West End restaurant Casa Italiana opens new market and pizza shop next door

The exterior of the new Pizza Square & Italian market. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photos)

The family behind three local Italian eateries is expanding its repertoire with a new storefront and pizza shop.

Siblings Filippo, Gaetano and Kristi Genova, under their La Famiglia Restaurant Management company, just opened Pizza Square & Italian Market at 8801 Three Chopt Road next to their West End restaurant, Casa Italiana. 

The new shop, which serves a variety of square pizzas, sandwiches, salads and desserts to-go, opened its doors June 20. 

The Genova siblings’ other holdings include Pizza Express at 8936 Quioccasin Road and Genova’s Pizza Station & Takeout Kitchen at 2723 Buford Road in Bon Air.  

Casa Italiana opened in 2016, while Pizza Express opened in 2007 and Genova’s Pizza Station opened in 2023. 

Pizza Square & Italian Market is the first all to-go-style eatery for the La Famiglia group. Kristi Genova said the pizza square aspect of the business offers customers pizzas by the square or in three size options for its Sicilian-style pizzas, which are square-shaped and have a thicker crust. 

Nine-by-thirteen-inch pizzas are around $23, while 16-by-16 pizzas are around $35 and 18-by-26 pizzas are around $45. Single slices can range from about $3 to about $6, depending on size. 

The market also has an array of cold and hot sandwiches and paninis, all on house-made focaccia. Options include classics like a ham and cheese and an Italian supreme, and The Godfather, a prosciutto, capicola and salami sandwich with toppings like burrata, tomato and roasted red pepper. 

Sandwiches range from around $9 to around $14. Salads are also available, ranging from around $10 to around $14. 

On the market side of the storefront are products from the Genovas’ homemade Pasta & Basta Project line of pastas, sauces and dressings. The line has homemade pastas such as pappardelle and linguini, sauces like pomodoro and sausage ragu and dressings such as balsamic and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. 

The Genovas first sold products from the Pasta & Basta line during COVID-19 and are re-launching the line with the new storefront.

“When restaurants were closed during [COVID-19], we created this line and sold it to help us get by,” Kristi Genova said. 

Some of the sandwich and salad offerings at the new market.

The market also offers non-Genova Italian products, such as Piancone Epicureo pastas, olive oils and vinegars and a range of Italian cookies and other dessert products that are hard to come by in the U.S. outside of the New York/New Jersey region, she said. 

Genova said she’s excited for customers to come in and shop while being able to get some takeout, too. 

“You can order a slice, order a pie, do some shopping while it’s being made and walk out with stuff for lunch, dinner and even for the week,” she said. 

The new Italian market adds about 1,200 square feet to the Genova family’s holdings on Three Chopt Road. Casa Italiana currently spans around 2,500 square feet. 

“It’s great for [Casa Italiana] because we want to continue to be able to adapt to growing business, and it allowed us to have this beautiful storefront,” Genova said. 

Pizza Square & Italian Market took over the former spot of Surrounding Counties Specialty Coffee Explorers Club, a coffee shop that vacated the space late last year before reopening a few miles east in the Village Shopping Center this spring.   

The Genovas knocked down the wall between the spaces to connect the market and the restaurant, so that Casa Italiana and Pizza Square & Italian Market share a prep kitchen space. Kristi Genova said her brothers Filippo and Gaetano did a majority of the build-out work themselves. 

She said she’s excited for longtime lovers of the family’s various restaurants to come and pick out some of their favorite products at the market.

“It’s a little bit of favorites from all of our restaurants in one place,” she said. 

Pizza Square & Italian Market is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

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