Papalino's NY Pizzeria on Baxter closes

Papalino's NY Artisan Pizza, voted "Best of Louisville" this year by Louisville Magazine readers, abruptly closed its Baxter Avenue location in the Highlands on Sept. 27 amid a lease dispute.

"It all happened so quickly," restaurant spokesman Luke Blackburn said Friday of the rift between new owners and their landlord about available space. "We needed to close it. We are licking our wounds and getting it back together."

Papalino's suburban branch at 3598 Springhurst Boulevard remains open, Blackburn said.

The Highlands Papalino's was founded by Louisville chef Allan Rosenberg and businessman John Browne in 2010, selling premium New York City style slices to rival the likes of Spinelli's Pizza down the street.

"The vision for Papalino's was just to be the little tiny place you come to, where you're not paying for the ambiance or the top notch seating, you're paying to get a great piece of pizza and take it for a walk," Browne said Friday.

"I would look out the front window flipping a pie. There would be a girl with tattoos and piercings and her boyfriend and they would be cracking up with a couple in their seventies while there were businessmen standing there eating pizza," Browne added. "Great food can level all diversities and playing fields. The goal was to be the melting pot, to do one thing really, exceptionally well."

The pizza joint will missed, neighbors said.

"Papalino's was a gathering point for all the kids to come eat. It was the only place you could get real New York style pizza," said Karyn Moskowitz, the executive of New Roots, a nonprofit that helps connect consumers to seasonal healthy produce. "For the original Highlands, it was one of the few places you could go that is not a bar."

A Papalino's outlet operated briefly at the Shoppes of Cardinal Towne on West Cardinal Boulevard at the University of Louisville's Belknap campus for most of 2012. In February, 2013, Browne said he sold his share of the business to new owners Jeff and Shelly Wellemeyer.

Wellemeyer is a tech entrepreneur who founded his Smoothstone IP Communications telecommunications company, which was sold to Omaha-based West Corp. in 2011, for $120 million.

Rosenberg left Papalino's in July, and now works as a chef at Cena Italian Trattoria on Taylorsville Road in Jeffersontown. He could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The Baxter Avenue location had recently lost its beer license, Blackburn added.

"The challenge was not having a liquor license and the trouble getting that reinstated and remodeling the restaurant and bringing it back," Blackburn said. "It was substandard from what we wanted it to be from a cleanliness and design feel."

The Wellemeiers are scouting a new Highlands location as they envision a Papalino's concept that includes a "full bar, Italian-inspired pastas and salads, to fresh-made desserts," Blackburn said. "We don't want to mess with what makes us a favorite, but we know we can do so much more with the brand in the right location."

Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669, Jere Downs on Facebook and @Jeredowns on Twitter.