Mike Lizotte, who owns an interactive stock market-themed bar in Portland, has purchased Pat’s Pizza Old Port and plans to convert an upstairs function space into a speakeasy with a secret entrance.

The restaurant and sports bar at 30 Market St. had been owned for the past decade by Chris Tyll, who said last week he had sold the restaurant and that it would be closed temporarily for renovations. Lizotte said Monday he plans to continue “Pat’s Pizza’s tradition of being a household name.”

“Pat’s is a well-known name with a rich history,” he said.

The restaurant will be closed until Sept. 20 for renovation. The first 100 customers at the grand reopening will receive free pizza for a year. Free cookies will be given out that day with all takeout orders. 

A more extensive renovation is planned for the upstairs event space, which Lizotte plans to transform into a “speakeasy ultra-lounge.” 

“The experience will be unlike anything Portland has seen yet, featuring a cassette tape-lined stairwell, telephone booth front door and secret entrance into the Pat’s dining room,” Lizotte said.

The speakeasy lounge is slated to open on New Year’s Eve.

Lizotte, a Litchfield native who lives in Freeport, has owned The Drink Exchange at 43 Wharf St. since 2015. Lizotte said he is friends with Tyll, who approached him six months ago about taking over Pat’s Pizza.

Tyll said all of his employees have been guaranteed interviews with the new owners. Lizotte said he is hiring servers, bartenders and cooks.

There are 17 Pat’s Pizza locations across the state, each independently owned and operated. Two restaurant groups own multiple locations. The original Pat’s was started by Pat Farnsworth in Orono in 1931. It began as an ice cream parlor and evolved into a lunch counter and then a hamburger joint.