Outdoor Courtyard Still In-the-Works at Kittanning Pizza Shop

By Jonathan Weaver

Street construction and outdoor activities have come to a halt with the winter weather, but a local business will continue renovating an abandoned storefront next door.

“Bugsy’s Pizza” Owner Jeff Bowser purchased the building next to his 180 South Jefferson Street location in August with plans to tear it down.

“It’s falling into itself as we speak – it’s going to be a problem if we don’t get it down now,” Bowser said in August. “The plan is to keep the outline of the building and have an outdoor courtyard.”

Demolition of the four-story structure – formerly the Golden Scissors hair salon - began the second week of August and now through the front yellow entrance is 246 tons of dirt – eight tri-axle trucks worth.

By June, Bowser hopes to make it the outdoor courtyard with outdoor lighting -similar to storefronts in the Pittsburgh suburb of Lawrenceville or in South America – with seating for 40 customers, a water wall and a coin pond.

“I look for this to be hugely-successful when it’s all said and done,” Bowser said.

The extra space – about 26-feet wall-to-wall and 142 feet deep - will require Bowser to hire about five new employees – mostly waitresses – and will also allow for live entertainment and additional menu options.

Bowser – who made his first pizza in Fall 1982 until opening his own shop in Butler in 1996 – opened “Bugsy’s Pizza” in Kittanning on September 11, 2001. He sold the store to work in the corporate offices of a different pizza shop, but his position was eliminated and the local restaurant reopened last year with a sense of community passion – driven by attention to his yellow delivery van.

“Between 11AM and 2PM, I’ll sell 300 slices of pizza – and people want to sit down,” Bowser said.

He estimated he will spend nearly $10,000 before any of the 10 tables are put in place.

“It wasn’t cheap to demolish, but moving forward, it will be even more pricy,” Bowser said.

Bowser, who grew up in and lives with his four-year-old daughter Mia (who doesn’t like pizza, but enjoys fitting boxes and entertaining customers) in Kittanning, said his business was slowed by the 10-month Kittanning Citizens Bridge repainting project and is potentially-hampered by revitalization and repaving projects along South Jefferson Street, but looks forward to warmer weather again.

“There’s only so much I can control – Mother Nature has to take its course,” Bowser said.