Expanding from its German roots in nearby Harmony, Jackson Township recently welcomed a slice of Italy to its business landscape.

Aviva Brick Oven, 365 Mercer Road, opened Oct. 21. Owner Jay Sebes said his business features an Italian-themed restaurant, with an emphasis on providing specialty brick oven pizza.

“It was busy and there is always a learning curve when you first open the doors to a restaurant,” Sebes said Monday, Oct. 28 of the business’s opening day. “People got to learn the flow of everything. Every day it will get better, and we will be running really good by the end of the week.”

The Jackson Township restaurant is Aviva’s second location. Its flagship store at 16099 Perry Highway in Marshall Township, Allegheny County, opened in December 2010.

Some of Aviva’s top-selling pizzas include its Margherita and white pizzas, along with its signature Aviva pizza with crumbled sausage and banana peppers.

Sebes has plenty of industry experience, as he spent time as a restaurant manager and catering director with the Hilton corporation.

He said he left the industry for about a decade to work in the industrial footwear industry, but he still had those hospitality instincts in him.

“I ended up getting the itch back for the restaurant business,” Sebes said. “From my travels throughout those 10 years when I was in the footwear business, I picked up recipes from every city I went to and put them together and Aviva was formed.”

Sebes said he feels Jackson Township and the surrounding region is “up and coming” and the decision to locate there was fairly easy.

“I see all the growth happening in the region and when I saw the location for sale, with the proximity to the highway in the middle of a neighborhood it was kind of a no-brainer for us,” Sebes said.