PIZZA PROJECT
Hideaway Pizza centerpiece of development at NW 50 and Western
In today’s modern retail age, it’s hard to achieve the feel of a truly neighborhood restaurant.
But Hideaway Pizza has that potential when it comes to its planned new restaurant at NW 50 and Western in Oklahoma City. Construction started about a week ago on the project, which owners hope will open in April.
“It is not very often that we can get that neighborhood pizzeria thing going on,” Hideaway spokesman Rob Crissinger said. “When it happens, it’s magic.”
The $1.5 million restaurant is part of a larger project that its owners, Brett Murphy and Darren Lister, are doing with William Mee and Greg Downs of Pro Realty that will cover about a square block on the intersection’s southeast corner.
The Hideaway Pizza will be about 7,000 square feet in size, with an enclosed patio, an upstairs dining area and a full-service bar. It will seat about 160 guests.
The group plans for it to anchor the development, with the restaurant fronting the intersection’s southeast corner. They also plan to build a single-story building that could have retail, offices or a bank on the property’s southwest corner, close to the intersection of NW 49 and Western.
Another building, also planned for use as office, retail, perhaps a small restaurant or medical,
will be built on the 2-acre site’s east end, also abutting NW 50. It could be one, or perhaps two stories tall, depending on how efforts go to acquire tenants.
The project also includes enough parking for about 155 vehicles.
This newest Hideaway Pizza, Murphy and Lister said, will be similar to one the company opened a couple of years ago in Owasso, as both feature an upstairs dining area and full service bars.
Like all Hideaways, the restaurant’s interior in Oklahoma City will feature collages and art that highlight nearby schools and the area’s history.
Also, it will feature a patio dining area designed to help the restaurant into the neighborhood through the use of both sidewalks and lighting.
“I am really excited about the Western location because a lot of my friends live in the neighborhood, and they appreciate being able to walk to various businesses in the district,” Crissinger said.
There are only a few of the stores that truly have that type of feel, including the flagship store in Stillwater, which was opened in 1957 by Richard “The Big Kahuna” Dermer and his wife, Marti, near Oklahoma State University’s campus.
Crissinger said Hideaway is getting close to opening a second store in Arkansas, is working to upgrade its drink menus at some of its locations, and now is selling Hideaway apparel to its customers online.
It’s a great feeling, he said, to see people who don’t actually work at the restaurant wearing Hideaway gear.
“It’s been amazing to see how things have evolved during the past year,” Crissinger said.