Longtime Sacramento pizzeria Zelda’s, known for Chicago-style deep dish, reopens in midtown

Zelda’s Original Gourmet Pizza, a midtown Sacramento favorite for more than 45 years, reopened Thursday under new management. It won’t be quite the same — but pretty close.

The Chicago deep-dish pizzeria at 1415 21st St. closed on Aug. 31, weeks after shuttering the dimly-lit dining room and switching to exclusively takeout service. Then Jon Stevenson and Beau Cornell stepped in.

Cornell and Stevenson contacted owner Kerry Matthews, son of founder Zelda Breslin, and asked to take over operations with the eventual goal of becoming Zelda’s owners. They hired back cooks and servers who had been laid off, and opened the pizzeria back up for to-go service Thursday.

After ironing out some reopening wrinkles, Cornell and Stevenson plan to open Zelda’s dining room with dinner service until 9 p.m. around the end of November. Late-night slices will be available past that, and the bar will remain open for midnight revelers, Stevenson said.

Stevenson’s background is in fashion and menswear, including founding Trumpette, a brand specializing in high-quality socks for babies. He and Breslin were friends before her death in 2006.