Historic Italian restaurant Original Joe's opens a new spinoff in S.F. loaded with pizza and pasta - San Francisco Chronicle

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Little Original Joe’s — the pizza, pasta and parmigiana spinoff project from the team behind San Francisco’s historic Original Joe’s restaurant — opened this week on West Portal Avenue as a takeout spot and neighborhood marketplace.

The project has been in the works since early 2019, and while the pandemic forced owners John and Elena Duggan to nix their indoor dining plans, the menu’s focus on pizza, pasta and parmigiana has been in place since the beginning. The idea is that none of the three dishes are offered by Original Joe’s in the city, which has been around for more than 80 years and focus on hearty Italian classics like spaghetti and meatballs.

“We were already planning to focus on comfort food with (Little Original Joe’s) and during the pandemic, it’s kind of all people are eating right now,” Elena said. “People are feeling particularly vulnerable these days with all that’s going on.”

At the new West Portal shop, the menu has a polenta parmigiana for $18, made with layers of fried polenta, a rich pomodoro sauce, mozzarella and basil. And on the pasta side, all of the options, including the $18 spicy rigatoni vodka pasta, can have either rotisserie chicken or shrimp added to them for an extra cost.

But the star of the menu, according to the Duggans, are the pizza offerings, something they have never sold of their other restaurants. One of the first pizzas they decided to put on the menu was an Ultimate Paradise Pizza ($28 to $32), which comes with pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami, mushrooms, white onion and bell peppers. The pie is an ode to the former tenant of the Little Joe’s building, which was Paradise Pizza. The neighborhood shop spent 30 years on West Portal Avenue before closing in 2018, and the Paradise Pizza was a staple of that menu.

“We wanted to make sure we were paying attention to the history here,” John said. “We think the pizzas are going to be a big driver for our business because it’s something people in this neighborhood have known this space for over the years.”

As for the market at Little Joe’s Pizza, Pasta, Parmigiana, there are shelves lined with canned sauces, bread and wines, similar to any small neighborhood market. People can also pick from pre-packaged dinners to eat at home, such as baked lasagna, pot roast and macaroni and cheese. All of the items can come in varying sizes, are priced between $14 and $28.

The market also has 1-pound containers of frozen pasta — including ravioli made in-house and are either stuffed with meat, or spinach and rocotta — for sale for around $10 to $12, sold alongside containers of the restaurant’s pesto, vodka and alfredo sauces. The latter come in 8 to 32 ounce containers sold for $8 to $16.

During lunch hours between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., Little Joe’s Pizza, Pasta, Parmigiana will have a more compact lunch menu based around soups, salads and sandwiches. Everything is priced between $8 and $12, with the sandwich list consisting of a mix of Italian-inspired creations — like prosciutto caprese made with mozzarella and arugula on a ciabatta roll, and a traditional meatball sub.

Outside of the business, the Duggan’s said they’re going to coordinate a way for customers to be able to park near the restaurant and market, and have items brought out to their vehicles. The new service models are all just part of adjusting to the pandemic, they said.

“The thing we’ve been lucky with is that through all of this, we haven’t seen a real big drop in business because know to come to us for those comfort foods,” John said. “None of this has been easy, and it isn’t like we’re just making a bunch of profits. But we are giving people something they’re looking for more often now, and that’s just good food that feels familiar.”

Little Original Joe’s. 393 West Portal Ave. Open daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips