Boston Pizza lovers won’t have to wait much longer to dine in Pictou County.
The Highland Square Mall Boston Pizza restaurant is set to open Sept. 6.
The restaurant itself is just shy of 6,000 square feet. Seating capacity will be 294, split between the patio (64 seats), the lounge (110 seats) and the dining room (120 seats).
Franchise owners Jan and Troy Relf said they’re hoping to have a full-time staff of about 60 people after everything settles and gets into a rhythm.
“We wanted to get into the full service side of the food industry,” said Troy about their new business venture. The Relfs owned 10 Subways in the general Halifax area from 2009-2016 and decided it was time to move on and out of the city.
The Relfs said they decided on New Glasgow because they thought it would be a good opportunity for the small town and wanted to be able to get involved in the community.
As for why Boston Pizza, they said the reasoning was deeply routed in national pride.
“It’s a Canadian company, we love that fact,” said Troy. “Canadians supporting Canadians, that’s what we want to do.”
“It’s a great mix,” Jan added. She talked about the family dining aspect, the sports bar and the great opportunities for groups and community fundraising.
“We’ll be doing celebrity server; it’s a great fundraiser for teams,” said Jan. She explained that if someone wanted to bring a group in, the kids could become the servers for their tables and at the end of the night all the food sales get tallied up. A percentage of those sales go directly back to the organization.
Troy and Jan have already set up a sponsorship with the Pictou County Wellness Centre, where they will have a Fanzone banner set up every week at the Crushers games. The banner will move along the boards of the rink, in front of a different section every week and one of the rows from that section will be chosen during the game. Happen to be sitting in that row and you’ll get your own individual-sized pizza from the restaurant.
The restaurant will also feature a team room – a closed-off, private area of the restaurant, available for free to businesses, teams or personal parties, really anyone who could want it, and all that requires is to call ahead and reserve, said the owners.
“The Boston Pizza family is great,” said Troy. “Everyone is just like a family member and that’s what we want to communicate to the community.”
The restaurant will have a separate entrance from the mall to accommodate its hours, which will be 11 a.m. - 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. – 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. – midnight on Sundays.
