-
Georgianna Brunton, owner of Miss Florence Diner, bought A-1 Pizza at 92 Maple St. in April from Konstantine Sierros. She anticipates reopening the Florence restaurant soon under a new name, Miss Flo’s Pizzeria. -
This poster hanging at the old A-1 Pizza location at 92 Maple St. announces the change in ownership, with Georgianna Brunton buying the restaurant with the intention of reopening it under a new name.
NORTHAMPTON — For Georgianna Brunton, the true mark of a good business isn’t so much the products it sells as it is the story it tells. And few places in Florence can tell as many stories as A-1 Pizza.
“I’m a believer of ‘if the walls could talk,’ you know,” said Brunton, who acquired the restaurant at 92 Maple St. in April. “Family stories have begun here; family stories have ended here. I love that.”
Originally opened in 1964 as Andy’s Pizza, the business has remained a constant staple of downtown Florence, going through several name changes and owners throughout that time. In 1967 it briefly became known as the Irish Pizza House before being sold to John and Antigone Castidis, where it took on the name of A-1 Pizza in the early 70s.
It changed hands once again in 1983 when it was sold to the Sierros family, who owned it for more than 40 years. It became a popular haunt for students at JFK Middle School, particularly after school dances.
“I grew up there. I met my wife there,” said Konstantine Sierros, who now also runs A-1 Hilltown Pizza in Williamsburg and Paisano’s Pizza in Southampton. “Our family was raised in that spot.”
When Sierros, who last year also sold Filo’s Greek Tavern on Main Street, was looking to sell off A-1 Pizza, he found the perfect buyer in Brunton, who also owns the nearby Miss Florence Diner, another storied institution of the village’s downtown.
“We’re all unified in our cause to keep the downtown vibrant,” Sierros said. “This is just another commitment, from one business owner to another, to keep Florence alive.”
The restaurant has been closed for renovations since the acquisition, but Brunton said she hopes to reopen in the next few weeks under a new name, Miss Flo’s Pizzeria. She said the new menu won’t be the same as before (“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate that,” she said) but would offer similar items of pizza, sub sandwiches and salads. She also plans to include gelato, a type of Italian ice cream, on the menu.
“We’ll have a blackboard out front that lists the flavors [of gelato],” Brunton said. “We’ll have six basic flavors, and then we’ll rotate one out for a different flavor.”
In a callback to her own childhood, Brunton also plans to include a video game table inside the restaurant. People can sit around the table, the middle of which features a screen that plays arcade classics like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, allowing them to game while they eat. Brunton said she hoped it would attract younger people to the establishment.
“When I was that age, I would go get pizza and I would play the video games at the pizza spots,” Brunton said. “I hope that when [younger people] are my age, they’ll think back and be like, ‘Do you remember that old antique pizza place?’ ”
When the restaurant reopens, Brunton hopes that it will be able to honor the legacy of Sierros’ ownership while also managing to be something new with its own style.
“It’s been a pizza place for years and years and years,” said Brunton. “I want to keep that legacy and the history of the space alive.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
