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A SINGULAR PASSION
By Jim Dees
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Aaron Williams may call his Reader, West Virginia, pizzeria “Paradise Pizza,” but it’s hardly been a Garden of Eden. After opening up as a take-out in 1992, Aaron actually ran the shop solo for two years after his wife took a job at the local Wal-Mart. While the trial and toil of a one-man pizza shop might break other operators, a unique set of circumstances helped Aaron endure and prevail. For one thing, Reader is a small town (pop. 800), everyone in town knows Aaron and his is the only pizza place within 15 miles. For another, Aaron, has, as he says, “had help.”
“The whole family’s been pitching in,” he declares, “even people in the community have been helping out. My father is a retired contractor, my wife paints, my father-in-law is a plumber and helps out with the pipes.”
Now, he’s been so successful (no trouble in Paradise) he’s opening a second store – this one with a regular staff.
Road to Paradise
Aaron says he learned the pizza business by picking it up, bits at a time, along the way.
“I worked at Dominos for years, though mainly as a delivery driver,” he recalls. “I learned to make pizza from an elderly lady whose yard I mowed. She was a really good baker and showed me how. I had to work on my dough and my sauce for a long time to get it just like I wanted.”
When he got it like he wanted, he opened Paradise Pizza.
“We make thin-crust, deep dish, stuffed crust, and of course the traditional hand toss. If you make your crust, you can prepare it the way the customer wants it.”
Aaron says one of the secrets of his dough, is adding PZ 44 to his flour, at a rate of 2% per 50 lbs. Aaron says the PZ 44 relaxes the dough and speeds the fermentation process, which he says, cuts down on mix time. Aaron admits that he uses canned products for his sauce but he also adds his own seasonings and uses more than one brand of sauce to get the blend he seeks.
“I mix everything together, and subtract and add from various recipes, and then to take down the acidity, I add a little brown sugar, and the next thing you know, you have Paradise sauce.” Running the business by himself came about when Aaron had trouble keeping employees, in his sparsely populated section of the state. “It’s really hard to find people to work consistently,” he sighs. “You hire them, but they want to call in and take time off. When my wife started her Wal-Mart job, I just said we’ll make it, I’ll just run the place by myself.” And he did, for two years or so.
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| Paradise Pizza caters to the family dine-in crowd, and offers several varieties of entertainment, including video games and a foosball table on which Aaron himself sometimes participates. |
“It’s a little pizza shop, we sell maybe 100 pizzas a week,” he concedes, “but it does what it needs to do. Ever since people have learned that we’re opening the new store, our business has improved. I’m not sure why.”
The new store is rising in a former restaurant/bar in nearby Paden City, W.V., 30 miles away. Paden City is a part of a tri-city area, including Sistersville, (pop. 3,000) and New Martinsville, (pop. 8,000). Because of this proximity, Aaron estimates his new location could churn out sales of $1,000 a day. Work began on the new store in November 2006, and Aaron and his family and friends are eyeing a March 2007 grand opening. To accomplish this, they’re working whenever they can steal a little time: after work, or on days off. Aaron says the crew has also run into the inevitable unforeseen curve balls.
“The former tenants cooked in the kitchen but had no ventilation hoods, there was grease everywhere,” he rues. “Also, they didn’t have a back door, we had to put that in. We basically had to rehab the whole kitchen.” Aaron says he maxed out his credit cards to assemble materials for the new store, including buying lots of kitchen equipment on e-Bay.
“Got a Blodgett four deck, pizza oven for $2,300. Got a range hood, a Tin Burner, for $450. Of course it’s all used, but still a good price.” Aaron said he went to restaurant equippers to get other essentials like napkins holders and pizza pans.
He also struck a very nice deal with soda giant Pepsi.
“Pepsi’s paying me to put their machines in. I thought it was crazy,” he gushes. “They’re going to pay me to put the machines in there, and they’re going to pay me for every gallon I sell. When I reach 500 gallons I get 50 cents for every gallon, which would be $250. I get $550 for using their equipment and putting one of their 20-oz coolers in. They’re going to pay me money for every 20-oz case I sell.”
Aaron plans to offer delivery at the new Paden City store, as well as seating for 50. He believes his dine-in will be a niche as there is only one other dining spot in Paden City, an upscale diner. His pizza competition is Domino’s and another independent, but neither have dine-in. Another plus for the new store is it’s located right next to a high school.
Two Tickets to Paradise
In a meat and potatoes locale like West Virginia, Aaron says many of his customers ask him why he doesn’t sell other foods such as burgers and fries.
“I’m a pizzeria,” he answers. He also says too much variety could tax his small kitchen. He also thinks he should pick out a niche and be good at it.
“We do pizza and Italian food, and I have the best dine-in in this area.”
Aaron’s pizzas are all priced, depending on topping, from $9.99 to 15.99. His offerings include the Paradise Deluxe, which includes pepperoni, sausage, onions and banana peppers. The Gutbuster, a 20-inch pizza and the Big Daddy, a 30-inch pizza. (“The Big Daddy won’t be available at the new store until we get our big oven in,” Aaron points out.)
He’s also proud of his non-pizza items, bread sticks, calzones, strombolis, sandwiches and fried mushrooms. He has a special appetizer he calls Nibblers, which is breaded cheese, which is then deep-fried. He also has mozzarella sticks.
His first store can be run by three workers, which includes Aaron. Aaron expects to have five employees at the new store, including a driver, possibly two drivers on weekends. At his current store, he estimates his food costs at 30% and his labor costs are (eat your hearts out, operators) even lower due to hiring family members, at 10%. Thanks to those family members he expects to have the second store built for $30,000 and change. Just because he’s bringing a little bit of paradise to Paden City, Aaron knows he’s going to have to acquaint himself with his new customers. He says he’s been mulling marketing ideas. One idea he has is to have two coupons for Paradise Pizza placed in the glove compartment of each car down at the local Chevrolet dealership owned by a friend of his.
“In return, I’ll place the dealer’s ad on all my box tops,” Aaron says. “That way we both get our names out there. It doesn’t cost him a penny.” The local radio station has offered to broadcast the grand opening of Paradise for a fee of $300, as well as mention the store every two hours for a month for an extra $60.
“I figure if we’re going to be on the radio 24 hours a day for a month, $360 is a pretty good deal. Of course we’ll be watching it to see what kind of feedback we get.”
Paradise Found
From working as a one man pizza place to expanding to a second store, takes what the folks of West Virginia might call, “gumption,” and Aaron Williams seems to have it. He also has his Christian faith, which he says has sustained him whenever he begins to wonder if he’s doing the right thing.
“I’ve had my doubts,” he confesses. “And the way I do it is when I have my doubts, I get into the Word, you know? I get out the old Bible to get reassured. God is the foundation of it all. The Word says the one that leads you and loves you will never fail you.”
Aaron tries to put his beliefs into practice.
“I want the atmosphere of my restaurants to be positive where people can relax and enjoy their food,” he says. “I want it to be a place where they can escape reality a little bit. I’m also Christian-motivated. I’ve got a couple nephews, I want to be able to offer them a job in the future.”
A job may very well be waiting for those two youngsters. In a little corner of paradise in West Virginia, the future looks very bright.