Bright Ice owners will open Kitty’s House of Pizza next month on 5th Avenue North in St. Pete
/Kitty’s House of Pizza will debut next month on 5th Avenue North in the Central oak Park neighborhood of St. Pete | St. Pete Rising
After months of renovating a former convenience store and fine-tuning recipes, the owners of Kitty’s House of Pizza are getting ready to welcome their first customers next month in St. Pete’s Central Oak Park neighborhood.
The pizzeria at 4059 5th Avenue North will serve scratch-made pies that owners Steve Garrahan and Kurt Drake hope will give nearby residents something to crave.
Garrahan and Drake, the founders of Bright Ice Scoop Shop, first announced the concept in December 2025. Since then, they have been developing a small menu built around familiar flavors with a few unexpected ingredients.
“We want the pizzas to be distinct, but we don’t want them to be weird for the sake of being weird,” Garrahan said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.
One of the owners’ favorites is the Golden Hour, which contains a creamy pepperoncini pepper white base with mozzarella, housemade sausage, red onions, pepperoncini rings, and roasted red peppers.
The Aloha Kitty is a twist on Hawaiian pizza, featuring a sweet-and-savory pineapple jam with sweet onion, red bell pepper, jalapeño, and lime juice.
The dining room at Kity’s has terrazzo floors, wood finishes, green, orange, and blue tones, and about 26 seats | Kitty’s House of Pizza
It’s an approach Bright Ice customers may recognize. At the pair’s scoop shops, strawberry ice cream becomes roasted strawberries with brown sugar and balsamic, while blueberry gets a touch of cinnamon.
At Kitty’s, that creativity will be concentrated into nine specialty pizzas and a build-your-own option, available as 12-inch and 16-inch whole pies.
Other options include a three-mushroom pizza and a pie featuring a salsa verde-inspired sauce with parsley, basil, and lemon.
The dough, made with unbleached, unbromated flour, will ferment for 48 to 72 hours before baking in a brick oven at roughly 550 degrees.
Prices are still being finalized, but the owners want dinner at Kitty’s to be an affordable alternative to shopping and cooking for a family.
“We’re always trying to think about the value we can give to our customer,” Drake said. “Why would they choose us?”
Beyond pizza, the team is developing a small selection of pastas, salads, starters, and desserts.
Dishes being tested include meatballs with red pepper sauce and lemon-Parmesan ricotta, along with gigante butter beans in a Parmesan cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers.
For dessert, Kitty’s will offer a coconut cake with salted caramel buttercream among other selections. Bright Ice pints will also be available to take home.
The Golden Hour pizza contains a creamy pepperoncini pepper white base with mozzarella, housemade sausage, red onions, pepperoncini rings, and roasted red peppers | Kitty’s House of Pizza
Garrahan and Drake purchased the 2,834-square-foot property in June 2025 while searching for a larger Bright Ice production facility. The extra space gave them room to develop a restaurant alongside it, naming Kitty’s after Garrahan’s daughter’s cat.
The former convenience store was stripped back to its exterior walls and rebuilt as a 26-seat dining room with terrazzo floors, wood finishes, and a palette of green, orange and blue.
Original plans for the building, built in 1964 as a Shell gas station, helped guide its restoration.
Kitty’s will primarily focus on carryout for lunch and dinner, with plans to add approximately 22 outdoor seats later.
The adjoining production facility will replace Bright Ice’s Pinellas Park location and double its ice cream storage capacity.
The owners are targeting a November soft opening, pending final inspections.
Follow Kitty’s House of Pizza on Instagram for opening and menu updates.
The Cat’s Meow is Kitty’s version of a Supreme pizza. It includes Housemade red sauce, bacon, sausage, cup and char pepperoni, spicy copa, mozzarella, castelvetrano olives, roasted mushroom blend, roasted red peppers, and red onion | KItty’s House of Pizza
