New restaurant seeking community's help to open

Papa Saia’s Pizza and Sports Grille, a popular Helena destination, is opening a location on U.S. 280 and is reaching out to the community for assistance.

Franchise owner Norman Saia, a 25-year veteran of the restaurant industry, selected the former Petrucelli’s location on Meadow View Drive next to Joe’s Crab Shack for the new Papa Saia’s. He said, depending on permit approval, the sports bar could open in July or August.

First though, Saia is seeking to finance the new location through the website kickstarter.com. On Kickstarter, supporters can pledge funding for the new restaurant and, in return, receive rewards. A pledge of $20 will earn supporters a medium pizza and appetizer at the new location, while a pledge of $7,000 will earn, among other lavish gifts, free pizza for a year.

Saia tells supporters in a video on the site that he chose to use Kickstarter because getting a loan for a restaurant in the current economic climate is difficult. But he also said he believes the market on 280 for both a quick lunch destination and an evening hangout will encourage donations.

“I think it’s an eclectic area,” Saia said. “There is a tremendous number of young professionals and a huge amount of offices there around Meadowbrook and Inverness full of people who want it. I feel good about that location, and I feel good about traffic.”

Kickstarter is a gamble for a majority of the projects posted on the site. If a set goal isn’t reached by deadline, the project doesn’t receive any money, and Kickstarter reports only 44 percent meet their goals. Saia has set his goal at $150,000 in pledges by June 8. As of May 1, he had four supporters pledge a total of $225.

“It won't be easy,” Saia wrote on his Kickstarter page. “Opening a restaurant is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things you could possibly do in life.”

For more, visit Papa Saia’s website for its Helena location at papasaias.com or visit the pledge page at kickstarter.com/projects/674745957/papa-saias-pizza.