The restaurant at the corner of Mt. Royal Avenue and Oliver Street has changed names and owners again, but pizza remains its raison d’être. Angeli’s Pizzeria, which has shops in Little Italy, Federal Hill and elsewhere, is moving in now that Noona’s has moved out.
A decade ago, it started as Two Boots Pizza run by a restauranteur from New York City. It closed around 2015. In 2018, local businessman Phil Han opened Noona’s with a full bar and mostly pizza, sometimes with a hint at his Korean heritage. Then came the pandemic and Noona’s struggled, closing and then reopening briefly.
Han finally handed off the name and ownership earlier this year to a family from Nepal. New owner Om Chhetri kept Han’s pizza and bar operations but added a wide range of curries and breads from his home country mixed with a sports bar ambiance. That eccentric mix never caught on with MICA students and nearby residents, who are its primary target clientele.
That new Noona’s shut down in October and a week later Angeli’s, run by Turkish brothers Juliet and Mert Ozturk, signed a lease for the space, which is part of the Fitzgerald apartment building. Angeli’s offers “build-your-own” New York-style pizza, as well as wings, calzones, salads and meatball, Italian, chicken, grilled cheese and portabella mushroom sandwiches.
—Bill Hamilton
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