Downtown House of Pizza

Downtown House of Pizza opened on Hendry Street in 2005, when owner Jason Kohn set out to bring New York-style pizza to downtown Fort Myers, and the shop has stayed in the same River District spot ever since. The pizzeria makes its dough by hand and builds pies around hand-tossed crusts and what the restaurant describes as quality toppings, the kind of straightforward, no-frills approach that New York-style pizza is built on. Beyond whole pies, the menu runs through build-your-own options, strombolis, calzones, subs, salads, wings, and desserts, giving it enough range to work as a casual dinner spot and not just a late-night slice counter.

That said, the late-night angle is real: on Wednesday and Thursday the shop stays open until 1 a.m., and Friday through Sunday it runs until 2 a.m., hours that put it in direct alignment with downtown Fort Myers’ bar and nightlife crowd rather than an early-closing suburban pizza place. An open kitchen lets customers watch pies go into the oven, and a craft beer selection on tap gives the space more of a casual restaurant feel than a straight takeout counter, though it still handles plenty of delivery and to-go business.

According to the restaurant’s own account of its history, Downtown House of Pizza has served more than one million pizzas since opening and has stayed in business through both the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ian, two events that closed or seriously disrupted a number of other downtown Fort Myers restaurants. In response to steady demand, the shop added a second pizza oven and expanded its dining capacity rather than opening additional locations, keeping the business a single, locally owned spot instead of growing into a multi-unit chain. Owner Jason Kohn has also taken on a community role beyond the restaurant itself, serving on the board of the River District Alliance and volunteering with local schools, ties that reflect the restaurant’s stated goal of being an integral part of the downtown community it serves.

For anyone spending an evening in the River District, Downtown House of Pizza works well as either a sit-down dinner stop earlier in the evening or a late-night slice run after a show or a night out at one of the nearby bars, given how far into the night the kitchen stays open on weekends. The restaurant keeps its own site updated with current hours and menu items, and its social accounts on Facebook and Instagram post specials and daily offerings, useful for anyone tracking down a particular topping or deal before heading downtown.