Universal Pizza targets late April opening date
Tables, chairs, bar stools and other furnishings and equipment are already in place at the new Universal Pizza restaurant on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard in Clinton, which will be opening soon, (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
In November, he had predicted that the new restaurant would open by late January, but he said that had been delayed by the January snowstorm that caused work on some of his other restaurant properties to take precedence.
“The snow in January set us far behind,” he told The Courier News. “But starting [this] week, we will have managers out there and start hiring, and plan to get opened before the end of April.”
Although there is no sign up yet over the business, Burleson said it “has been ordered,” and will be in place soon.
He also said the restaurant has a liquor license application “in progress” with the state ABC Board.
The city of Clinton on Nov. 29 granted a beer permit for the new restaurant, which plans to offer 36 craft beer varieties, according to Burleson.
Burleson, who owns the Aubrey’s restaurant group in the Knoxville area, said Universal Pizza will be patterned after two other area restaurants he owns – Stefano’s Pizza in Hardin Valley and the Blue Tick Tavern in Maryville.
“We will be combining those two concepts into one in the Clinton location,” he said earlier.
The restaurant will have table service, and will feature pizza and sandwiches, along with the beer choices. Burleson said Universal Pizza will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
The location is on the east end of the new four-unit Clinton Shopping Center, which is between Sonic Drive-In and Wenday’s.
Three other businesses have already opened in the center, the most recent of which is US Cellular. Also in the center is a Penn Station East Coast Subs location, which opened last April, and the Fifth Nail Lounge, a nail salon, which opened in August.
Christopoulos & Kennedy Construction of Knoxville is building the interior of Universal Pizza, which will have 3,178 square feet of space.
As for the center overall, the city of Clinton issued a building permit in May 2022 for the nearly $1 million, 7,000-square-foot shell building at the site. The contractor was listed as Creative Structures, Inc.
The site is less than a mile from Interstate 75, Exit 122. It has about 75 parking spaces, according to documents filed with the city.
The 1.2-acre site was previously owned by LKM Properties, the holding company for Weigel’s convenience stores properties.
City Manager Roger Houck said Weigel’s had plans earlier to put a second Clinton store on that site, but gave up on the idea when the Tennessee Department of Transportation declined a request for a cut through the median on Seivers Boulevard so traffic could access the store from both sides of the highway.