Orto Pizza set for third city location
Belfast pizza chain Orto looks set to open a third location in the city at the site of the former Vero premises on Bedford Street.
A new limited company called Orto Bedford Street Limited, which lists Orto’s Ashley French as its managing director, has applied for a restaurant drinks licence at the building.
Orto already has two restaurants, one in Stranmillis and one on Talbot Street in the city centre. The Stranmillis branch was listed among the Sunday Life’s top 10 restaurants of 2023.
Orto Pizzabar opened on Stranmillis in the former Cafe Conor site back in March 2022 before opening a second spot in the Cathedral Quarter in November.
A cryptic post on social media suggested that the pizza restaurant could be preparing to open a new store.
A graphic showing the Orto logo three times, with the third logo decorated with what appears to be workmen was uploaded to the company’s Instagram page with the caption “The magic number”.
While there is no further information to confirm the third location yet, there is speculation that the new restaurant could be located at the former site of Vero on Bedford Street, which closed its doors this week after opening in April.
A company called ‘Orto Bedford Street Ltd’ was founded in July 2023 with directors named as Ashley French and Paul Catterson, the partners behind Orto Pizza.
French is the Managing Director of French Village which has a number of locations across the city and Catterson is a partner in the popular burger chain Tribal Burger.
