NORTHPORT—The little building on Route 1 just past Wentworth Grocery has been a number of businesses in the last couple decades, but entrepreneur Bryant Hall is confident that his latest venture is the right fit at the right location. Pizza Permare is a wood-fired pizzeria that opened nearly two weeks ago and is already getting some swift word-of-mouth attention from the locals.

“It may not be right in the middle of things, but it’s got a lot of visibility,” said Hall, who remained open after the most recent foot-high snowstorm slowed traffic on Route 1 to a crawl. “It’s between the middle of things, if that makes sense.”

Hall says he uses Facebook to keep in touch with his customers.

“It’s the best way to get in contact with people and get instant feedback,” he said.

Hall graduated from Belfast High School in 2006 and from the University of Vermont in 2010 in entrepreneurship.

“I opened up my first business, which I still have in Belfast called The Cool Spot,” he said. “I’ve been running that for the last five years now. I was looking for an opportunity that was more year-round and I saw that this place was available. I took a look at it and thought it would be a fantastic place for a wood-fired oven pizza.”

Open just two weeks, the interior has been totally redone from the Thai restaurant that formally occupied it. The hard wood floors are a muted brick red, while the walls are dark with steel light fixtures. Hall’s father made some of the custom-treated zinc tables with the industrial chic look.

“We wanted a warm and modern feel,” he said.

To start with, Hall installed a wood fired oven. The core was made from a special firebrick called Le Panyol derived from quart-laden clay from a quarry in France and assembled from a company in Skowhegan. He had a local mason do the brickwork.

With a stack of firewood lining the counter, Hall said he usually gets the oven going by 9 a.m., so it gets up to temperature by 11 a.m. Throwing a couple of sticks on it every few hours keeps the oven going all day.

“You get more of an authentic flavor from a wood-fired oven,” he said. “You can get the dough to a higher temperature and takes more of the moisture out of it, so you get a crunchy, crispy crust.”

Hall has a simple “choose-your-own” menu for customers and is the go-to pizza consultant when it comes to pairing a particular sauce with a cheese or topping. They offer hand stretched dough, both flour and a gluten-free, which is only $1 more. The specially crafted sauces range from his father’s recipes, including a red sauce, blue cheese, garlic olive oil, basil pesto, a spicy Sriracha and a fire-roasted garlic cream sauce.

As for the meat toppings, he offers local Applewood smoked bacon and buys as much as local produce as he can.

“I look forward in the spring to getting more local produce for toppings,” he said.

Permare is the Latin word for by the sea and with a promising start. Here’s hoping Pizza Permare will be a permanent location in Northport.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com