Original Joe’s to combine past, present in West Portal spot.
Smaller spot in West Portal to mix past, present
John and Elena Duggan grew up in San Francisco eating pies from Paradise Pizza, which closed in 2018 after nearly 30 years on West Portal Avenue. Another restaurant took over briefly, but when word came a few months ago that the restaurant’s building was again on the market, they knew they had to take it.
Inspired by childhood memories, the brotherandsister coowners of Original Joe’s in North Beach and its sibling concept in Daly City’s Westlake District, have decided to expand with a new project — Little Joe’s Pizza, Pasta, Parmigiana.
The restaurant will serve as a spinoff of the Original Joe’s in North Beach but in a smaller space. And, of course, with the addition of pizza.
“Paradise Pizza was a vibrant place for 25 years. We always admired what (former owner) Sal Alioto did there,” John Duggan said. “We were already looking to open a smaller concept, so when the space became available, it just worked. Original Joe’s will be its foundation, but we want to leave room for us to have creative license and give it its own identity.”
It’s worth noting there was a Little Joe’s Italian restaurant that operated in San Francisco from the 1970s until 2012. There also is a Little Joe’s pizza restaurant on Mission Street. Neither business is con
nected to the new Original Joe’s project, which does not yet have an opening date.
Duggan said the smaller size of Little Joe’s will give the business a chance to grow quickly. Both Original Joe’s in North Beach and the one in Westlake are spacious, fullservice restaurants. Trying to replicate them in such a highrent city was an arduous task.
After Paradise Pizza closed last year, the space was taken over by Hawaii’s Captain Kona Cafe. The restaurant served pizza, like its predecessor, but closed after less than a year.
Finding success in West Portal takes knowing the intricacies of the small neighborhood, Duggan said. The area has its share of vacancies, but it actually has the fewest empty storefronts of 24 neighborhood retail areas tracked by San Francisco, according to the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
The residential portions of the area are populated by young families, Duggan said, many of whom would be interested in a new, casual restaurant option for the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of multigenerational San Franciscans in that area that are looking for something valueoriented,” he said. “They’re willing to spend money, but they just want to make sure they get something great in return.”
Original Joe’s first opened in the Tenderloin in 1937. After a fire shuttered the flagship location in 2007, the restaurant moved to North Beach in 2012. Joe’s of Westlake came to life in 1956, founded by Bruno Scatena, then a business partner of Elena and John’s grandfather (in another Joe’s). It closed briefly in 2014 when it was bought by the Duggans, who reopened it in 2016 as Original Joe’s Westlake.
Both of the current Original Joe’s are known for Italian comfort food — piccata, housemade ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs — but a culinary pillar for the restaurants is parmigiana, made with thinly sliced eggplant that’s fried and topped with marinara sauce, ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. At Little Joe’s, the dish will serve as a foundation of the menu.
The new Little Joe’s will be all about blending the past with present.
“Whenever the Original Joe’s name is used, we want to make sure we are respecting it, and whatever it is will live up to its name,” John Duggan said. “Everything we do, we have 82 years behind it. We just want to make sure we’re doing these next steps the right way.”