A West Richland couple is betting a popular Pasco pizza restaurant known for its pickle face and beer garden pizza specials will thrive in the heart of Kennewick.

Bethany and Ryan Pierson opened the second edition of Rocco’s Pizza March 20 at 7911 W. Grandridge Blvd., former home of Pacific Pasta & Grill Restaurant.

Pacific Pasta moved to Richland and the building was sold to Chance Partnership, a Kennewick investor, in January for $675,000.

The Piersons are partnering with Rob Curet, Rocco’s owner and a longtime family friend, to bring Rocco’s and its quirky take on Italian offerings to Kennewick.

Curet is providing financial support for the new location while the Piersons invested savings to cover the startup costs.

The team began scouting sites in November. They bought fixtures and furnishings from the closed Dickey’s Barbecue Pit location in Kennewick, paying pennies on the dollar for the gear to keep costs down.

The Grandridge location was their first choice. They applied for and got it, but their hopes were temporarily sidelined when the building was slated for a conversion to office space. The conversion plan was abandoned, and the owners agreed to lease it for Rocco’s.

Bethany said she’s thrilled. It is minutes from Columbia Center mall and the Three Rivers Convention campus, including Toyota Center.

Bethany said she was fortunate enough to “marry into” a family of educators that is close to Curet.

She worked on special projects for him and said he has been present at the major moments of their lives, from cooking salmon for their wedding reception to their housewarming party to raising kids together.

For Bethany, opening a restaurant is a dream come true after years spent working in various businesses as she raised the couple’s three children.

“I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” she said.

The couple spent more than a month giving the 3,400-square-foot spot the “Rocco’s touch,” spending 12-hour days performing tenant improvement work themselves.

The Grandridge building opened in 2005 first as a noodle restaurant and then later without much remodeling as Pacific Pasta.

By the time the Piersons came along, each of its dozen walls was painted a different color. They repainted every surface with a calm brown with the Rocco’s maroon touches.

Their eldest daughter painted a portrait of Rocco, the hangdog pup that inspired its name, near the entrance.

They pulled out carpets and created an open space to handle larger gatherings. Five televisions will carry big games.

The Piersons want a community vibe. They salvaged a discarded wooden Horn Rapids Dam sign from the Yakima River, which they intend to hang on one wall. They are keeping space for local artists and students too.

Rocco’s will cater to visitors as well as the substantial number of people who work in retail and office settings in the Columbia Center Boulevard corridor. She noted there are many senior living facilities as well. She’d like to offer opportunities for seniors to dine out and be serenaded by local school choirs.

In keeping with Rocco’s pizza pie focus, the restaurant originally planned to open on “Pi Day,” or March 14, observed by proud STEM nerds with slices of pizza and other pies to honor the 3.14 (etc.), the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The opening was delayed a week.

The Kennewick Rocco’s will carry all the community favorites found in Pasco, from traditional combos to its quirky takes on meat, vegetarian and even seafood pizzas. It offers sandwiches and desserts as well.

The pickle face combo is a crowd pleaser and features pepperoni, salami, Italian sausage and of course dill pickles. The beer garden pie mixes salami, dill pickle, linguica, onion, sauerkraut and sweet hot mustard.

Follow both Rocco’s Pizza locations on Facebook at Rocco’s Pizza.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the new March 20 opening date for Rocco's Pizza in Kennewick.