Olde Towne East may have lost its long-standing pizza joint last summer, but a new pie is coming in to fill the void.
Mikey’s Late Night Slice is taking over the former home of Yellow Brick Pizza, 892 Oak St.
It’s the second new location for LNS in the last year, joining a licensed spot that opened inside the Hollywood Casino in the spring. Continuing to expand in what has been a nearly two-year long epic voyage for the restaurant and bar industry, LNS Founder Mikey Sorboro says one mantra got them through, “How do we grow out of this?”
The licensing deal with the casino was one way. Sorboro says it wasn’t something they had considered before, but he realized, “We can still grow, expand, albeit not traditionally.”
The brand also got creative when it came to leveraging existing space and staff, hopping on the growing trend of operating ghost kitchens and virtual brands. One brand, High Horse Vegan, has proven its staying power and is still up and running with its vegan versions of LNS classics.
Setting up inside a space that was already a pizza shop represented another avenue for if not non-traditional, at least easier growth.
Instead of having to build a restaurant from the ground up or install expensive equipment in 100-year-old buildings, both tasks the brand has faced in the past, “It was something that didn’t need an immense amount of capital,” Sorboro says.
LNS fans will find a familiar home at the new Olde Towne East location – same food menu, same drinks, but Sorboro promises a little fun with the interior, hiring local artists to give the spot its own unique flavor.
He’s excited to bring a neighborhood bar and pizza shop back to the area.
“[Olde Towne East] really supports their own, so for us to have a location there that didn’t take us a ton of calories to open and we can be part of a new neighborhood is really right up our alley,” Sorboro says.
And the LNS experience isn’t all they’re bringing. Much like they did with the Sacred Palm at their High Street location, the second floor will have its own separate theme and bar experience.
LNS will be ready to start slinging pies in Olde Towne East in about a month, with the second floor space to follow a couple of months after.
Sorboro hopes the location will be open from lunch to late-night hours, but it largely depends on the state of the world in the coming weeks. A culmination of the pandemic, staff shortages and more have put many bars and restaurants on unusual or limited hours over the last several months.
Olde Towne East will be LNS’s sixth Central Ohio location and seventh overall, with booze and pizza offerings at Fourth & Main and High & Vine Downtown, Woodlands Backyard in Grandview, and Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, its casino outpost on the West Side, and pizza-only setup in Short North.
Meanwhile, Yellow Brick Pizza hasn’t left the area entirely. The original brick-and-mortar was shuttered in favor of a spot in the soon-to-open East Market.
For more information, visit latenightslice.com.