West Village Mainstay Bleecker Street Pizza Expands With a Sit-Down Restaurant

Popular celebrity photo-slicked West Village slice shop Bleecker Street Pizza just got bigger. The 14-year-old neighborhood spot swung open the doors today on a more formal sit-down restaurant at 71 7th Avenue South, just next door to its original, line-inducing location.

The 35- to 40-seat restaurant is still counter-service, but diners can then sit and will receive waiter service, according to a restaurant spokesperson. The menu, too, is expanded. Signatures like the Nonna Maria pie — a thin-crust specimen with mozzarella, marina, parm, and basil — will still be on deck here, but Bleecker Street Pizza Restaurant will also have appetizers, pastas, salads, and dessert. Expect options like fettucini alfredo, penne with vodka sauce, burrata with cherry tomatoes, caesar salad, and kale salad.

Though it’s more formal, owners Greg Greenwood and chef Tony Salihaj want to keep this version affordable and neighborhood-focused, too. Pastas will clock in under $13 a piece, and all diners will receive a free appetizer and dessert with every meal, usually a rotating a bruschetta and a surprise dessert. Once a month, they also plan to donate some proceeds to a local nonprofit.

It continues on the tradition of Greenwood’s brother Douglas, who opened the restaurant in 2004 after retiring from the New York Police Department post 9/11. Over time, Douglas turned Bleecker Street into a packed neighborhood slice shop — with frequent lines, tourists, and celebrity clientele like Hugh Jackman, Brooke Shields, and Gisele Bündchen. The space is lined with photos of those celebs and more. He dreamed of expanding the restaurant but died in December 2017 of suicide.

Bleecker Street’s bigger restaurant is now open with limited hours, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. In the next few weeks, hours will expand to add lunch, and once a liquor license is obtained, wine and beer will be served as well.