Noona’s Pizza shut its doors in a Bolton Hill apartment complex last week, but residents won’t be pizza-less for long. Next month, Angeli’s Pizzeria will take over the space at 1201 W. Mount Royal Ave.
Angeli’s co-owner Juniet Ozturk said he and his brother Mert had their eye on the Noona’s location for a while, given its proximity to local arts venues like the Lyric and the Meyerhoff, as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art. They decided to buy out the lease from the eatery’s most recent owner, K and K Group. Noona’s was opened in 2018 by restaurateur Phil Han, who later sold it.
The brothers opened their first branch of Angeli’s in Little Italy in 2019 with some help from Cem Ari, who also runs Zella’s in Hollins Market. The Bolton Hill restaurant will be the fifth location for Angeli’s, which already has branches in Federal Hill and Govans as well as a pop-up in Harborplace.
The Ozturks plan to open more branches in the city and surrounding suburbs and bring in other family members from Turkey to help run them. For the former Noona’s location, they reached out to relatives Erdi and Aybike Tasbas, who relocated to Charm City from Istanbul.
“Baltimore is an amazing place. People don’t realize it,” Juniet Ozturk said. Eventually, though, they want to expand to cities around the East Coast. “While we are growing we want to make sure the food quality, customer service is top-notch at every location.”
The Ozturks’ family run a small bread factory in their native Turkey. In Baltimore, the brothers have applied their dough-how to creating New York-style pizza. Turkey’s answer to pizza is shaped like a boat and called “pide,” but Ozturk said they don’t have plans to bring it to Angeli’s, as it might confuse customers.
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The new eatery is on the ground floor of the Fitzgerald, a building owned and managed by MCB Real Estate, which also owns Harborplace and has plans to transform the waterfront site. The project, which was the subject of a successful ballot referendum this week, calls for the construction of residential towers and two large commercial buildings to the tune of $900 million.
Will Angeli’s have a home in the revamped Harborplace?
“We would love to be there,” Ozturk said.
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