Regional pizza company targets Sarasota

SARASOTA — Bavaro's Pizza Napoletana & Pastaria plans to open a downtown Sarasota location.

The restaurant is finalizing plans for the location at 27 Fletcher Ave. off Main Street, according to a press release. Bavaro's founder Dan Bavaro purchased the 2,600-square-foot building. Plans call for the building to be remodeled to have a modern industrial look and to add a 750-square-foot patio for outdoor seating.

“I searched the Sarasota area for nearly a year, but it accelerated about six months ago,” says Bavaro in a statement. “Bavaro's has a history of being a pioneer with its locations in downtown Tampa and the Edge District in St. Petersburg. This free-standing building in the heart of downtown Sarasota is very comparable to our other locations.”

The restaurant's menu will include soups, appetizers, salads, traditional Italian entrees, desserts and Neapolitan-style pizzas from a wood-burning oven imported from Italy.

Bavaro says the location will be open by the end of 2017.

The flagship Bavaro's opened in 2009 on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa. The next location was in Winter Springs, an upscale Orlando suburb. A third store, on Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg's Edge district, opened in June and the fourth store, in sought after space at Tampa International Airport's redesigned Concourse C, debuts in August.