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That’s when longtime ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ businessman Zeke Gebrekidane plans to open Zeke’s Pizza & Coffee on the first floor of the two-story former home of the Big Brothers & Big Sisters of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ at 161 N. Sixth Ave.

The restaurant is actually three concepts under one roof, Gebrekidane said: Pizza, coffee and gelato.

Customers will order pizza and gelato from separate counters set up at the main entrance and coffee from a counter not far from the East Alameda Street entrance. The 14,000-square-foot building straddles both streets across from the Sixth Avenue Underpass leading into the heart of downtown.

Gebrekidane, who has owned and operated the Blackjack Pizza franchise at 8321 E. Broadway since 2014, bought the building for $1.4 million in 2023 and invested close to $600,000 in the renovation, which included creating a kitchen with a conveyor pizza oven, freezer, commercial-grade mixer to make the dough and prep stations. Last fall, Rio Nuevo, the downtown redevelopment agency, kicked in $237,488 to help cover some of those expenses.

Gebrekidane also made improvements to the upstairs offices, which he plans to rent by the hour to remote workers looking for a place to meet with clients.

In addition to hand-tossed, thin-crust pizzas and calzones, Zeke’s menu includes salads and wings. The gelato shop will offer seven of Frost’s popular flavors including vanilla, strawberry, Oreo cookie, chocolate and pistachio.

The small coffee shop will serve Ethiopian cappuccinos, macchiatos and espressos, which might beg the question: where does Ethiopian coffee and Italian pizza intersect?

According to Gebrekidane, a native of the East African country of Eritrea, it all goes back to Italy’s occupation of Eritrea that lasted nearly 50 years until the British military moved in. Eritrea eventually won its independence in 1991 but not before spending nearly a decade as an autonomous part of Ethiopia.

There, dots connected.

Zeke’s Pizza & Coffee has a dining room with a a dozen tables and several large-screen TVs leading to a midsized covered patio where diners can watch the ebbs and flows of downtown. Gebrekidane imagines that corner could become a link connecting downtown’s nightlife, a sort of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ version of Times Square where the community could celebrate New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July.

Zeke’s joins downtown’s popular pizzerias including Empire Pizza on East Congress Street, Riley’s Craft Pizza & Drink on East Pennington Street, Brooklyn Pizza Company on North Fourth Avenue and Anello on East Sixth Street.

But Zeke’s has one thing none of those restaurants has: A parking lot.

Late last December, Gebrekidane bought the .39-acre public parking lot at 140 E. Alameda, across the street from the restaurant. He said that customers who spend $20 at the restaurant can park for free.

Zeke’s will be open from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.