Toppers Pizza at Beacon Center to open later this month

Toppers Pizza is located at 6676 Richmond Highway.

Toppers Pizza in the Beacon Center will be holding its soft opening on Feb. 14 and its grand opening on Feb. 17, reps from the company said Thursday.

The grand opening will feature the chain’s “First 50” promotion, where the first 50 people in line win free food for a year (see rules here). Jim Ferdenzi, the operations director for the Northern Virginia Toppers franchise, said customers lined up as early as 3 a.m. at a recent Toppers opening in Alexandria. 

The Beacon Center Toppers will be the second Northern Virginia location for the pizza chain, which is based out of Wisconsin. The first NoVa Toppers opened in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria in December.

Franchise owner Mike McLaughlin and Ferdenzi, who each have years of experience working for Papa Johns and Dominoes franchises in the D.C. area, say they are ultimately aiming to open up 22 restaurants in Northern Virginia, including one in the Fort Belvoir area.

McLaughlin said the Beacon Center location has already generated lots of interest from passersby.

“We’re pretty excited about the prospects there,” McLaughlin said. 

Besides pizza, Toppers is known for its wings, “Topperstix” and other unique offerings, including more than 30 toppings ranging from Wisconsin mozzarella cheese to tater tots to dill pickles. The Beacon Center location will offer delivery and carry out, and remain open until 3 a.m., Ferdenzi said. 

Located at 6676 Richmond Highway, Toppers will operate in the space formerly occupied by Zinga, which closed its doors in 2017.