Look inside this new Myrtle Beach pizzeria in Market Common and its Neapolitan experience

Across the street from the Grand 14 movie theater in Market Common sits a new restaurant nestled into the familiar retail area.

Once you walk inside, you’ll notice the wooden floors and brick walls, murals of Rome and Naples on the wall, and a slight view of the kitchen where people are hard at work making your meal.

You can sit at a marble-top table or the bar, peruse the many spirits on the back wall, or look at the espresso machine if you need a midday pick-me-up.

The elegant aesthetic goes with Market Common’s new high-end pizzeria. Gios Pizzeria Napoletana opened at 4003 Deville St and offers several types of pies, salads, desserts and a charcuterie board. Patrons wanting to sip wine can choose from wines imported from Italy and France. Gios is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 12-8 p.m.

Erjola Hoxha is a co-owner of Gios, and her husband, Vesel Emini, oversees cooking the pizza. Hoxha also owns and operates Gios Italian Kitchen in Pawleys Island and Myrtle Beach with her brothers— the Hoxha family moved here from Albania in 2003. Indeed, Gios Pizzeria Napoletana is a family operation. The family works in the kitchen, and Hoxha’s mother prepares the Tiramisu.

Hoxha said that they’d been looking to open a pizzeria restaurant in Market Common for several years.

“We served pizza in Pawleys Island (restaurant). We stopped serving seven years ago because we wanted to focus on fine dining only,” Hoxha said. “So we’ve been looking for seven years searching for the right place in Market Common.”

That opportunity came in April 2023 when the former tenant of 4003 Deville St, Ultimate California Pizza, closed, and Hoxha and her family jumped at the chance.

“It’s beautiful, it reminds us of Europe, and we’ve always looked for an opportunity here,” Hoxha said.

Here’s how a new pizzeria in Market Common makes its pie

Vesel Emini knows how to make pizza. A real estate agent in the Myrtle Beach area, according to his LinkedIn, he’s been making pizza for about 15 years. Emini added he started at his father’s Italian restaurant in Oxford, C.T.

At Gios, Emini’s ovens now offer Neopolitan-style pizza cooked in a gas-fire oven that heats up to 650 degrees Fahrenheit and can cook in less than five minutes. While Gios’ pizza is mostly Neopolitan-style, he added the pizza also draws on his Connecticut roots.

“We tried to do a blend of the Connecticut style and not too thin, not too thick,” Emini said. “We like it a little bit more on the crispier side, so we just want it cooked perfectly.”

As well as the standard Margherita pizza with basil and extra cheese sprinkled on top, Gios also offers barbecue and buffalo chicken variations. The French Connection pie is a specialty creation, an olive oil-based pizza topped with shaved ham, fig, dijon jam, brie, and mozzarella. Indeed, the new Gios pizzeria’s menu takes inspiration from Gios’ past selling pizza.

“We had this menu seven years ago, and we added on new special pizzas to it. When we came up with (the French Connection) seven years ago, I don’t remember how we came up, but we did,” Hoxha added. “We tried different things, and then whatever we liked, We put it on the menu.”

Initially, the pizza would be cooked in a brick oven, visible to customers. However, the building’s layout prevented this, although patrons can still see the pizza-making process through the kitchen visible to the dining area.

While open, Gios is still searching for more employees and is hiring front-end and back-end staff.