A new walk-in pizzeria is opening this week at 12718 Larchmere Blvd., bringing 18-inch, New York-style pies sold by the slice or pie to a stretch of Cleveland's East Side that's already become a pizza destination. La Pecora Slice Shop is the latest move from the father-and-son team of Juan and Carlos Vergara, who are converting their old-school Latin restaurant empire into a family of pizza concepts one storefront at a time.
The slice shop is a sister business to La Pecora Pizza Bar, the intimate Neapolitan-style spot the Vergaras opened on Larchmere two years ago, according to Cleveland Magazine. Where the pizza bar is dinner-only and cooks slow-fermented dough in a wood-burning oven, the new slice shop will be open for lunch and dinner every day, with a 65-seat dining room where customers order at the counter and sit wherever they choose. The magazine describes it as family-friendly and very casual, a deliberate contrast to the pizza bar's more intimate bar-seating experience.
Per the same outlet's reporting, the slice shop's pizzas will be thin and crisp, naturally fermented using a sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast, and rounded out by a simple, streamlined menu of salads and pastas. Juan or Carlos Vergara has said the goal is pizza that's accessible to people unfamiliar with New York or Neapolitan styles, while still being something unique and delicious — the father-and-son team's way of developing their own versions of existing concepts rather than just copying them.
A Pizza-Only Pivot After 15 Years in Latin Dining
A Pizza-Only Pivot After 15 Years in Latin Dining The new slice shop caps a dramatic reshaping of the Vergara family's business that began earlier this year. Barroco Grill, which opened in 2011 in Lakewood, expanded over time into multiple concepts stretching from Westlake to Willoughby before the family shut down all remaining locations this year. In February, Juan Vergara announced the closure of Barroco Grill's Lakewood and Crocker Park locations, telling Cleveland Scene that managing a 50-item scratch-made menu requiring imported Colombian ingredients had become unsustainable alongside family health matters. The closures were part of the family's shift toward pizza.
Carlos and Juan Vergara had first opened Barroco Grill in 2011 as a modest 12-seat Latin American cafe at 12906 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, eventually expanding it to 80 seats and launching additional locations across Greater Cleveland, according to historical background cited by Cleveland Scene. Rather than shutter everything outright, the father-and-son team sold off secondary concepts instead of closing them for good. In May, former VP of Operations Margarita Reyes and her brother Luis Felipe purchased and reopened Hola Tacos at 12102 Madison Avenue in Lakewood from the Vergara family, as reported by Cleveland Magazine. That same month, new co-owners Magdalena Medica and Juan Sebastian Albornoz Ramirez acquired Amazonia in Lakewood from the Vergaras, repositioning it from a pizza-forward bar into a Latin American house-inspired cocktail lounge, per Cleveland Scene's coverage.
Why Pizza, and Why Larchmere
Why Pizza, and Why Larchmere The original La Pecora Pizza Bar opened on Larchmere as an intimate Neapolitan pizzabar, according to Cleveland Scene. Cleveland Magazine says it opened about two years before its September 2026 report. By this past July, Vergara explained to Cleveland Magazine that focusing on dough fermentation and pizza allows the family business to maintain product quality more manageably than running complex, multi-item Latin street food concepts — the operational logic behind trading Barroco's sprawling menu for a narrower, pizza-centered focus.
Cleveland Magazine's reporting describes La Pecora as a Larchmere creation unique to the neighborhood, one that has attracted people who enjoy sitting at the bar and watching pizzas being made. The Vergaras concentrated their attention on Larchmere after shutting down their other concepts, and the slice shop represents the next phase of that focus — a lower-key, counter-service companion to the original pizza bar just steps away.
Lakewood Is Next on the List
Once La Pecora Slice Shop is running smoothly, the Vergaras plan to shift their attention back to Lakewood, where they're converting the original Barroco property into a different type of neighborhood pizza shop. Cleveland Magazine has reported that Juan Vergara intends to open Juan's Pizza in that former original Lakewood Barroco space at 12906 Madison Avenue this fall, continuing the family's pattern of turning former Latin dining rooms into pizza shops.
The slice shop's debut also lands amid a broader wave of pizza openings across Greater Cleveland in 2026, a trend Cleveland Magazine has tied to new locations for Boom's Pizza in Solon and Avon and Virginia-based Benny's Pizza in Ohio City. On Larchmere itself, the pizza shop's arrival follows the summer opening of Larchmere Reserve, a 55-seat jazz club and restaurant at 12635 Larchmere Blvd., which Hoodline covered in a new jazz club for Larchmere. The boulevard has operated as an organized merchant district straddling Cleveland and Shaker Heights since 1971, long known for its independent galleries, antique shops, and events like the annual Larchmere PorchFest — a backdrop against which the Vergaras' new slice shop is set to become the neighborhood's latest walk-in favorite.
