New giant-slize pizza place open in Roanoke
Chris Brown, co-owner of Benny Marzano's and Benny Marconi's, with one of their giant slices. The Roanoke Times l File photo
The owners of Benny Marzano’s, which has proven to be a successful business model in Blacksburg, have opened a second location at 120 E. Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke (formerly Glazed Bisque-It). Benny Marconi’s opened yesterday (June 14).
These two restaurants are owned by 2006 Virginia Tech graduates Chris Brown and Zach Toth. Both Benny’s locations specialize in giant slices of pizza cut from 28-inch pies. Slices cost $4 to $5 and toppings include cheese, pepperoni and the special topping of the month. They do sell whole 28-inch pies for $28, which Brown said might sound like a lot of money, but that will feed 8 people and includes tax.
Anyway, it’s the single-slice model that works well for them, a simple concept that has proven popular with VT students. They also keep their restaurant open late into the evening to accommodate hungry night owls.
Chris Brown said the name “Benny” comes from a family friend while the names “Marzano” and “Marconi” are a nod to regions in Italy. Besides the name, one other difference between the two locations is that Benny Marconi’s in Roanoke will serve beer as soon as these guys get their license from the Virginia ABC.
Roanoke had a giant-slice pizza place for a while called 24 Church Avenue Italian restaurant, but it closed. While it was open, I wrote a column that included some interesting history about the giant-slice phenomenon.
To read The Roanoke Times’ review of the Benny Marzano’s in Blacksburg, click here. If you try the pizza at Benny Marconi’s, let us know what you think. Is it a good deal?
Benny Marconi’s
Hours:
Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.
June 15, 2012 - 10:57 AM
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Reminds me of New York City. Can’t wait to try it!
After seeing this picture I decided I needed a slice of pizza bigger than my head for lunch. It was totally worth the walk for this pregnant lady (which isn’t something I undertake lightly at 8 months in June!).
yum
He had me with the Steve McQueen t-shirt. Pizza for lunch after the market tomorrow!
Gotta fold it!
I hope it doesn’t turn out to be like that giant cupcake place. Turns out they were just regular cakes, with a big paper baking cups around the bottom. Fool me once…
Completely worth it. Awesome pizza. Awesome concept. The owners seem like good guys. I wish them all the success in the world…for my own selfish reasons.
The pizza is awesome!
I live in Blacksburg. This pizza is wonderful, purchased a whole pizze once and the box barely fit in my car…yummy!!!!
I’d love for a Mellow Mushroom to locate up here in Blacksburg. They have lots of them in the southeast and in college towns…but the closest ones to here are Bristol and Charlottesville. We ate at the one in Savannah, and another on the return trip when we stopped in Columbia, SC.
They could do quite well in the NRV…their atmosphere, beer selection, and pizza would be perfect for the VT student influence.
Oh, and not to grind anyone’s gears too badly, but even small Hinesville, GA has a Chili’s…surprised us, right before we stopped and ate a lunch there.
I tried this out today for lunch. The cheese pizza was very good. The slice is more than I want for lunch on a regular basis but it was suprising cooked very well the entire way through. I will go back occasionally and I would consider buying a whole pizza to take home for a family gathering.
The only issue I see is that seating is kind of non-existent. There are some stools against the wall with a tiny shelf to use as a table. This worked OK for me because there wasn’t anyone else there but it would get crowded in a hurry with 4 or 5 people and those giant slices. The late night party crowd won’t mind this I’m sure but if I came back with my family I would want a place to sit. You can take the slices somewhere else but the size of those things makes carrying them without dropping them a challenge. Especially if you’re walking down the street with a slice and a drink.
As for Chili’s, OJ you can blame the people who own the franchise rights for our area. I sent them an e-mail a couple of years ago and they said this area was saturated with restaurants and couldn’t handle another one. Since that time dozens of other places have opened and are doing well.
Thanks for the info, OG. Frustrating too, because when we ate at the Chili’s in Hinesville, the kitchen manager came out and took our order personally since we have the gluten issues, had the staff prepare out meal with fresh utencils, new gloves, and a freshly cleaned preparation area. He said they took food allergy issues very seriously and we were mighty impressed. The only sit-down chains that have a similar approach would be Outback…at least that we’ve encountered (at least there’s a Chili’s in Princeton if we’re over that way).
O’Charley’s, Smokey Bones, Ruby Tuesday, and Applebees do try to accomodate our requests though and have allergen menus to order from…but have not seemed to have the same attention to detail and care that Outback and Chili’s have shown, or Mellow Mushroom. We have dining dollars we would love to find a home for, but there’s too few options in the NRV (Roanoke area has a few more, but it’s an hour drive each way). Fatz in Dublin also does pretty well, we’ve been there several times now and done well with their food.
Maybe there is some market saturation, but like you noted, many more have come into the area and done well. I think they could probably find an acceptable home in the NRV, maybe more toward Radford/Pulaski County though…as there really aren’t many sit-downs in that area, and not many at all that even sell alcohol. Most folks drive the 10-15 minutes to C’burg, down crowded SR 114…
No Chili’? No justice!
Where is a guy to go to get his jalepeno chipotle ranch cheesey popper twister bites with spicy pepperjack cheesey dipping sauce?!?!!?
OJ, I’m w/ you on the Mellow Mushroom! What a place, I absolutely love the beer selection there! The one in C’ville has 40 taps and almost all of them are “real” beer! The pizzas are awesome, too! I too think one would do well in Blacksburg near the Tech campus. I’d drive up there from Salem in a heartbeat! They have a really good happy hour, too!
Haven’t tried Benny’s yet but I was interested in the link to the article about the history of giant slices.
I was stuck in Toronto for 2 weeks during the summer of 1983 with hardly any money, staying at the youth hostel downtown. Across the street was a place called Pizza! Pizza! which was one outlet the (then) biggest pizza chain in Canada. They sold enormous slices for $1 Canadian, which was around 87 cents U.S. at the exchange rate back then. It was great pizza, too. 1 slice for lunch, 1 slice for dinner kept me going for 2 weeks until I was able to get a replacement bicycle frame (for the one I had that had broken) and ride out of town.
We ordered a whole pepperoni pie from Benny’s in Roanoke last night. It was wonderful! The crust was perfectly cooked – thin, NY style. I’d highly recommend trying a slice.
@OJ, My husband and I frequent the Mellow Mushroom in Charlottesville and once chatted with one of the owners as he was inquring about if we thought one would go over well in Roanoke, as they were interested, and where in Roanoke we would suggest. We, of course, would love it if he would come over into our neighborhood of SW Rke. County, but told him we thought they would do great downtown if they could find a good open spot. The place where Thelma’s is now would have been perfect, but it wasn’t available then, and I love Thelma’s being there now. Unfortunately,the downtown scene has filled up quite a bit since then, but here’s hoping they are still considering it.
My husband and two daughters ate at Benny Marconis over the weekend during the Labor Day Festival. We got 2 slices and cut them in half to share. These slices were bigger then anything Ive ever seen and it was so good too!! The girls said “its the best pizza ever and only wanted theirs from now on”! Those two slicew were definitely enough. They pretty much filled up a pizza box by themselves. The girls were stuffed about halfway through so my husband finished theirs and I barely made it through my half! The pricing I think isnt bad. We paid $9.00 total… $4.00 for the cheese slice and $5.00 for the pepperoni. I definitely recommend this place to anyone wantin some good pizza!!
Ordered a pizza last night at Benny Marconis for the first time it was awesome!!! Pizza was HUGE and Yummy!!!!!!
Great pizza! Just like Jersey, except less fake tans and muscle shirts.