By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Although Atmore already has three restaurants that specialize in pizza, two more are expected to open here within the next couple of months.
Construction crews are working to renovate the buildings in which the new restaurants will do business, and one will apparently open its doors several weeks before the other.
The renovation of Grizzly Pizza & Wings, which will operate out of the former Café 251 building on West Church Street, into a pizza parlor is more than 75 percent complete, according to an employee of the company doing the work.
Company officials have said in published reports that they expect to serve their first pizza or order of wings by mid-to-late-September.
Meanwhile, the interior renovation of the city’s other new pizza outlet, Papa Johns, is in its early stages. Ed Soto, owner of Soto Construction, said this week that the work should be completed, and the restaurant ready to open, in “about eight weeks.”
City codes enforcement officers said this week that nobody from the company had as yet called for an inspection.
The two new eateries will join Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s and Rocky’s Pizza as restaurants specializing in the popular entrée.
The owner of another new eatery, actually a coffee franchise, announced in late June that he was expanding his Alabama holdings to include restaurants in Atmore, Saraland and Daphne, as well as a fourth location in Ocean Springs, Miss.
John Hudson Sandufer, who reportedly owns 10 various fast food and other franchises, said in a press release he would open a Scooter’s Coffee franchise in each aforementioned city, although he did not provide a timeline.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based coffee house specializes in espresso drinks, fruit smoothies, baked-from-scratch pastries, organic hot and iced teas and other items.
City codes enforcement officers said this week that a spokesperson for Sandufer “has expressed an interest in some property at Rivercane,” but nothing has been heard from any company representative since the initial contact.