Owner rebrands Longboat, Sarasota pizza joints

The ingredients are the same, but the name, logo and menu are new at the tucked-away pizzeria on Longboat Key, now emblazoned with the name Costello’s Neighborhood Pizza.

Previously known as Solorzano’s, owner Kenny Palin already has new signs, menus and social media pages for the pizza place at 5610 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite 4. The Gulf Gate location at 6574 Superior Ave. in Sarasota has also been rebranded.

The five-year franchise agreement Palin signed with Solorzano’s reached its end, and he decided to take the opportunity to rebrand.

Palin, who grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts, outside Boston, renamed the Longboat Key and Gulf Gate pizzerias after his late grandmother, Margaret “Peggy” Costello.

"She loved me unconditionally. So I was always really close with my grandmother," he says. "I lived with her for the first six years of my life with my mom. So I named it as an homage to her. I think this would be something she’d be really proud of.”

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

The pizza is described as a thin-crust, New-York-style pizza. The name is Irish.

“An Irish guy from Boston making thin crust East Coast pizza on an island in Florida! What’s not to love,” Palin wrote in a Facebook comment on a post announcing the rebrand.

Appetizers including jalapeno poppers and meatballs, pasta, salad, garlic knots and wings add variety to Costello’s offerings. Palin says the premium ingredients customers are accustomed to — including fresh-cut veggies, Grande brand mozzarella cheese and dough — remain the same, but the menu has been reworked with new offerings.

“Most of the menu items now kind of pay homage to the things that are more personal. Some of our menu items reflect certain areas around the country where tourists come from maybe to remind them a little of home. Some pay homage to Boston, which is my upbringing in Massachusetts,” Palin says. “It’s definitely more personalized to me and my brand.”

The Longboat location has a dual-faceted clientele, Palin describes, with local workers and town employees frequenting the pizzeria for lunch and locals ordering takeout and dining in for dinner. Open until 10 p.m. daily, Costello’s offers delivery through a third party with a $25 order minimum.

Palin’s rebrand comes after years of serving as general manager, then owner, of the two pizza restaurants.

He started out working for the Solorzano's owner and served as his general manager for all its locations for about seven years before buying the two locations.

“I worked seven days a week for seven years straight, and then I bought those two locations,” Palin says.

Today, Solorzano's only remaining location is on Webber Street in Sarasota.