Alta Via Pizzeria coming to Bakery Square in Pittsburgh

The Alta Via restaurant brand is growing, and the Italian-inspired eatery is opening a new pizzeria this month in Pittsburgh’s Bakery Square.

Bill Fuller, big Burrito corporate chef and president, said Alta Via Pizzeria will open for take-out orders on Tuesday. He hopes to open the new restaurant for full service a week or two after.

Alta Via is a restaurant owned by big Burrito group and it opened at Fox Chapel Plaza in O’Hara Township in 2019. The place is focused on Italian-California cuisine with a menu of homemade pasta, fresh seafood, and seasonal vegetables. Alta Via announced a second location coming to Market Square in 2023.

Fuller said Alta Via Pizzeria is following the restaurant’s style, but with a focus on pizza instead of pasta. He said he wanted the new pizzeria to have a full service vibe, where diners can enjoy a glass of wine or a cocktail with their pizza. It will hold about 130 guests across the dining room, bar and outdoor areas.

“Most pizza places in Pittsburgh are call-in and pick-up,” said Fuller. “But it is nice to go out and have a nice glass of wine.”

Alta Via Pizzeria will have rotating styles of pizzas, but will always have round pies and square pies. Fuller said the round pies will have four bases: one with slow-cooked red sauce, with a mozzarella-provolone-parmesan cheese blend, one with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, a vodka sauce pie with mozzarella, and a white pizza.

Square pizzas will have two bases: one with red sauce mozzarella-provolone-parmesan cheese blend and a white pizza.

Toppings include sausage, artichokes, shiitake mushrooms. Eventually, Alta Via Pizzeria will include toppings of seasonal vegetables, like asparagus and fresh corn, which will rotate through the seasons.

Even with the variety of toppings, Fuller said he is really proud of the Alta Via’s crust. He said the round pies are inspired by thin New York-style combined with a sourdough blend from San Francisco. The square pies have some sourdough too, and are a hybrid of Detroit-style pizza, but with a less thick crust more like Sicilian pizza.

“There is a little bit of sourdough in the dough, and it has a good ferment,” said Fuller. “It increases the digestibility of the pie.”

Alta Via Pizzeria is located under the atrium in the recently remodeled main building.

And while Fuller wants to emphasize Alta Via Pizzeria as a full-service restaurant, he also understands that takeout will be a big part of the restaurant.

The pizzeria will have a separate take-out only window near the restaurant’s entrance, so that customers, delivery drivers, and others can enjoy Alta Via’s pizza on the go.

Alta Via Pizzeria is located at 6425 Penn Ave. at Bakery Square in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood.