Pizza News
Pizzeria closes at Plano's Shops at Legacy but a new pizza slides in
Pizza down in Plano — but help is on the way. The Coal Vines that was located in the Shops at Legacy has closed, but the space will be taken over by Olivella's, the local pizza chain from restaurateur Charlie Green.
Coal Vines is the New York-style pizzeria that was founded in Uptown Dallas in 2006 by restaurateurs Joe Palladino and Phil Romano. The Shops at Legacy location opened in 2011 as a franchise.
The original Coal Vines remains in Uptown, along with a sibling in Richardson. Two other locations of Coal Vines — in Southlake and at the Omni Dallas hotel downtown — are franchises.
Olivella was founded by Green in 2007 when he opened the first location on McFarlin Boulevard across from Southern Methodist University. Green has gradually expanded the company, with locations in East Dallas and Victory Park. Things are currently on a growth spurt, with a new location coming soon to Las Colinas, in the same center he recently opened his Mexican concept, El Famoso.
Green says he always had his eye on the Shops at Legacy.
"The Coal Vines location was originally supposed to be our space," he says. "But we'd opened in Victory Park in 2008, and at the time, I just couldn't raise enough money."
He anticipates a fall opening, following an update to the space, in which he replaces "the dark and dungeon feel" with the same brighter, more Mediterranean style with stucco and tile as the SMU original.
"The location itself is good because it's on an end cap, and we have great neighbors," he says. "But with The Shops at Legacy, I don't care where you are, you're probably going to do well because of the affluent population. People go there from all points north."
Olivella's already has a following via an unexpected route.
"We have fans up there who know of us from coming to basketball games at Victory Park and getting to know our location there," he says.
