Local pizzeria to return years after closure

SAN ANGELO, Texas ( Concho Valley Homepage ) — After two years of closure, a downtown pizzeria and coffee shop plans to reopen in San Angelo with a new name, location and focus. Stango’s is coming back — here’s what you need to know.

According to Steve Stango, owner of the upcoming Stango’s Pizza Parlor, profit-making difficulties in the years before and during the COVID-19 pandemic led him to close and reopen his business, then known as Stango’s Coffee Shop, on multiple occasions. The shop closed for the final time on Oct. 29, 2022, seemingly for good.

“It (the COVID-19 pandemic) was terrible for everybody, but I opened up again and ran it, and it just wasn’t the same,” Stango said. “I shut it down, and then a year later, I opened up again and tried it for a year, and I just gave up.”

Stango hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet, however. The new pizza parlor will be inside the old Sealy Flats building at 208 S. Oakes St., adjacent to the Historic Sealy House. Stango said he hopes to open the business sometime during the first or second week of October.

“I had this building that I rented out, and the people that were there really wasn’t using it, and I took it back, and they were happy, and I said, ‘Let’s try the pizza again here!'” Stango said.

Stango said he plans to take a more concentrated approach this time, focusing primarily on selling the same pizza that was baked at the coffee shop years ago while also reining in the variety that was offered there. Despite this, Stango also shared that the business plans to sell beer and wine as well as a limited menu of “light Italian foods,” such as spaghetti or ravioli, that will only be sold on specific days of the week.

“We’re doing full pizza. … We’ll have a good coffee, but you won’t be able to get espressos and all those items. We’re not going to be big on the ice cream, we’re not going to have sandwiches really except maybe meatball,” Stango said. “After we get going, we’re going to have maybe two things on the menu.”

Stango stated that the decision to concentrate on a smaller selection of food and drinks will ensure patrons will have a quality meal whenever they visit.

“We’ll be able to concentrate on those one or two meals, making each one of them as good as we can besides offering like most menus that have 10 or 15 items on it, and they’re thrown together,” Stango said. “We just want to make it as best as we can, and I think offering one or two meals is better than offering 14.”

The location will feature a full patio and a stage. While Stango said that the parlor would host contests and find talent to perform live at the eatery, the business’ immediate focus would be on a large-screen TV playing classical music performances from the ’50s to the ’80s.

“It’s like karaoke, but the original artists are singing it,” Stango said. “I think a lot of people, when they hear an old song, never saw the person or the band singing it.”

With October on the horizon, Stango invited San Angelo residents who visited Stango’s Coffee Shop to come and visit his newest venture once it opens.

“We want you back,” Stango said. “If you liked Stango’s, and I think many people do, you’re going to like the new Stango’s.”

For more information about Stango’s Pizza Parlor, visit the business’ Facebook page .

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