Pizza Brain Crew Expanding to Brewerytown, Nixes the Pizza Brain Name

After four successful years in Fishtown, the crew behind the world's first pizza museum-emporium, Pizza Brain, will open a second shop at 2841-43 West Girard Avenue, what co-owner Michael Carter called "the foot of the gateway of Brewerytown."

The neighborhood by the zoo has seen an influx of quality dining options as of late, what with the community-oriented cafe The Monkey and the Elephant, burger and shake shop SpOt Burgers, Dostoyevsky-inspired brewpub Crime & Punishment Brewery, and bottle-and-sandwich stop RyBrew all popping up within the last three years. Carter, Joe Hunter, and Ryan Anderson, the current partners behind the Pizza Brain concept, hope to continue their success in the neighborhood so ripe for development.

To be clear, Brewerytown isn't getting just another Pizza Brain. It won't be Pizza Brain 2, nor a Pizza Brain: Brewerytown Edition — in fact, "Pizza Brain" won't be in its title at all. Well aware of the traditional expansion model which prioritizes brand name above all else, Carter, Hunter and Anderson are opting to go in the opposite direction, which calls for a completely different name and a completely different design.

Where Fishtown's Pizza Brain succeeds as a museum-style "homage to American pizza culture", the Brewerytown shop will try to do the same for pizza shop culture — an ode to the pizza parlors of America, classic and familiar, "like every pizza shop that you loved growing up." MM Partners are in charge of the build-out.

Photo provided by Michael Carter

Right now, there's an almost-official working name, but the co-owners have chosen to keep it under wraps for the time being (though Carter admits it might be the "worst-kept secret in Philadelphia"). Rest assured, it's just as wacky as you might expect from the brains behind the Brain. And don't worry, Fishtown's Pizza Brain name will remain exactly the same.

Menu-wise, it will be similar to Fishtown's store: pizza available by-the-slice, by-the-pie, take-out or dine-in, and they promised to bring along Pizza Brain's "home-run slammers" (their most popular menu items). In Brewerytown, though, they're toying around with the idea of involving different street food-inspired toppings, so get ready for items like roast pork sandwich pizzas and döner kebab pizzas.

The Brewerytown store aims to be open sometime next month.

Stay tuned.