CLEVELAND, Ohio - What is being billed as a "refreshed" Ohio City Pizzeria is scheduled to open Friday, July 19.

The pizzeria will operate as a nonprofit under the ownership and guidance of the West Side Catholic Center. The center bought the pizzeria a year ago, ran it for a while, and then shut it down to determine its mission.

The center teamed with restaurateur Brandon Chrostowski, whose Edwins Leadership & Restaurant in Shaker Square serves as a training program for recently released incarcerated individuals. He helped guide the pizzeria's redesign.

That redesign was all encompassing. The cozy Lorain Avenue spot, a few blocks from St. Ignatius High School, underwent a renovation of its physical space, its menu and, most importantly, its mission.

John Litten, the center's executive director, said in a release that Ohio City Pizzeria already has trained and is employing several clients of the WSCC.

The restaurant, he said in a release, will help the center "serve people in need of food, clothing, shelter, advocacy and a path to self-sufficiency.”

The West Side Catholic Center, established in 1977, was founded with a simple mission: To provide food and clothing for the needy. That has evolved considerably, and the center offers hot meals, hospitality, household goods, emergency services, advocacy, a family shelter, workforce development and training to those in need at no charge, regardless of religious affiliation. It is a private, not-for-profit agency with Catholic roots but is not affiliated with the Cleveland Diocese.

Ohio City Pizzeria is simply the latest extension of that mission.

The restaurant officially opens for dine-in and delivery service, including dinner and full-service bar, Friday, July 19, at 3223 Lorain Ave. It will accommodate 25 to 30 seats. Lunch will start Monday, July 29.

The menu will offer "quintessential Italian dishes and contemporary cuisine," the center said in a release.

Expect fresh 12- and 16-inch pizzas such as “The Veggie” and “The Supreme.” OCP classics like fried mozzarella and calzone return, along with a selection of antipasti, salads and entrees such as chicken marsala, spicy mussels, linguini and clams, lasagna and osso buco. Vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available.

The bar will cover wines by the glass, cocktails and digestifs.

Desserts will include tiramisu, cannoli, ricotta cheesecake with punch d’abruzzo and a decadent-sounding Mt. Vesuvius cake.

Christopher Terry is the executive chef from Edwins who is leading the culinary team at the pizzeria.

But food is only part of the story. Litten has said Ohio City Pizzeria embraces a trio of goals reflected in the stars in its logo: To provide employment opportunities for folks the West Side Catholic Center serves, to tell the center's story through the pizzeria, and to uphold financial sustainability.

Those goals dovetail with Chrostowski's. When he takes on a project, he keeps sight of providing affordable, quality options in a casual setting with solid service. He was a consultant in the nascent days of Sérénité Restaurant & Culinary Institute, the French brasserie that sits in the Medina County Recovery Center. He opened Edwins Butcher Shop in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side.

In his consultant's role, Chrostowski rolls up his sleeves to kick-start a project and hand it off as smoothly as possibly.

“This one is particularly exciting,” he told cleveland.com. “One, we’re on the West Side. Two, we’re furthering the mission with our graduates. We’re going to support them. It’s like a kid having a grandkid. This is their baby.”

In a release about the opening of Ohio City Pizzeria, Chrostowski summed up the pizzeria's importance:

“The future of Cleveland dining depends on us embracing the perspective of those who we serve – every race, gender and creed, the rich and poor and everyone in between. Without this focus, we will not grow as a society and a culinary destination."

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