Bavaro's to open in Clearwater Beach
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 14, 2023

Bavaro's Pizza Napoletana & Pastaria is coming to Clearwater Beach.

Founder Dan Bavaro told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that he's leased 1,800 square feet in Mandalay Plaza, a retail property owned by Tampa-based Dervech Real Estate Inc. It will cost around $1 million to renovate the storefront — previously home to Coldwell Banker Realty — and Bavaro plans to open by year's end.

The restaurant will create 50 jobs. Dervech had previously approached Bavaro about a different location, one that was 3,000 square feet, in Mandalay Plaza. But the timing wasn't right; he'd just opened the Sarasota restaurant and felt the real estate office would be a better fit for Bavaro's. Ideal real estate for the chain ranges from 1,200 to 2,000 square feet.

Bank of Central Florida will finance the new location. Bavaro's, founded in Tampa in 2009, has locations in St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Tampa International Airport. It serves Neapolitan-style pizza, Italian food and pasta dishes. The company also sells its gourmet sauces. Each restaurant averages $2.1 million in annual sales, Bavaro said.

Bavaro said the company is building an infrastructure for statewide expansion. The growth may include additional airport locations.

"I'm not looking to put up three or four per year," Bavaro said. "We're going to do it right; the goal is to keep them there."

The Clearwater location is an anomaly for Bavaro; he owns his other restaurants' real estate.

"We did attempt to buy two locations," he said, "but the numbers just didn't work."

He's opened a commissary kitchen in Pinellas County to help facilitate the expansion and would eventually like to have a building that houses all of the infrastructure for growth, including an office, commissary space and a market that sells Bavaro's goods, like its sauces.

TWT Restaurant Design Construction and Development is the contractor on the project.