Italian Eatery Focusing on its Mall Location

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Picnic Pizza opened their Italian Eatery in Colony Square Mall’s Food Court in 1981, which began their legacy in Zanesville’s business community.

They opened their Maple Avenue location 11-years-later to offer a more authentic dining experience but the post pandemic complexities of staffing, leasing and inflation, on top of aging and enjoying time with grandkids has led them to shut down their Maple Avenue restaurant. 

“In 1981, all the young kids wanted to make pizza. A lot of high school(ers), a lot of people said thank you for paying for my college. Now it’s hard. After Covid everything had raised. The price of everything that people look at anymore and the town is bringing more restaurants than everything else,” Picnic Pizza Co-Owner Vincenzo Buzetta said.

The decision to close the Maple Avenue location allows the owners to focus on their Colony Square Mall location, which is one of only two of the mall’s original businesses that still remain.

“Yeah, so we would like to thank everybody. All the loyal customers that have been coming here for so many years. But we want to tell them to come and see us in the mall,” Picnic Pizza Co-Owner Antonino Russo said.

Buzzetta and Russo were childhood friends in Italy before both families separately migrated to America and crossed paths again in New York. 

The two worked in the restaurant business at various locations in the 1970s before beginning their shopping mall venture here in Zanesville.

As with most family businesses, all of their kids contributed as teenagers. Now, two of them continue the family tradition as the operators of Tony and Enzo’s and Russo’s Wood Fired, which are separate businesses right here in Zanesville that offer a wider variety of pies. 

Picnic Pizza is the defining example of America being a nation of immigrants who left their home to pursue greater opportunities and discover ways to build a more abundant life through their efforts.

Many businesses open in Muskingum County each year but few remain as commonly recognized and as tastefully relevant decades later.