As at the old location, there’s an open kitchen with a beehive-shaped pizza oven, one of many found around Downtown Phoenix, which has become a somewhat unexpected hotbed of Neapolitan-style pies in recent years. It’s still focused on Neapolitan pizza and wood-fired Italian foods, but the selection of appetizers and pastas has grown with the move. With expanded space and staff, there is also a bigger menu. In addition to the main dining room, there is a private dining area and a patio wrapping around the corner of Central and McDowell. The trio that started the restaurant - Roberto, Mili, and Luca - are all still present, but now they’re joined by a larger staff needed to support the larger space, both inside and out. The new space is considerably larger than the original site and, judging from the crowds, appears to be a logical next step to accommodate a growing business, rather than merely a necessary step to avoid the demolition of its former building. Muse joins a salon and Press Coffee among the tenants facing Central and the Phoenix Art Museum, which is on the other side of the street. Despite being one of many new buildings sometimes maligned as the product of “out-of-state developers,” Muse has recruited local businesses for its ground floor retail space. Maybe that’s because “Forno 301” sounds a whole lot snappier than “Forno 1616,” which would describe the new address on Central Avenue, diagonally across from the McDowell / Central light rail station. The restaurant has kept it name even as it has left its original location. Forno 301 is one of those businesses, having recently relocated from west Roosevelt to the Muse apartments a half mile to the north. More importantly, while a few businesses have been displaced, many are finding new homes in the ground floor of new residential mid-rises. In reality, most of the construction isn’t tall enough to be meet any widely accepted definition of “high rise,” and most of what is being built is apartments rather than condominiums. It’s become a common complaint that “high rises” and “condos” are ruining Roosevelt Row and nearby neighborhoods.
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