Vento's Pizza in East Liberty reopens under new family ownership

Vento’s Pizza, the East Liberty restaurant that has been home to “Franco’s Italian Army” for decades, is up and running again.

After its longtime owner retired and closed the pizzeria in February, a new family has taken over. They’re working with the Vento family to keep the spirit of the restaurant alive — along with the Vento’s heirloom recipes.

The new owners, Mederbek Toktosunov and his sister Aigul Kubatbekova, have years of experience in the pizza business.

The family owned Pizza Fiesta, which has locations in Downtown and Bloomfield-Garfield. The pair sold their share in that business to buy Vento’s, said Ibadat Kyzy of Bridgeville. She is the general manager and wife of Toktosunov.

“We were looking for a new place, and we came across Vento’s,” Kyzy said. “This location has been good to us, so we decided to move on this.”

The Vento family announced in February that they would retire and close the North Highland Avenue restaurant after nearly seven decades of slinging handmade pizzas and hoagies.

The restaurant became a hub for “Franco’s Italian Army” when Al Vento and his business partner, Tony Stagno, created the fan club in 1972 for the late Franco Harris to celebrate their shared Italian heritage. Vento’s son, Al, later took over the business.

“This was a family-owned restaurant, and it still will be,” Kyzy said.

The menu will largely stay the same. About seven people work at the location now. Kyzy said they hope to hire more people as they expand hours, with the goal of being open until 2 a.m.

Kyzy said they have been working with the Ventos on recipes and learning their homemade sauce.

Kyzy said it’s exciting to be taking the helm of the noted establishment.

“We’re very happy. The previous owner had very good customers. He loves his customers and they made good food, good pizza, good sandwiches,” she said. “We made some little changes, like adding more pizza variety and we will be making our own dough.”

Kyzy said Vento has been “guiding and encouraging” as they take over operations. “He is teaching from his special recipes that they had been doing for many years. The pizza sauce, for example, cooks for seven hours. That’s the family recipe and we want to keep it the same.”