Pizzeria set to open in former Tanner’s Big Orange location on Pleasantburg

Pizzeria coming to former Tanner’s Big Orange spot on Pleasantburg

Come first quarter of 2025, South Pleasantburg will get a little Italy by way of Greensboro-based Cugino Forno in the former Tanner’s Big Orange space. The business was started by three cousins from Turkey – Joseph Ozbey, Yilmaz Guver and Adam Aksoy.

“We consider ourselves as a pizzeria. Not even a restaurant.” Ozbey said. “‘Bakery’ fits us more than a restaurant.”

Greenville will be the seventh location for the pizza parlor with locations throughout North Carolina in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Clemmons, Durham and Wilmington, and another in Frederick, Maryland.

“We follow our customers. We follow our customers requests. We follow our customers messages, emails, phone calls,” Ozbey said. “And we had a lot of people asking us to come to Greenville.”

The menu showcases ten Neopolitan-pizzas, three house-made salads and desserts including gelato, tiramisu, cakes, cupcakes and drinks. Consistency is key for this parlor and the partners do their best to maintain it going as far as using bottled water for the dough to mitigate possible changes.

The drink menu will include local and imported beers, and Italian wine, but no bar in order to encourage a family-friendly atmosphere.

As for the building at 322 S. Pleasantburg Drive, the space will be renovated for an open concept. Guests should be able to see the wood-fired pizzas as they’re being made. Visitors can expect lots of windows and a covered patio come 2025.

“We are going on at 100% to make sure that we are open by February or March of next year,” Ozbey assured. “So after those couple of cold months we have some nice weather, we can open it, and people can start have having a slice of Italy in Greenville.”

What is in a name?

The owners of Cugino Forno – Joseph Ozbey, Yilmaz Guver and Adam Aksoy – are all cousins. Cugino means cousin in Italian, while forno means oven.