JT’s Pizza opened their second Columbus location on Black Friday in Grandview. Credit: Jack Like | Lantern Reporter
For one local restaurant, this year’s Black Friday marked a brand-new chapter of business.
JT’s Pizza and Pub, a Columbus-based pizza chain, opened a second location in Grandview Heights Nov. 29. Though it’s not typical for restaurants to open on Black Friday, Joe Hartnett, owner of JT’s, said he wanted to capitalize on the holiday weekend with a grand opening.
“We are maybe a little crazy, but we decided to open on Black Friday,” Hartnett said. “It was kind of a whirlwind because of it being Black Friday and the day after Thanksgiving, but we were fortunate. We had the mayor here. We did a ribbon cutting. It was really a great weekend.”
Hartnett said JT’s originated in the Columbus suburb of Worthington, starting as a bar-kitchen before blossoming into a full-scale pizza restaurant.
“It was more of a bar-kitchen that me and a friend bought. It was connected to the Bier Stube in Worthington,” Hartnett said. “I cleaned the bar for free rent — that’s how I didn’t go out of business. In 2011, I branded it ‘JT’s Pizza and Pub.’ And then in 2015, I bought the Bier Stube North, which is now all JT’s pizza in Worthington.”
Hartnett said JT’s takes pride in being a family-owned, Columbus-based restaurant. Host Christopher Clouse agreed, and said employees stay true to the heritage of Central Ohio by making and selling what they call “Columbus-style pizza.”
“Our pizza is Columbus style — thin crust, square-cut,” Clouse said. “We use all fresh ingredients. We make all of our sauce and everything in house, and we cook all of our pizzas at the same temperature, same time frame, so it’s a very consistent quality product.”
Though pizza is the restaurant’s main offering, Clouse said the menu also offers additional bar-food options.
“Pizza’s what we’re known best for,” Clouse said. “We’ve been awarded the best pizza in Columbus the last few years. It’s bread and butter, but we complement this with subs, wings and salads.”
Grandview was chosen as JT’s second location because it offers a diverse and growing community that can help the business naturally expand, Hartnett said.
“Columbus is such a growing market. There’s a lot of really good areas that we wanted to choose from,” Hartnett said. “The demographic of Grandview is great. It’s young professionals, families; it’s very dense and diverse. This is our second store, and anything I’ve ever read says that the second one’s the hardest, so we want to make sure this is right.”
Though the Grandview location has only been open for roughly two weeks, Clouse said customers already have their favorite dishes.
“Our two best sellers are probably the large, Big Al, which is pepperoni, sausage, banana peppers and extra cheese,” Clouse said. “And then the Founder’s Favorite, which is pepperoni, sausage, mushroom and onion.”
Hartnett said the response to the restaurant’s opening from the Grandview community has been overwhelmingly positive, piggybacking off the Worthington location’s success.
“The response we’ve gotten since opening the Grandview store has been phenomenal,“ Hartnett said. “Everyone wants to see us do well. I think people love good pizza, so we’re fortunate enough to have a lot of good customers that give us good feedback.”
As JT’s attempts to establish continuity and growth in Grandview, Clouse said the menu will feature seasonal specialties to ensure the eatery does not grow stagnant.
“For cocktails, we like to serve spirits to go with the seasons,” Clouse said. “For wine, going into the colder months, we’re a little heavier on reds. For warmer weather, we’ll have more whites.”
Hartnett said he hopes that JT’s provides an environment where customers can gather to eat, drink and watch sports, which is what helps motivate him to keep his business going.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I love to watch sports; I like to eat, I like to cook and I like to be social,” Hartnett said. “Camaraderie and environment is really a passion of mine, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to take my passion and turn it into a business.”
