For years, Georgiana Kotsironis felt like she had a primo location for a neighborhood bar. After all, the Navy Yard district of Dracut doesn’t have a lot of pubs where you can grab a bite and a beer and watch a game.
So Georgiana and her husband, Christos, owners of Primo Pizza, 149 Parker Avenue, decided to add on to their already popular pizza and sandwich shop by just about doubling their space with a pub.
Primo’s Pub opened in December and held a grand opening on January 22. Dracut Economic Development hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“I felt it would be nice to have another option on this side of town,” Georgiana said. “A lot of customers would ask us, ‘When are you going to put a bar in here?’”
And like the movie says, if you build it, they will come.
“Things are going really well,” Georgiana said of the pub’s first month of business. “The community has been very receptive, and we’ve been getting really good feedback. We love being in town. I grew up in Dracut. I went to Dracut High School. I love the customers. It’s the best part of the job. This community has really been good to us.”
Primo Pizza first opened in the lot next door at the corner of Parker Avenue and Hampson Street in 1997. The Kotsironises moved to 147 Parker Avenue about 10 years ago.
Christos had worked at pizza shops before he and Georgiana decided to open their own.
“I was nine months pregnant, I left my job, and any money we had, we put into this,” said Georgiana, adding that her father, George Raikos, loaned them some money to help them get started.
When it came time to satisfy customers’ desires and add a pub, Georgiana and son Andreas (who was born just as his parents were opening Primo Pizza) designed it, and they hired Dracut contractors Palacio Construction to build it.
They hired a restaurant consultant to help them with the menu, and he told them to take the top 30 items they offer in the pizza shop and offer them in the pub.
“It allows us to have more fun with the menu,” Georgiana says. “You can still order pizza, seafood, steak tips, salads.”
Georgiana said the pub will be adding local musicians, including Mike Gacek performing on Valentine’s Day, as well as karaoke and other surprises.
For more information, call Primo Pizza & Pub at 978-957-4856, email primocateringdracut@comcast.net, or visit www.primopizzadracut.com.
CAPTION:
From left at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Primo Pizza Pub on January 22 are Kara Curley, representing the Dracut Health Department; Jennifer Kopcinski, member of the Board of Selectmen and co-chair of the Economic Development Committee; Karen Davis, manager of Eastern Bank’s Dracut branch and a member of the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; owners Christos and Georgiana Kotsironis; Walter Palacio, owner of Palacio Construction, which built the pub; Ellen Papageorgiou, Georgiana’s sister; Elaine Ridge, who has worked at Primo for 23 years; and Tim Savage, a member of the Economic Development Committee. (DRACUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PHOTO)