By Brandon Brown – Senior Reporter, Phoenix Business Journal
Crust Simply Italian, a Valley-based Italian restaurant with multiple locations around the Valley, will significantly grow its footprint in the Phoenix area in 2026. Its owner is already looking where he could open in the future.
The restaurant company, which is owned by Michael Merendino, opened its fourth location earlier this year in Peoria at the Trailhead, a 40-acre, mixed-use development at 83rd Avenue and Happy Valley Road.
The first Crust location in the West Valley did not open with major fanfare or publicity, but Merendino said word spread and its booths and tables filled up quickly this spring.
“When I opened my first restaurant, locations like this didn’t exist in the West Valley,” Merendino told the Business Journal. “The community is embracing us. During happy hour and on Thursdays and Fridays, we do really well.”
The Peoria Crust is located in about 6,000 square feet in a newly constructed building and includes a small speakeasy in the back of the restaurant. Each Crust Simply Italian restaurant is paired with a speakeasy bearing a bird’s name. The Peoria location is The Raven.
The West Valley location also has two patios, a large bar, and a private dining area that can accommodate 60 people.
Later this summer, Merendino will open a long-awaited Crust location in downtown Mesa, as well as Nightingale – the speakeasy – and a new concept that will feature Italian doughnuts and gelato.
The Mesa Crust restaurant has been in the works since before the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. The concept is going into the ground floor of a multifamily development called The Grid at 233 E. Main St. in Mesa.
After being stalled during the pandemic, construction on the Grid and the Crust restaurants halted when the developer of the project filed in 2024 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Then last summer, Soltrust, a real estate developer with office footprints in Scottsdale and Seattle, took over the development, and work started back up again.
“That’s been the hardest restaurant experience of my life,” Merendino said. “We were locked out until a new developer came. But, it’s been a blessing. He’s been an awesome guy.”
Bombolino, the dessert concept, will open first in Mesa, with the full-service restaurant coming weeks later.
At one point, Crust said it wanted to open 10 restaurants before 2030, a plan that got somewhat off track with the Mesa delay, but Merendino said he is looking at opening more new locations around the Valley.
“We’re looking at a couple of different locations throughout the Valley,” Merendino said. “We’re looking at Avondale; we’re looking at Surprise.”
Even with his success with stores around the Valley, Merendino said Crust will likely always be an Arizona brand and that he wants his stores to be seen more as neighborhood fixtures and daily restaurants than a national growth company.
