Village Pizzeria & Kitchen has opened a second location inside The Downtown Exchange food hall in Zanesville, moving into the space left behind after Rustic Slice departed the venue. The pizzeria is co-owned by Jalene Walton and Craig Hamilton, who also run the original Village Pizzeria & Kitchen in Frazeysburg.
According to WHIZ, the Zanesville expansion comes after a successful first year at the Frazeysburg shop and what the outlet describes as an excellent response to the new location. Walton said she hopes the community will give the new spot a try, and the Zanesville location is currently hiring for both full-time and part-time positions, the station reports.
The new location keeps things consistent with its sister restaurant. Per the same report, Village Pizzeria & Kitchen uses the same pizza oven as the Frazeysburg store and cooks its pies on a pizza stone rather than a conveyor oven, preserving what the owners call their original-style pizza. The menu includes subs, salads, wings and stromboli, along with nearly a dozen specialty pizzas.
A Second Act Inside a Historic Building
The new pizzeria's home is itself a piece of Zanesville history. The Downtown Exchange is located at 527 Main Street, in an Italianate building constructed in 1876, according to Ohio's Hill Country Heritage Area. The building sits near the Muskingum County Courthouse in the heart of downtown.
Long before it became a food hall, the building housed the Jupiter Department Store, which later inspired the venue's Lucky Jupiter Bar, and it also operated for a time as the Olde Towne Antique Mall, Ohio Magazine reports. During renovations, workers uncovered an 1880 signature on the plaster left by C.E. Johnson, an itinerant barn painter from Zanesville who signed his work on April 10, 1880, according to The Downtown Exchange. The owners preserved the signature for public display inside the building.
Built to Feed a Downtown Workforce
The Downtown Exchange itself was born from an adaptive reuse project co-owned by local entrepreneurs Brian and Mary Diamond and Judd and Cara Dodson, backed by a $400,000 grant from the JobsOhio Vibrant Community Program, per Ohio Business Magazine. The venue was described in 2023 as having a first-floor food hall and upper-floor coworking and meeting space, according to REBusinessOnline.
Local economic development leaders noted in 2023 that roughly 1,000 workers were employed in downtown Zanesville daily with limited dining options nearby, a gap that helped drive the push to build a central food hall, Ohio Business Magazine reported. The hall was designed to minimize menu overlap among its vendors, and past tenants have included Chapman's Coffee House, Tacology, Taste of Greece, Haya Hibachi and Bee Sweet Desserts, according to Ohio Magazine.
A Rotating Roster of Independent Vendors
Like many food halls in their early years, The Downtown Exchange has seen its vendor lineup shift over time. The food hall's lineup has included tenants such as Wood's Meat & Deli and Rustic Slice, according to the ZanesViral Facebook page.
Village Pizzeria & Kitchen's original Frazeysburg location is at 226 West 3rd Street, where it serves pizza. The Frazeysburg shop is part of the brand's presence in the broader Muskingum County community as the owners bring it into Zanesville's downtown core.
