In Charlotte’s Lower South End, a familiar glow has returned.
The neon sign that once hung above a beloved neighborhood pizzeria in the 1990s is lit again, its red script spelling out a name many longtime locals remember: Zepeddie’s.
More than three decades after it first opened, and more than twenty years after it closed, the Zepsa family has brought their pizza shop back to life, this time with a deeper sense of craft, heritage and purpose.
Zepeddie’s isn’t just a catchy name. It’s a piece of family history.
The name blends the Zepsa surname with that of the father, Eduard, a Serbian immigrant who came to the United States at just 9 years old. His journey took him through Ellis Island and onward by train to Chicago, where he would eventually build the family’s businesses and lay the foundation for the next generation.
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Brian and Peter Zepsa were born in Chicago but raised in Charlotte. Brian’s wife, Diana, originally from New York, but raised in Charlotte, comes from a family with roots in Bari, Italy. She oversees public relations and social media for the restaurant.
The first Zepeddie’s opened in 1994 in Charlotte’s Woodlawn Road area. It was very much a family operation. Brian was still in high school, running deliveries. Peter worked the counter and cooked. Their mother, Maripat, loved being in the kitchen developing recipes. It didn’t take long for the shop to become a neighborhood favorite, known for its New York–style slices and family warmth.
But by the late ’90s, with the brothers heading off to college, the family sold the restaurant. The new owners closed just a few years later, and by 2001, Zepeddie’s had disappeared. In 2024, the Zepsas decided it was time to bring it back. The new Zepeddie’s sits in Charlotte’s LoSo district inside what was once the family’s woodworking business. The original neon sign has been restored and mounted once again, a bright symbol of the restaurant’s past and present.
Brian Zepsa, now armed with a culinary and hospitality degree, leads the revival. He grew up in the restaurant, and the new location reflects both his childhood memories and his professional evolution. “This is about honoring what we built as a family,” he says, “but doing it with the ingredients and techniques we’ve learned over the years.”
Today’s Zepeddie’s is built on a philosophy of involvement and quality. The family, alongside Chris Gianino, control every step of the process. The dough, used for pizzas, focaccia, and sandwich bread, is made in-house using organic flour milled in North Carolina from wheat also grown in the state. The team maintains its own starter and follows a dough formula refined over years, with a two- to three-day cold-proofing process.
Everything is prepped fresh daily, and during the summer, the restaurant leans heavily on local farms, including the Zepsas ’ own micro farm outside Charlotte. The seasonal “ Summer of Tomatoes” menu celebrates heirloom varieties in a rainbow of colors, showing up in bruschetta, sandwiches, and pizzas topped with fresh-picked herbs.
Guiding the kitchen is General Manager Chris Gianino, who brings his own deep pizza pedigree. Raised in New Haven, Connecticut, arguably one of America’s great pizza cities, Gianino comes from a Sicilian family and has been making pizza most of his life. He previously ran a wholesale bakery in Tryon, North Carolina, supplying bread to more than 20 restaurants, and later worked with notable chefs in Nashville before becoming a restaurant consultant across the Southeast.The Zepsas eventually recruited him to Charlotte to help lead the new Zepeddie’s.
Together, the team offers both classic New York–style thin crust pies and thicker Sicilian-inspired squares, alongside creative specialty pizzas. This isn’t a retro concept dreamed up by a marketing team. It’s a real neighborhood brand, brought back by the same family that built it the first time. The atmosphere blends nostalgia and modern Charlotte energy, appealing to both longtime locals and a new generation of diners.
For Brian, the revival feels like coming home. As a teenager, he spent his evenings delivering pizzas from the original shop. Today, he’s back behind the counter, this time shaping the future of a family legacy, one slice at a time.
