Pizza Hut has worked hard in recent years to remove itself from red roof casual-dining spots in favor of off-premises-focused locations. Hundreds of stores have shut down as part of the ongoing strategy.

For Pupatella, an eight-unit pizzeria based in the DMV area, it’s a classic case of “another man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” That’s what the chain found in Reston, Virginia, a few years ago when it debuted inside a former Pizza Hut that originally opened in the mid-1970s. The space had everything Pupatella needed to achieve its goal of being a higher-class neighborhood pizzeria, managing partner Michael Berger says, including a standalone building, ample parking, and convenient patio space. Most importantly, it’s “right dead center” in the community.

Berger understands the power of these neighborhood spots on a personal level. The executive grew up near the Reston location and remembers being part of Little League team parties.

“There’s not a lot of them left,” Berger says. “We saw this one and we’re like, ‘Huh, I wonder what other Pizza Huts are out there that might still be hanging around, that might be looking to make a move out of that stage. That then led us to looking for some more of those types of locations.”

Pupatella moved into another Pizza Hut store a month and a half ago in Leesburg, Virginia, and is in the process of completing a third renovation in Columbia, Maryland. That one is scheduled to open in early 2024.

Pizza Hut is well-known for its classic red top hat look, but it eventually transformed into more of a traditional roof over the years. At the Reston location, Pupatella decided to bring the look back and removed cladding to expose the original roof. The chain added black matte metal to match its color scheme and undid low ceilings so customers could look up into the cavity of the building. During these retrofits, Pupatella can save money on basic equipment like a walk-in cooler and doors, but the brand believes it’s best to scrape nearly everything.

“These buildings have been around so long and the construction is so old that it makes sense to just redo the mechanical and everything inside of the restaurant just to make sure it’s as resilient as we needed it to be,” says CEO Cord Thomas.

The changes are necessary for Pupatella to capture the right experience. Enzo Algarme, who founded the chain with his wife Anastasiya in 2007, was professionally trained in Naples, Italy, and noticed a gap in the marketplace when he arrived in the U.S. in the early 2000s. There weren’t good options for Neapolitan pizza unless it was white tablecloth.

Pupatella is for families that don’t want to drive to Washington, D.C. to get a quality slice of pizza. It’s the pizza you bring to your friend’s house. The brand also lends itself to date night at an approachable price point. Customers that order two pizzas can get $10 off a bottle of wine, which brings the price to around $15 per bottle.

When Pupatella’s next pizzeria becomes approved by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana—the legal Italian entity defining what Neapolitan pizza should be—the company will have the most certified locations of any concept in the U.S. To obtain certification, the pizza must be made according to a 200-year-old technique and only wood-fired ovens are allowed.

“Our goal was to become a top-quality pizzeria in an approachable, comfortable environment—inside these communities that don’t have to drive into D.C. to get that top-quality pizza,” Berger says. “We’re here in your neighborhood. And so that’s been a lot of our passion for our growth is to bring this style of pizza into neighborhoods where it may be something that they never had the opportunity to have right in their backyard.”

Guests order at the counter in most locations, but the chain is experimenting with a full-service model. Pupatella has found that in new markets, a casual-dining setup makes it easier to explain its story and manage the line. The company likes what it sees thus far, but hasn’t committed toward a systemwide change yet.

Thomas is well aware that Pupatella is zigging while everyone else is zagging in the industry. There are several full-service chains—IHOP, Buffalo Wild Wings, P.F. Chang’s, Friendly’s, TGI Fridays, and more—that are opting for quick service due to higher construction costs and bigger off-premises mixes. But Cord says people are more discerning with their dollars nowadays, and they want to spend on valuable experiences. The CEO wants to keep that in-restaurant atmosphere in place.

“How do we bring that back? Just as we’re trying to bring back the neighborhood pizzeria and bring folks locally as opposed to the corporate pizza places,” Cord says. “How can we help  bring something more local back and more curated to the guests and just give them a better experience? We think it’s going to be a winning strategy. People are really looking for those higher touch points and really looking for just something different. It doesn’t feel like they’re trying to be forced out of a restaurant. They can just enjoy time with their family and friends.”

Looking toward the future, Pupatella will continue to build inside the DMV market. The brand secured its second round of financing from investors to open 10-15 additional locations. It’s focused on building as north as Baltimore and as south as Gainesville, Virginia. Pupatella targets between 2,500 and 2,800 square feet, 80-100 seats inside, and about 50 seats on the outside.

All stores are corporately owned except for one in Richmond, Virginia. Cord says the brand wants to understand the model before it asks operators to replicate it. Operational details have to be worked out, but at its core, Pupatella knows what it wants to be.

“The whole pizza market has become this thing where people just pick up these boxes of pizza to take home and they’re not excited about it,” Cord says. “There’s no experience associated with it, and we really see an opportunity in the market to bring that back. We engage in the community and coming in and enjoying just a normal pizza dinner on a Friday or Saturday night.”