Fireside Pizza Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

, the downtown Palm Harbor restaurant known for its wood-fired pies and cozy atmosphere, is celebrating its one-year anniversary on Saturday.

According to owner Joe Barbara, there will be food and drink specials, live music and giveaways throughout the event, which he decided to host as a way to say thanks to his customers. 

“Most of our customers are pretty loyal to us, so we wanted to have a big, family-type party for them to show our appreciation,” Barbara says. 

Fireside  in large part due to its unique pizza, which is cooked in a traditional brick oven that weighs 7,000 pounds and had to be assembled on site. 

The oven, which reaches temperatures of 800-1,000 degrees and can cook a pie in four minutes, gives the pizza an authentic Italian flavor, helping to separate Barbara’s product from every other pie around. 

“Wood-fired pizza is not too common around here, but this is the traditional Napolitano-style pizza oven. It makes authentic, Italian pizza,” Barbara explains. “That type of oven is where pizza was invented.” 

Whether people come for the pizza, the craft beers, the garlic knots or the friendly atmosphere, Barbara is just happy that customers have kept coming in regularly over the last year. 

“The quality and uniqueness of our food and the quaintness of our place have helped make us so popular,” he says. “We hear all the time that we were a perfect addition to downtown ... so we want to thank the people for supporting us on Saturday.”

Fireside Pizza Cafe

Address: 1104 Nebraska Ave.

Phone: 727-216-3474

Anniversary Party Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday