Kouzina Angelina’s, the Shaw pizzeria long known for New York-style slices and late-night hospitality, is officially for sale. The listing marks a potential turning point for a Florida Avenue NW spot that regulars have treated as a neighborhood fixture for years.
The news came by way of a tip from a reader named Patrick, who messaged PoPville to report that Angelina’s business was officially on the market, prompting the outlet to declare, “Angelina’s is officially for sale!! End of an era.” The pizzeria sits at Florida and 8th NW, next to the former Town nightclub space, a stretch of Shaw that has seen plenty of turnover over the years. A business listing site, postcard.inc, places the address at 725 Florida Ave NW and describes the spot as a New York-style pizza-by-the-slice shop that built a reputation as an LGBTQ+-friendly, late-night go-to.
The restaurant carries the name of Angelina Pappas, who PoPville previously remembered as an icon of the neighborhood for many people over many years. She was recalled as a warm, hospitable presence to countless late-night partygoers who passed through the order counter over the years. An editor’s note on a prior PoPville post said there was one mention online indicating Pappas died in April 2025, though that detail has not been independently confirmed elsewhere.
A Son Carrying On at the Counter
Even after Pappas’s passing, the pizzeria kept something of its old rhythm. A previous report from popville.com described Angelina’s son working the same order counter where she used to hold court, greeting customers at the same spot that had long been the heart of the operation.
Part of a Rough Stretch for D.C. Restaurants
The listing lands amid a broader wave of closures across Washington’s restaurant scene. According to WTOP, a string of high-profile spots in downtown D.C., Chinatown, Penn Quarter and nearby neighborhoods shut down within a recent six-month stretch, including Cranes, Arrels, Michele’s and Tonari. The outlet also reported that Métier, after a decade of service near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, closed in December 2025 alongside Kinship, the restaurant located above it.
Restaurateur Eric Ziebold pointed to a mix of pressures weighing on the industry, telling the station that people aren’t going downtown as regularly as they used to, citing lease uncertainty, traffic, crime concerns and parking as compounding factors. Even so, the same report found some signs of recovery: downtown office attendance climbed to 48% from March through December 2025, up 4% over the comparable period the year before, and the Downtown Business Improvement District’s 2025 report logged a 2.5% rise in overall foot traffic. None of that has offset rising costs, with restaurant food costs reported to be running 34% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
It remains unclear what sparked the decision to sell Kouzina Angelina’s, who might be listing or buying the property, or what terms are attached to the sale. For now, the pizzeria’s fate — and whatever comes next for the Florida Avenue storefront that bears Angelina Pappas’s name — is an open question for the Shaw community that grew up ordering slices under her watch.
