Smoking Monkey Pizza has been Renton’s one and only primate sci-fi pizza parlor for over a decade.<\/p>\n
On June 4 in downtown Renton, Smoking Monkey Pizza commemorated its 10-year anniversary with a celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n
After the opening of the Renton Farmer’s Market, residents flocked to support the restaurant on this milestone day. In addition to the ribbon cutting, Smoking Monkey Pizza had raffles, a spinning wheel for prizes, a buy-one-pizza-get-one-free deal and — quite on brand — a large monkey and pizza costume.<\/p>\n
“It was a really great moment for us,” said new owner Tushar Batra of the ceremony. “We did various activities for kids, for teenagers, and even for old people. We were having a face painting booth, we were having a spin the wheel game to get free drinks and free food.”<\/p>\n
Smoking Monkey Pizza was created with a unique goal in mind — combining science fiction and delicious pizza.<\/p>\n
Over the past 10 years, the restaurant has evolved a complex background narrative of asteroid mining companies and an intergalactic “Federation of Pizza.”<\/p>\n
The restaurant has blossomed into a staple of the Renton community with food equal in quality as the decorations. Smoking Monkey Pizza was voted Renton’s Best Pizza in 2024, adding onto a long list of awards racked up over the years.<\/p>\n
While the ceremony had face painting stands and winnable prizes, at the end of the day, it is the food that brings customers back.<\/p>\n
“I love food, I love to cook every day,” said Batra of the center of his business. “I am very glad I got the opportunity to buy this store, and I am really attached to the food. Whenever I make the food, I always give 100%.”<\/p>\n
Tushar Batra has only owned Smoking Monkey Pizza for just over three months, but he has already acclimated to the support of his Renton neighborhood.<\/p>\n
“This is a very good location for me. I love the community, I love the people, and I am really happy to serve right here,” said Batra. “Our neighbors are pretty good. If I need something I ask, if they need something I can help them. This is a small neighborhood so we can help each other to grow.”<\/p>\n
Batra recalled some specific kind gestures his fellow small business owners made to him before the ceremony.<\/p>\n
“When I was doing my ten-year anniversary, everyone put posters for me outside their businesses. That is the main reason I am here,” he said.<\/p>\n
After a decade of success, many wonder what the next decade will look like for Renton’s favorite monkey-based pizzeria. While nothing is certain, Batra is confident in the changes he is making and the continuation of what everyone already loves.<\/p>\n
“I have changed a couple of things. I have introduced a good bar for the people, I have changed the color for the store interior, I have increased the food quality by adding my own appetizers, but the rest is the same. The recipes are all the same,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Owner Tushar Batra cut the ribbon to celebrate the only restaurant in Renton that combines monkeys, astronauts, galactic powers, smoking and award-winning pizza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":46750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46749"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}