Pizza Joint, the slice shop that started as a single restaurant in 2011, has opened a new location inside the Sunfire Village shopping center in Far East El Paso, bringing its 20-inch extra-large pies and specialty slices to the area. The shop now occupies suites B201 and B202 at 2106 N. Zaragoza Road.
According to El Paso Inc., the new spot gives Pizza Joint four locations across El Paso plus additional outposts in Horizon City and Lubbock, Texas. The chain has served pizza by the slice and extra-large pies since 2011, growing into what the outlet described as a local hot spot for specialty slices and vegan options. Founder Melissa Maese Goldberg, a UTEP alumna, opened the original shop on March 17, 2011, after a high school trip to the East Coast introduced her to pizza sold by the slice, per the U.S. Small Business Administration. She launched the business with seven employees after being laid off from a previous job, the agency’s account notes.
A Chain Built Slice By Slice Since 2011
Pizza Joint’s growth has been steady rather than sudden. The brand expanded from its original Uptown location at 2900 N. Mesa St. into Downtown El Paso at 500 N. Stanton St. in November 2014, according to a historical account from The Prospector. From there it added a Westside shop at 7000 Westwind Dr. in 2017, taking over the former Andre’s Pizza space, before pushing into Horizon City’s Eastlake neighborhood at 13034 Eastlake Blvd. this past February and eventually Lubbock.
The Downtown location has doubled as something of a cultural hub since it opened, hosting weekly Wednesday open mic nights and staying open for late-night service until 3 a.m. on weekends, the shop’s own site notes. The menu across locations includes specialty slices and vegan options.
Sunfire Village Joins A Booming Corridor
The new location sits inside Sunfire Village, a shopping center in Far East El Paso. Pizza Joint shares the plaza with Tool Box East, an outpost of a Downtown gay bar that Hoodline reported had opened in the same center this past July. The plaza sits within El Paso’s Las Tierras neighborhood, per property records…