Classic SF Restaurant Original Joe’s Is Opening a Pizzeria Spinoff

Landmark Italian-American restaurant Original Joe’s is opening a spinoff location in West Portal. Taking a page out of their successful playbook in North Beach and Daly City’s Westlake, owners John and Elena Duggan will take over the former Paradise Pizza location at 393 West Portal Avenue, the Chronicle reports. At the new location, the goal is a casual, neighborhood restaurant to be called Little Joe’s Pizza, Pasta, Parmigiana.

The Duggan siblings say they fondly remember Paradise Pizza, which ran for 25 years in the family-friendly neighborhood. When its replacement business, Captain Kona Cafe, closed after just a year, the Duggans decided to step in. An opening timeline for the new Little Joe’s isn’t clear: Eater SF has reached out to the business for further details.

The original Original Joe’s opened in the Tenderloin in 1937. A fire closed it in 2007, and the restaurant reopened in North Beach in 2012. Other locations with the same roots, like Marin Joe’s and an Original Joe’s in San Jose, still operate, but aren’t run by the Duggan family — or nearly as well-loved.

• Original Joe’s to expand in San Francisco with Little Joe’s Pizza, Pasta, Parmigiana [SF Chronicle]