The long-awaited opening of Yates Pizza on Duke Street is coming.
The City of Alexandria Planning Commission approved Special Use Permit (SUP) #2018-0114 for Yates Pizza Tuesday evening. The request was for a special use permit “to operate a restaurant with outdoor dining, indoor and outdoor live entertainment, and a valet parking service.”
Yates Pizza will be in the 3000 block of Duke Street at the intersection of Roth Street (see map below).
According to the staff report from the City of Alexandria, “The applicant proposes to operate a 12,925 square-foot restaurant expected to serve pizza, pasta, salads and sandwiches. The business would offer a total of 448 seats. Sixty-one of these seats would be located outside on a second-level, rooftop terrace. The remaining 387 indoor seats would be located on the basement/lower level and the ground floor and in a second-level indoor area immediately adjacent to the outdoor terrace.”
In addition, “Both on and off-premises alcohol sales would be offered. The applicant also requests approval for indoor live entertainment in the form of amplified live music and entertainment as well as games and large-screen TVs, particularly on Thursday – Saturday evenings and would offer a delivery service to customers with two delivery vehicles.”
Read the full staff report here.
The applicant for the SUP was the Jeffrey Lee Yates Trust, which owns the property.
Yates Pizza is located where Generous George’s Positive Pizza & Pasta operated until it closed in 2009.
The iconic bright pink building that housed Generous George’s underwent a $3 million renovation under the watchful eye of Yates, a longtime Alexandria resident and local business owner. The building got a more refined look with large windows, a rooftop deck, new kitchen, utilities and seating. (Construction photos are still available on the Yates Pizza Facebook page here.)
Sadly, before the restaurant could open, Yates died at age 63 following a battle with cancer.
Yates had purchased the building in May 2014 for $1,675,000. The Yates family has remained quiet about the future of Yates Pizza Palace since Jeffrey Yates passed away. Attempts earlier this week to reach Jason Yates (Jeffrey’s brother) and the land use attorney of record, M. Catharine Puskar, were unsuccessful.
The building had been for sale and lease for more than a year, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate database. The owner of the building and business is listed on City paperwork as the Jeffrey Lee Yates Trust.
The Alexandria Generous George’s Positive Pizza location opened in the 1970s and closed in 2009.
