Why Murrysville Keeps Getting Other Towns' Best Restaurants
September 3, 2026
September 3, 2026
Ron Sofranko grew up in Mt. Pleasant, and when his family wanted a nice dinner out, they drove to Murrysville. That detail, buried in a TribLive story about his newest restaurant opening, explains more about William Penn Highway right now than any traffic count or vacancy report could. Sofranko didn't pick Murrysville because a real estate algorithm flagged the address. He picked it because he already knew the town would show up.
That pattern is repeating itself up and down the corridor this year, and it's worth understanding if you eat on this stretch of Route 22 regularly, because the businesses opening on it right now aren't new concepts testing the market. They're proven operators who got pushed out of somewhere else, or who chose Murrysville specifically because they already had customers driving in from here.
Pizzaiolo Primo opened its doors at 4869 William Penn Highway on March 18, taking over the space that housed Atria's until it closed in July 2025. It's the company's third location, following the original Market Square restaurant that Sofranko's group took over in 2021 and a South Fayette outpost that opened in 2023. According to coverage from WPXI and the Pittsburgh Business Times, this Murrysville build is the largest of the three, and the kitchen centerpiece got imported rather than sourced locally: a wood-fired pizza oven shipped over from Italy specifically for the project.
Sofranko told TribLive the calculation was straightforward. "We think we can do the volume there to support the rental costs," he said, and then explained why he trusted that math in the first place, pointing to years of family dinners at Murrysville restaurants growing up. The menu leans into that confidence with a full Neapolitan lineup, hand-made pasta and cheese, chicken parm, and branzino, served under a full liquor license the municipality approved earlier this year.
If you've driven past the old Atria's building and wondered why the parking lot looks busier than it has in a while, that's the answer. It's not a new concept rolling the dice on a suburban market. It's an operator who already knew this market would work.
The next arrival on the corridor is coming for a very different reason, and it's a useful reminder that not every business decision on William Penn Highway starts with Murrysville at all.
Coast & Main Seafood and Chophouse has spent years building a following out of a spot on the Monroeville Mall property, the kind of Pacific Northwest-inspired steak-and-seafood restaurant that regulars treat as a holiday tradition. That ended when Walmart, working with the Texas-based firm Cypress Equities, purchased the 186-acre mall property for roughly $34 million in early 2025 as part of a redevelopment plan that includes tearing the mall down. Owner Michelle Kirsop told TribLive her lease got shortened to give her about 18 months to find a new location once the sale went through.
She's picking Murrysville, and not because it was the only option left.
"We have a very loyal following of folks from Murrysville, so it made sense to relocate there and try to write the next chapter of our story," Kirsop said.
The new address is 4420 William Penn Highway, a former Berkshire Hathaway office between KFC and the Rosa Court shopping center, and it isn't a simple move. Pennsylvania liquor law doesn't allow a license to cross county lines, so Coast & Main can't just carry its Allegheny County license into Westmoreland County. In June, Murrysville Council held a public hearing to transfer a Westmoreland license from the now-closed Johnny L's in South Greensburg to the new location instead. Kirsop said the restaurant plans to keep its roughly 50 employees on staff, start hiring and training locally this fall, and stay open in Monroeville through the big holidays before Walmart's March 2027 deadline forces the final move.
That's a restaurant with an established following and a proven menu landing on William Penn Highway not because Murrysville recruited it, but because the mall it called home for years is being demolished out from under it.
While two newcomers work through their openings, the highway's longest-running fixture is going through its own change. Eat'n Park has operated in the Village of Murrysville Shopping Plaza for decades, and in April 2026, the municipality's planning agenda listed a new land development application for the site: a partial demolition and remodel of the existing storefront at 4566 William Penn Highway, along with a new outdoor dining area, landscaping improvements, and a drive-through pickup window.
If the pickup window sounds familiar, that's because Eat'n Park has been trying to add one for a while. Back in 2023, the company's director of design and construction pitched the local planning commission on an expanded dining room and a pickup window for the same location, noting that most of the chain's other locations already had one. That earlier version didn't get a recommendation from the commission at the time. This April's filing is a more formal version of the same idea, now paired with an actual remodel of the storefront itself rather than just an addition tacked onto the existing building.
None of that is dramatic on its own. But taken together with two brand-new arrivals a few hundred yards away, it means the entire stretch between the Route 22 interchange and the shopping plaza is turning over at the same time, old and new alike.
If you're trying to keep the dates straight, here's where things stand as of late August 2026:
Put the three stories side by side and a pattern emerges that a single restaurant opening wouldn't reveal. William Penn Highway isn't attracting attention because of some broad wave of new suburban demand. It's absorbing displacement and loyalty from elsewhere. Sofranko expanded here because his own family history told him Murrysville customers show up. Kirsop is moving here because her Monroeville customers already were Murrysville customers, driving in for special occasions long before her own restaurant had an address on this side of the county line. And Eat'n Park, the one business on this list that never left, is investing in a remodel precisely because the corridor around it is suddenly worth investing in.
If you live nearby and eat on this stretch regularly, the next twelve months are going to look different than the last several years did. A restaurant you already know from somewhere else is coming to you. And the one that's always been here is getting a refresh to match.
Murrysville's food scene is changing for reasons that have very little to do with Murrysville itself, and a lot to do with what's happening a few miles down Route 22. That's worth knowing whether you've lived here for twenty years or you're still learning which exit gets you to dinner fastest.
If you're watching how a neighborhood evolves and wondering what it means for property values, timing, or your own next move, Nikaela Connelly has spent years tracking exactly this kind of change across Murrysville and the surrounding towns. Reach out anytime to talk through what's happening in your corner of Westmoreland County.
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