Whitney Pizza opened its doors for the first time on Sept. 12 after taking over the space that once was Falcon Pizza.
Falcon Pizza shut down on March 1 after failing to submit a sales and use tax permit. The Instagram account @qubarstool was first to inform students about the restaurant’s suspension through a post.
The post featured a photo of a document from the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, notifying that the store was suspended.
“There (are) a lot of students asking for Falcon Pizza, ‘are you guys Falcon?,’” said Selim Sahin, co-owner of Whitney Pizza. “We’re here to serve, nothing else. Just sell food to them, make our money, make customers happy, sell fresh, fast.”
Falcon Pizza has had its place on 3394 Whitney Ave. since February 2017 and was a staple to some Quinnipiac University students, alongside other nearby pizzerias such as Tonino’s Pizzeria, Domino’s Pizza and Eli’s Brick Oven Pizza.
“I’ve never been in (Falcon Pizza), but I ordered from it all the time,” said Jack Casey, a junior biology major. “I liked their calzones a lot, and their pizza too.”
Whitney Pizza offers similar commodities that Falcon Pizza offered to Quinnipiac students. This includes the ability to use QCash to pay for their meal and food delivery to campus. They also have their menu on Slice, GrubHub, UberEats and DoorDash.
“It’s open late, (there’s) good workers (and) they’re friendly,” said Owen Brady, a junior media studies major. “It was a good late night snack when you need it.”
Whitney Pizza boasts late night hours to accommodate students as well. It’s open from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. from Sunday until Wednesday and open from 11 a.m. until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
“We have every single item on the menu … you could eat spaghetti and meatballs at 2 a.m., it’s totally up to you,” Sahin said.
Selim and Yavuz Sahin, the owners of Whitney Pizza, hoped to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony and open the restaurant before students arrived at Quinnipiac for the semester. A family emergency prevented both of these from occurring.
“Everyone comes in here shocked, ‘oh, you’re open,’ everyone comes in happy,” Selim Sahin said. “We see that, we feel that, we feel the warm welcome, it makes us happy too. We’re excited that they… wanted someone here.”
This isn’t Selim Sahin’s first business venture, as he helps run Andy’s Pizza in West Haven. The restaurant has been in business for 30 years and has been a staple to the community. Before Sahin and his partners took over, the restaurant was previously owned by someone else. They decided to keep its original name.
Despite the name change, the menus between Falcon’s and Whitney are similar. “California Dream” and “Fisherman Delight” are a few of the pizza names that are the same in both menus.
“Here, one main thing is we have everything fresh, nothing is canned here … Dough is made fresh daily. Our sauce, nothing is (from) restock or extra. It’s out, we make a new one,” Selim Sahin said. “And as a business owner, I believe that for me, to be successful in the restaurant business, you do it fast, sell it fast, and you’re on top of your business.”
Whitney Pizza has people in the community come in and see the new restaurant and to pick up their menu.
“We have so many people coming here not to buy stuff (but to say) ‘hi, welcome, you guys are here,’ it’s good,” Selim Sahin said.
The Sahin brothers and their team are looking forward to serve their food to the community, especially the Quinnipiac student body.
“We appreciate the warm welcoming from Quinnipiac, people are happy, people want us here, it gets (us) more excited,” Selim Sahin said.
