When Massachusetts native John Luce visited his parents’ home in North Port, he knew he liked Southwest Florida. But he was too young to retire and was busy running restaurants in the Boston area.
When the pandemic hit, he decided to move his operations to Florida.
“The main reason,” he said, “was to get away from COVID-19. We had a complete lockdown.”
On Aug. 1, he opened Blue Heron Pizza Pub in Port Charlotte, combining elements of his former restaurants, which featured a Boston favorite—pub pizzas.
They’re not traditional Italian pizzas, although those are on the menu, but they are prepared with the same ingredients his Head Chef Ademir Faria used in Massachusetts.
“I have special oil shipped in and even the cheese is hard to find,” he said.
Faria, who has been with him for many years and is a minority stakeholder in the business, moved to Florida and now recreates his recipes in Port Charlotte.
At the time of the pandemic, Luce was running a 132-seat full sports bar with an extensive menu. What kept his restaurant from folding was his team of delivery drivers who kept business humming as he converted to a takeout and delivery establishment, he said.
But Luce “wanted to be in a free state.” Restaurants in Florida, after about 90 days, reopened along with other businesses.
Prior to his Boston-area sports bar, which was in operation from 2012 to 2022, he owned a pizzeria. He’s been in the food industry since he was 21 and soon moved from employee to entrepreneur with his own establishments.
Luce said Blue Heron Pizza Pub is a combination of his former sports bar and the pizzeria, lying somewhere in between.
His goal was to open a place where customers can relax with friends while enjoying good food, beer, wine and nonalcoholic beverages.
His more than 20 flavors of wings are a popular menu item, as are the egg rolls, which are not the Asian variety one might expect, and the 10-inch pub pizzas are a draw, he said.
Luce said many customers never experienced pub pizzas before coming to Blue Heron.
The Brazilian, for instance, is a pub pizza with fried chicken, bacon and pineapple. The Greek has feta cheese, tomato and onion but no sauce. For meat lovers there is The Meat Lovers Special topped with hamburger, meatball, pepperoni and sausage. Sweet and Spicy pub pizzas are topped with barbecue fried chicken, bacon and jalapeno.
The egg rolls include The Prime Rib egg roll that contains shaved prime rib, cooked onion and mozzarella. Italian egg rolls are stuffed with ham, salami, provolone cheese, banana peppers and served with marinara sauce, and The Mac Attack comes with hamburger, American cheese, pickles and onions, served with thousand island dressing.
Being from New England, Faria and Luce offer clam chowder by the cup or bowl, and a variety of pastas.
Luce said his goal is to hire more delivery drivers. As of Aug.7, deliveries were not being made over the bridge to Punta Gorda and points south. Delivery stops at the foot of the bridge.
Blue Heron Pizza Pub is located in the Grand Oaks Plaza mall at 992 Tamiami Trail.
