CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Johnny’s Pizza to Open Second Location; Owner Hopes His Slices One Day Will Be Sold Across Globe

Johnny’s New York Pizza will open its second location in the Bluffs shopping center off Bison Avenue, owner John Younesi said today in an interview.

“It’ll be like the Johnny’s in Corona del Mar on steroids,” he said. “It’s going to be a destination.” In an email, he added, “We intend to be the pizza-of-choice for all of the students, their friends and families. We believe in, no time , the Bluffs will be called the ‘Johnny’s Center.’”

The new location will be twice the size of the original Johnny’s at 2756 East Coast Highway, with four Bakers Pride pizza ovens instead of the two ovens at the Corona del Mar location. The menu will expand to include hot meatball and chicken parm subs and pastas, and Younesi said he is working to secure a license to serve beer and wine. He also is purchasing a fleet of about five delivery vehicles, which will be customized Fiats painted in New York classic taxicab colors of yellow with black checks.

The Bluffs location should open within 60 days, Younesi said.

“It’s going to take off,” he said. “No one has this kind of product. I want to open across the country and the globe.”

Younesi lives in Newport Beach, but he grew up eating 35-cent slices of pizza at Tony’s in Queens, N.Y. He uses family recipes, special ovens and a water filtration system to create authentic pizza pies.

“New Yorkers cry — they literally get emotional when they taste it,” Younesi said.

Johnny’s opened its Corona del Mar location in July 2010 and ran out of dough by 4:30 p.m. that day.

The pizza’s popularity quickly outgrew the East Coast Highway location, Younesi said, but he waited a year to open a second location in order to perfect recipes and train staff.

“We need to grow,” he said. “We have no more room.”

Read our earlier stories here, here and here.

Photos are file photos from the Corona del Mar Johnny’s location.