Anthony Badamo built his reputation one late pie at a time. Now the chef behind Badamo's Pizza is betting that Dormont has room for him at lunch, too. Badamo is opening a specialty sandwich shop and a compact Italian market right next door to his Potomac Avenue pizzeria, a sister concept designed to catch the daytime crowd that his largely evening-focused pizza counter has never fully served.

A Second Storefront, Not a Second Location

The new spot will sit adjacent to the existing shop rather than replace or relocate any part of it. Badamo plans to offer six to eight specialty sandwiches alongside a small, carefully chosen selection of Italian grocery staples: olive oils, canned tomatoes, fresh produce, and take-and-bake pastas among them. It is a natural extension of what Badamo's has already been quietly testing. The pizzeria's online ordering system includes a grocery section where customers can already add pantry items to a pizza order, a signal the team has been reading real demand before committing to a second storefront.

Why Dormont Works

Badamo relocated his pizzeria to Dormont's Potomac Avenue in 2023, trading a Mt. Lebanon address for a walkable strip thick with independent shops and regulars who show up on a first-name basis. The move turned into one of the neighborhood's bigger dining stories that year, and three years later the corridor has only gotten busier. A smaller-format sandwich counter paired with a grocery nook fits that same stretch well: steady lunchtime foot traffic, local shoppers who would rather stay in the neighborhood than drive to a bigger market, and a built-in audience that already trusts the Badamo name.

What's Next

Badamo is targeting a September opening for the new counter, though exact timing depends on build-out progress next door. For now, the clearest signs of movement will be the ordinary ones: permits posted in the window, fresh signage, or contractors coming and going in the storefront beside the pizzeria. The original shop at 1509 Potomac Avenue will keep running exactly as it has, pizza and all, with the sandwich and grocery concept operating as its own dedicated space rather than competing for the same ovens and staff during the dinner rush.

What It Means for Dormont

Small, deliberate expansions like this one are exactly the kind of growth that keeps a business district feeling alive without disrupting it. Badamo isn't chasing a second dining room or a bigger footprint for its own sake; he's filling a daypart his existing shop can't cover and giving neighbors an easier way to pick up dinner ingredients on the walk home. For a commercial strip that has spent the past few years rebuilding its identity storefront by storefront, another local operator doubling down instead of moving on is its own kind of vote of confidence.