October 17, 2023 – Pizza “with everything,” please.
Pizza with live music on stage, pizza with a full-blooded tiki bar, and pizza optional with special events in a venue customized for private parties.
Heirloom Pizza Co. Salinas version debuts to friends and family Thursday, Oct. 19, with a public opening following Saturday, Oct. 21.
The second location for the downtown Monterey outpost will do outstanding pizza—HPC remains the strongest deep dish practitioner in the area—while adding supporting cast.
It will also unleash its complement of salads and sides like the twice-roasted “bomb beets” and spicy baked wings. HPC2 will also do “lunch munchies” like soups, pizza-salad-wine/beer specials ($20) and limited baked sandwiches including a pesto chicken, meatball park and Italian with pepperoni, salami, olive tapenade, onion, pepperoncini and asiago.
Reminder: The possibilities provided by two stories and 10,000 square feet in the former Beverly’s Fabrics at 344 Main St. in Oldtown go beyond grub.
Edible detailed plans for the ambitious endeavor—and how it channels the passions of co-creators Michael Foley and Kristen Wood, and Oldtown Salinas opportunism—with a 2023 Valentine’s Day love note titled “Heirloom Pizza to Debut Concert Space and Tiki Bar to Complement Signature Pies.”
The multifaceted property will open in phases.
The full bar comes with the downstairs restaurant this week. Assistant GM/beverage director Alex Mouzouris, former maître d’ at Maligne in Seaside, is playing architect on the craft cocktails, with clever takes on classics—think chamomile Collins, incognito mojito and Main St. mule.
Donna Boyster, who spent nearly eight years arranging entertainment at 201 Main down the block, will coordinate stage acts. The first show scheduled for general admission happens Oct. 27 with classic rock-leaning, dance-friendly Retrospect.
Next comes the banquet room, which is already getting booked for private parties.
The timeline for Sneaky Tiki stretches into early next year, with a faint hope for a New Year’s party.
In the meantime, the pizza—thin and thick, specialty and build-your-own, by the slice and or a la personal pan—will hold people over.
Boyster, a longtime Oldtowner, sounds as excited as anyone for the debut, partly because she worked on and off at the same property for a dozen years when it was Beverly’s.
“It’s a great space with a lot to it,” she says. “And now it’s part of a new era for Oldtown.”
More at heirloompizzapie.com.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
