Mazzio?s to Open Fayetteville Restaurant

The Tulsa-based Mazzio’s Corp. will open a restaurant at 2769 E. Mission Blvd. in Fayetteville by Sept. 21, says Greg Lippert, a spokesman for Mazzio’s Corp.

Mazzio’s closed its only Fayetteville restaurant last fall. The eatery, at 2050 N. College Ave., had been one of the company’s first, dating from the 1970s when the company ran Ken’s Pizza, which was founded in 1961.

The company changed its name to Mazzio’s in 1979, and the Fayetteville Ken’s became a Mazzio’s then. Mazzio’s specializes in pizza, pasta and a 25-item salad bar.

The new Mazzio’s will occupy 2,520 SF of space that was previously a New York Bagel eatery. It will provide 140 seats for diners, says Lippert.

Within the past year and a half, Mazzio’s has opened restaurants in Springdale, Lowell and Siloam Springs. The corporation already had restaurants in Rogers and Bentonville.

The previous Mazzio’s in Fayetteville closed because traffic on College Avenue made it difficult to get into and out of the establishment, says Lippert. Also, much of the city’s population was moving to the outskirts of town.

Lippert says the new location, near the intersection of Arkansas Highways 256 and 45, will be more convenient for customers.

“We’ve committed a substantial amount of manpower in the Northwest Arkansas area,” says Lippert. “We believe that market is exploding in development, and we believe people want to have good pizza.”

Lippert says the corporation has 256 Mazzio’s restaurants in 13 states. About 25 of those are located in Arkansas. More than 100 Mazzio’s eateries are in the home state of Oklahoma. About half of the Mazzio’s restaurants are franchises, the other half are company owned, says Lippert.