Business is hopping again at 80 Broadway. The latest addition to the downtown Norwich restaurant scene has been open for the past few weeks. Pie Hops is located in the building formerly occupied by Cafe Otis, which fell victim to the pandemic lockdown. The new endeavor is a joint venture of businessman Bill Neilson and Executive Chef Mark Vecchitto.

The new restaurant serves brick-oven pizza, but don’t call the establishment just a pizza place.

“We also feature giant burgers, dinner specials at night, ‘crazy’ nachos, and chicken wings. Plus we have 16 local specialty craft beers on tap, with more to be offered in cans. We’re a gastro-pub that sells pizza,” Vecchitto said.

The burgers are piled high with toppings, including the MacDaddy, which includes macaroni and cheese, bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and “donkey sauce” that delivers a kick. Pizzas include “You’re Bacon Me Crazy,” which includes provolone cheese, carmelized onions, a honey garlic drizzle, and, of course, lots of bacon.

Perhaps, though, the most unusual menu items are the tin can nachos, piled high on a plate inside a tall tin can, which the server slides off at the customer’s table.

Vecchitto says the menu is still evolving, based on the customers’ palates. There are daily specials.

“It’s Norwich, though. I don’t want to go over the top with the menu,” he said. “This is fun. Just trying to feel out the crowd.”

The new restaurant is decked out for the holidays. The most notable change in the kitchen is a new brick pizza oven obtained from a California restaurant that went under due to the pandemic.

“It was quite an effort to get the oven into Pie Hops,” said Vecchitto. “We had to take out a door and use a crane to get the oven in here.”

It can cook as many as six pizzas at once, reaching a temperature of 675 degrees. It takes only about three minutes for each pizza.

Vecchitto has been in the kitchen for some 40 years, including stints as executive chefs at the Captain Daniel Packer Inne in Mystic, and the Mystic Marriott in Groton, which was his previous job. He attended cooking school in Flagstaff, Ariz., and for a time was a chef at an Italian restaurant in Roswell, N.M. — not exactly an area known for Italian cuisine.

The Meriden native later moved back to his home state, where he became executive chef at the Omni Restaurant at Yale University in New Haven, in between his employment at the Packer Inne and the Marriott.

“I’ve done fine dining most of my life, but Pie Hops is a really cool place. Bill and I hope to make this a destination location,” he said.

Customers seem to like the new restaurant. Andy Hatch of Norwich has been there a couple of times, and said it’s a “very cool environment. I like the set-up, like the beer list, and like the food options. I hope these guys have a lot of success.”

Norwich City Planner Deanna Rhodes says she’s gotten lunch there three times already.

“It’s been wonderful,” she said. “I’m so pleased that we have another restaurant in this location. It’s a beautiful building, and another sign that downtown is becoming a more vibrant area.”

Pie Hops is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Plans are to open seven days a week come summer, when the pandemic is expected to subside.

Vecchitto also envisions outdoor dining, as well as events in the nearby parking lot. He wants the new business to establish ties with other local establishments, including possible dinner theatre options with the nearby Norwich Arts Center.

Plans eventually call for delivery service, either by restaurant employees, or through an external service, such as Grub Hub. There have also been some local musical acts performing, all according to appropriate COVID protocols. Take-out is available by calling (860) 77PIZZA (777-4992).

“It’s doing well so far,” said Vechitto. “I hope it bring more people out to downtown Norwich.”

Kevin Gorden lives in Norwich.