Feast owner Doug Levy is feeding the local economy by contracting for a larger home for his popular midtown restaurant.
The Wienerschnitzel at East Speedway and North Dodge Boulevard was torn down a couple of weeks ago to make way for a new 5,000-square-foot building. Construction will begin soon, Levy said.
The new Feast, 3719 E. Speedway, will be down the street from his current location at 4122 E. Speedway.
"It's terrifying and exciting - it's right where terrifying and exciting overlap," said Levy, who opened Feast Tasteful Takeout in May 2001 and said the new building should be completed by Sept. 17. "I'm the good kind of scared."
Levy, 43, said there will be a private dining room for 35 and a patio that will seat about 20. The dining room will seat about 58, the same as the current location.
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Levy's lease is up in June, but he hopes to continue a month-to-month lease and be closed only for about a week during the transition.
Feastlings, as fans of the restaurant affectionately are called, have nothing to worry about, Levy said.
"Nothing's going to change," he said. "Our concept is still going to be a neighborhood place. We still will have a gargantuan wine list that is a super bargain. We still will have retail wine and liquor. And we still will have a menu that changes every month."
Levy plans to add six to eight waitstaff, six to eight kitchen staff, an office worker and eight to 10 part-time catering staff.
The restaurant will remain closed on Mondays, but Levy said it might stay open an hour later, to 10 p.m., on weekends.
"We can do wine dinners in the middle of the week now," Levy said. The lack of a private dining room in the current location forced wine dinners to take place only on Mondays when the restaurant was closed.
The building will be built by Venture West Group Inc. and is estimated to cost $1.3 million. Levy also will add about $100,000 in equipment to the kitchen and dining room.
"I've never been in debt this much before - it's kind of exciting," he said. "But so far, every time I've gone into debt more than before it's worked out."
Levy first borrowed $60,000 to open Feast Tasteful Takeout, and then another $40,000 over the next couple of years.
"I lived on borrowed money those first two years," he said. "It was the most freeing experience of my life, saying, 'Oh, my God, I can live on $10,000 a year.' "
The new location will be a "long and skinny" brick-and-stucco building with lots of windows.
"We don't want to have fresco plaster-painted walls," Levy said. "It's going to be Feast. It's going to be really good."
This is not Feast's first attempt to move. Three years ago, Levy planned to occupy a spot on Speedway that housed Old Peking, but the restaurant's proximity to a school made it illegal to carry an off-sale license for alcohol.
Levy's younger brother, Mitch, sold his Tucson restaurant, Cuvee World Bistro, in November 2007. Earlier that year, he had opened another Cuvee in July 2007 in Basalt, Colo., about 15 miles from Aspen.
The Tucson Cuvee permanently closed in January 2009.
"I think it's a great idea for Doug," said Mitch Levy, who still runs the Basalt Cuvee. "I think he has outgrown his space and built such a great reputation for himself in town. I think he's going to be great."
Mitch Levy has expanded, too. His restaurant debuted a 1,000-square-foot bar expansion last Memorial Day. Cuvee now has 230 total capacity, 140 of it inside.
"It has been a raging success," said Mitch Levy, who's now in talks about adding a sports and cigar bar adjacent to Cuvee.
"He and I may be the smartest or the dumbest people on the planet," said Mitch Levy, 41. "It just shows you there's some light there."
Contact reporter Valerie Vinyard at vvinyard@azstarnet.com or at 573-4136.