NILES — If Pizza Transit is known for anything in Niles, it is its specialty pizzas — a different variety each month.

Hungry customers can stop by the restaurant’s 215 E. Main St. location anytime in November and pick up a Thanksgiving pizza, featuring cheeses, turkey breast and stuffing on top of a gravy base and served with cranberry sauce.

Only one day this month, however, can customers purchase what owner Sarah Brittin considers to be an even more niche, more zany pie: the chicken and waffles pizza.

That day is Nov. 21, in tandem with Niles DDA Main Street’s Third Thursday series, where downtown businesses offer specials and host events into the evening on the third Thursday of every month.

The event has happened for three years, and its premise has stayed the same, said Bryan Williams, DDA board member and owner of downtown business The Brass Eye.

“Just do something cool,” Williams said, quoting fellow board member Justin Flagel’s catchphrase for the event. “It doesn’t have to be some big blowout or some expensive promotion. Just have something going on.”

Williams’ bar offers tap takeovers on Third Thursdays. One brewery, typically far from Niles, will be have the only beers on tap served.

Veni’s Sweet Shop will offer discounts on its sweets. Iron Shoe Distillery has historically partnered with other businesses to create in-restaurant events. The Grand LV has hosted a band on its front lawn.

The goal now, Williams said, is the same as it was three years ago: get businesses to participate and have them stay open later.

That, in turn, brings more people downtown, who will likely float from business to business, taking advantage of deals and specials offered.

“It’s tough to ask retailers to open later without any hope of their normal hours without any extra people, so I think we’re starting to show that people are willing to come downtown on a Thursday night if there is something for them to do,” he said.

As of the past few months, the same handful of businesses tend to participate.

Flagel said the Main Street board’s goal is to not only increase collaboration between participating businesses, but to bring more businesses in.

“We have so many great entrepreneurs downtown,” he said. “They’re creative, energetic and dedicated to their businesses. I want to see them increasingly combining forces in the next few years.”

Brittin, of Pizza Transit, said a challenge Third Thursday faces is a challenge the downtown faces in its entirety. Most participating businesses offer food and drink. Few are retail.

That reflects the makeup of the larger downtown district. In October, Niles Main Street announced that studies showed the downtown district was best suited for a food and drink destination. Retail, however, was still needed for the district to financially thrive.

Brittin said Pizza Transit financially thrives best on Third Thursdays. There is usually standing room only during those evenings, as many customers are enticed by the restaurant’s offer to bring in alcoholic beverages.

Pizza Transit “jumped on board” when Third Thursdays began in 2016, Brittin said. She liked the collaborative aspect of the event between businesses, and it reassured her that moving her business to downtown Niles was the right move.

“On Third Thursday, or honestly any day, you can hop over and have a drink at Iron Shoe, have a pizza here, go over to the Brass Eye’s tap takeover, stop at all the businesses in between,” Brittin said.

The key was to bring in retail to bridge the gap between food establishments. Otherwise, people would be less inclined to walk around if they knew the next destination included another plate of food or cocktail glass of whiskey.

Williams, not speaking for the Main Street board, said he thought expanding Niles’ open alcoholic beverage policy to more blocks could lead to more attendees walking to retail shops.

Currently, the half-block around The Brass Eye is blocked off each Third Thursday, and open beverages are allowed on the sidewalk and in the street.

Williams noted people have never been rowdy, and he thinks adding a few more blocks of openly carrying alcoholic drinks would not change that dynamic.

Rather, with streets blocked from cars and with a drink to warm people up, Third Thursday participants may be enticed to check out other participating businesses around the block.

Ultimately, Williams said he wanted people moving around downtown, not driving. A downtown with walkers implies success.