Mountain Pizza, a new restaurant from the owner of Chattanooga’s Southside Pizza, is set to open on Signal Mountain.
The family-friendly restaurant concept will offer table service, a full bar and a menu focused on pizza and pasta, owner Eric Taslimi said by phone.
Taslimi opened Southside Pizza in downtown Chattanooga’s Southside nearly a decade ago. He also owned Slick’s Burgers, a gourmet burger restaurant in the same area, which closed in 2025.
“I look at Southside as being more of a pizza shop, and this as being a little more of a restaurant,” he said of Mountain Pizza, which will offer the same specialty pizzas as Southside Pizza as well as a few pies specific to the mountain location.
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Southside Pizza now has enough longtime staff members to be able to help launch a second restaurant, as creating New York-style pies can be a challenge for newbies, Taslimi said.
“With pizza, especially our pizza, getting people up to par and stretching out the pizza correctly is not easy,” he said. “It takes a new hire a month to be able to efficiently and quickly work the pizza line for us, especially on the 20-inch pizza.”
Made with flour imported from Italy, the dough is allowed to ferment for three days before being tossed and stretched into pies. Tomatoes are also imported from Italy for the pizza sauce, which is made in-house daily, and pizzas are topped with high quality mozzarella cheese, house-made meatballs and sausage and house-sliced pepperoni, Taslimi said.
“We try to buy the best quality we can and we try to make everything we can that makes sense by hand, and that’s almost everything,” he said of the pizza ingredients. “There isn’t really anything processed that goes on there except the pepperoni.”
Taslimi said he plans to put the same attention to detail into the restaurant’s pasta, making some cuts in-house and ordering others from Italy.
Mountain Pizza will also offer a selection of appetizers, salads and sandwiches with house-made bread, as well as a “craft” dirty soda program.
“We try to hold a really high standard and try every day to do our best here to put out a really good product,” he said.
Taslimi said he wanted to open a neighborhood pizza restaurant outside of downtown, and he considered Red Bank, Hixson and Ooltewah before deciding on what he thinks is an ideal spot at the Signal Plaza shopping center in Signal Mountain.
“Signal Plaza has been deliberately patient with this space because we wanted a tenant that truly fits Signal Mountain, and Mountain Pizza is exactly that,” Knox Campbell, partner at Keith Corporation, which owns the center, said in an email.
The space previously held Signal Mountain Pizza Place, which closed in 2024 after 35 years in business.
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“Eric Taslimi and his team will be opening a pizza-forward Italian restaurant and bar, with the same attention to detail extending to their pasta and sandwiches,” Campbell said. “It’s the kind of neighborhood spot this community has been asking for.”
The 2,500-square-foot space is being gutted and everything is getting updated, including the shopping center’s outdoor patio located just outside the restaurant. The dining room will seat 72, plus eight more at the bar, Taslimi said.
“Our goal is to have a really fun, energetic space,” he said. “We’re not going to take the mountain for granted, but give them a place with a real experience, so when you go out it feels like a night out. Our goal is to build something really nice up there that people can really be proud of and enjoy.”
Located at 1238 Taft Highway in Signal Mountain, the restaurant is expected to employ 20 to 24 people and open in spring of 2027.
Contact business reporter Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.
Dining and Cooking