Ridgeites rejoice!

Bay Ridge’s brand new Artichoke Pizza is now officially open at 9102 Fourth Avenue.

The pizza joint’s second location in Brooklyn started serving out its delectable slices on Saturday night, October 29, just in time for Halloween weekend.

“There had been rumblings among the pizza cognoscenti for quite a while about Artichoke coming to Bay Ridge and now the day has come,” said lifelong Ridgeite and community activist Justin Brannan. “When it comes to great pizza, Bay Ridge already has an embarrassment of riches so Artichoke will fit in nicely. They may be the darlings of the pizza snob underground but the business was started in earnest by two cousins and best friends from Staten Island who had a dream after growing up in their family’s restaurant.”

Founded by Francis Garcia and his cousin Sal Basille, after working at family restaurant Basille’s in Staten Island, the first Artichoke Basille’s location opened up shop on 14th Street in 2008, and hasn’t stopped growing since.

“We’re really psyched to be in Bay Ridge,” Artichoke co-owner Francis Garcia told the Brooklyn Reporter last month. “We looked at the space about a year ago and it wasn’t really the right time for us, but now we’re just really excited to be there. We grew up in Staten Island but I hung out in Bay Ridge throughout my whole 20-something years, so I have a lot of love for Bay Ridge and we’re really looking forward to opening.”

According to Garcia, opening night “was awesome” and there was a “great turnout.”

The Bay Ridge location will be the eatery’s seventh restaurant – not including its outpost in LaGuardia Airport. Locations elsewhere include three in Manhattan, one in Astoria and one all the way on the West Coast, in Berkeley, California.