After nearly six months of construction, the new Phil’s Oyster Bar in the Southdowns Village Shopping Center is ready for business. The restaurant will have a soft opening this weekend and will open to the public Wednesday.
“We’re going to do a little stress test on friends and family first to make sure we have all the kinks worked out,” says Jordan Piazza, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother, Anthony Piazza. “Then, we’ll be ready to go to serve our customers.”
The new Phil’s recreates a beloved neighborhood institution that was operated for years by the Piazza’s father, the late Gus Piazza.
The Piazza brothers spent more than $500,000 on the renovation, turning a space formerly occupied by Thai Kitchen restaurant into a dead ringer for the original Phil’s location on Government Street—complete with tile floors and hand-painted lettering on the restaurant’s plate-glass windows.
“We had a lot of challenges with the old building,” Piazza says. “We had to take it back to the studs and start over.”
Piazza, who is involved in the restaurant but will keep his day job as business manager for Raising Cane’s, confirms the chicken finger chain’s founder and CEO Todd Graves is a minority investor in the restaurant, as is CPA Robert Daigrepont. Graves’ ownership was previously not disclosed.
Piazza says he initially approached Graves as a mentor, seeking advice about the new restaurant, and that Graves was enthusiastic about the project and offered to be an investor.
“He and Robert have been great,” Piazza says. “We couldn’t have done it without their help and support.”
—Stephanie Riegel
