plaza Building LLC to establish a new version of the restaurant at 54 21st Street.
Perhaps best known as the previous location of Smallman Galley, which closed more than a year ago, the more than 6,000-square-foot restaurant space is in his family's Twin Plaza Building, which also includes Pamela's Diner and Peace, Love and Little Donuts.
"I'm applying what I know how to do to this space," said Troiani, calling his vision for the new restaurant "a really great celebration of food and of the Strip District."
The move represents a major change in plans for what was previously in the works for the location. Troiani had previously leased the restaurant space to Pittsburgh native and Atlanta-based trucking company owner Robert Jackson, who had reconnected with some friends from his youth in town to establish a new restaurant and sports bar called Skybox there.
Jackson could not be reached for comment regarding the new restaurant set to replace his previous project. When reached in mid-November, he acknowledged a dispute with Troiani and settling to end the lease over what was "a personal project that I wanted to bring back home."
"It was a whole waste of time and energy and money," he said, citing major challenges to get approvals for the space from the Allegheny County Health Department.
Troiani acknowledged the dispute.
"I made a real earnest effort with Robert Jackson. I really did. I wanted him to be successful," he said.
Troiani expects to be able to resolve the various issues of the Allegheny County Health Department, build out the new space, including a host of new equipment as part of a renovation to cost about $500,000, and be able to open before summer.
After the deal with Jackson fell through, and other leasing efforts didn't come to fruition, Troiani is opting to bring back a new version of his family's old restaurant.
While the Carnegie Papa J's operated as a standard sit-down restaurant, Troiani is pursuing more of a dual strategy for the new location at 21st Street.
He expects to set up the front along 21st Street for a variety of take-out items and prepared foods, including pizza by the slice and house-made pasta.
Through the entrance along Smallman Street, the new Papa J's will welcome diners for sit-down meals, which, in part due to the influence of the pandemic, with Troiani calling the approach "server-less sit down dining."
The new Papa J's will include a new oven ordered from Italy for the pizza along with an extruded pasta maker. Expect a menu that includes those Italian standbys along with fresh-made gelato and a rotisserie of porchetta slow roasted with fennel and garlic, an approach expected to attract diners on Tuesday evenings and food shoppers on Saturday mornings.
Expecting to bring back available employees from the former restaurant in Carnegie, Troiani knows it won't be the same as what was lost.
"I will always miss Carnegie. I dream about it. I walk through the building in my sleep. But it's gone," he said.
Instead, he's working to bring the Papa J's brand to something new in a location that's now near hundreds of apartments and condos as well as the redeveloped terminal.
"For me, it is the Papa J’s engine applied to this place and this time," he said.