Fresh fire-kissed pizza and homemade authentic recipes are the cornerstone on which the Gwins are building their new restaurant, Pizza Ed. With six homemade pizza sauces, eight to nine pasta dishes, hoagies, wings and more, Eddie Gwin said it will be worth the wait.

Although he is still working on some minor things before being able to open, Gwin said he expects to be able to open “very soon.”

“It is going to be more authentic Italian dishes than we had before. A lot of times there are frozen meatballs, but we want to do this the right way,” Gwin said. “We will be 90 percent fresh ingredients, everything we use. Our goal is to even find local sources and supplies on vegetables if possible.”

The restaurant will feature a rotating brick oven, which Gwin said is the second in the state. It is this extra step, and the fresh ingredients, that will make it different from everywhere else.

Gwin will be bringing the training he received at Goodfella’s Pizza School in New York to downtown Hartselle. Although from Cullman, Gwin said he and his wife, Chandra, fell in love with the location. “We basically soul searched for a while. Chandra had several friends here. I went through Hartselle, but I never really had any idea about downtown, and we walked into this building, and we were just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is exactly what we want,’” Eddie said.

“It was everything,” Chandra added. “We knew this was home.”

The Gwins said they are excited to be joining the new things happening in downtown Hartselle. “We wanted a downtown location. Our goal is to help drive downtown Hartselle even in the evening,” Eddie said. “My first concern when we were down here was being open at night, but with Bentley’s at the Outhouse opening and the new popcorn place, we think that is exciting.

“We feel the more restaurants that are down here, the better,” he added. “We don’t look at it as competition; we look at it as something to drive them to Hartselle. Everyone needs choices, and we just want to be one of their choices.”

The restaurant will boast several TVs and craft beers and wine. “We are trying to do something – we added the TVs and all this other stuff – so that people have a place to actually come and bring their family,” Eddie said. “We want to have a place that you can bring the kids and enjoy the ballgame. We’ve got craft beer and wine, but that is definitely not going to be our mainstay. It is just going to be here if you want a glass of wine with your pasta dish.”