Juice Bar On Main Street, Pizza Shop At 1000 Division

The weather's still cold, but looking at the new businesses opening or planning to open in town, hibernation season is definitely over. Two more businesses announced themselves at Monday night's Town Council meeting: PieZoni's and Raw Bob's.

PieZoni's is a small pizza restaurant chain based in East Providence, with 15 restaurants in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Owners have leased space at 1000 Division Street (East Greenwich Marketplace) next to Orange Leaf frozen yogurt shop and hope to open by July.

The Town Council approved both a victualing license and a beer-and-wine liquor license for the restaurant. The move did not require increasing the liquor license cap because there are three available licenses right now (including two for restaurants that have closed – Island Pizza and Taste of China).

Ilidio Vicente, who owns the franchise along with John Auger, said they anticipate doing about half take out and half eat in business. The liquor license will allow those who eat in or are waiting for their pizza to have a glass of wine or a beer. There will not be a bar, he said.

Across town, at 249 Main Street, Raw Bob's Organic Juicery is planning to be nothing but a bar ... but with no alcohol involved. As their name suggests, everything will be raw, made with organic ingredients – fruit and vegetable juices. It will be "grab and go," said Patty Burton, owner of the business with Daniel Rubio. 

"We decided that it was kind of a way of life that people were looking towards but don’t typically do it in their homes and stick with it," Burton said.

The shop, next to Symposium Books, had been Perle Nails (which moved to Greenwich Village down the street). They plan to open in "two weeks or less," Rubio said.