New restaurant in works for north Salisbury

Ripieno's, a restaurant known in Ocean City for its giant pizzas, may soon open a new location in Salisbury.

Developers with PennTex, which brought discount grocery chain Aldi to Salisbury last year, revealed during Monday's Salisbury City Council meeting that Ripieno's is set to be one of two new restaurants in the second phase of the company's development.

The new Ripieno's was described as an upscale, "white tablecloth" version of the Ocean City location. If approved, the restaurant is set to have a deck that would look out onto Leonard's Mill Pond.

It is not a guarantee the new restaurant comes, as it was tentatively put through a city council work session and still faces approval from the planning and zoning commission and then final approval by the city council.

See the Ocean City location. Story continues after gallery.

The second restaurant in the area will be an "upscale fast casual" place with a drive-thru, but the developers said they could not yet name it. The involved developers would primarily be oriented toward breakfast and lunch, while Ripieno's is dinner-focused.

People who live in neighborhoods across the pond expressed concern about the potential new restaurants for several reasons, including how traffic patterns would change and how the lights would be different.

PennTex officials said traffic would likely not increase beyond 2 to 3 percent during peak hours, especially because the restaurants have different peak times.

Reach reporter Hayley Harding via email at hharding@delmarvanow.com or on Twitter @Hayley__Harding.

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