By Alexandra Mortati | Photos courtesy of Lizz Aquarian
Growing up, Lizz Aquarian, the general manager of Downtown Pizza Company in Murphy, North Carolina, dreamed of being a journalist. “I got a degree in journalism and then worked at a local paper for eight years,” she said. “I did everything from crime to sports. It was incredibly fulfilling, but there was always a part of me that was into culinary. Anthony Bourdain was one of my heroes.”
Aquarian’s parents, who had backgrounds at Domino’s, opened Downtown Pizza Company in 2001 when they moved to Murphy, and their daughter grew up working there. “I couldn’t escape pizza because I was always here on and off, even as a reporter. Journalism doesn’t pay as well as you dream about.”
Meanwhile, she added, “The restaurant needed help occasionally, and I took pride in it. A couple of things happened in journalism, and I wasn’t sure my heart was in it anymore. Around the time I got pregnant [about 11 years ago], I resigned from the paper and decided to put everything into the restaurant and make changes.”
Downtown Pizza Company has been the same concept since it opened: an all-you-can-eat pizza and salad buffet. But, as PMQ Pizza reported in a cover story on Aquarian in September 2024, it’s more like an experimental pizza kitchen where just about anything goes. “What differentiates us from corporate buffets is that we do gourmet-style pizza,” Aquarian points out. “All of our salads are fresh, and we work with a local produce provider. Buffets get a bad rap, by and large. People look at them as bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of quality, but for us, that couldn’t be further from the truth. [Buffets] are so much harder to manage. The eyes on you are harsher. I have a chip on my shoulder about it.”
But that doesn’t mean Aquarian lets the pressure get to her. She leads by example, running an operation that’s employee-friendly and non-toxic, all while working in the trenches with her team every day.
Related: Queen of the Feast: Lizz Aquarian’s Buffet Concept Is Like a ‘7-Day-a-Week Test Kitchen”
Keeping Prices Down
When Aquarian’s parents moved to Murphy, they noticed that most people didn’t have time to eat out for lunch. “Since we are in the heart of downtown, they decided to make [their pizzeria] fast-casual. You pay for your food and get it immediately. You walk in, and it’s hot and ready to go. The goal was to make a faster lunch service for people who only had 20 or 30 minutes to break and to make it affordable. When we started, the buffet was $3.99. When it went up to $5.99, my parents ran special coupons. They were always focused on making sure locals could afford it.”
Surprisingly, at least one guest thinks Downtown Pizza Company keeps its prices too low. “The other day, a customer asked why we haven’t raised our prices,” Aquarian recalled. “He said, ‘You’re leaving money on the table! You aren’t charging enough!’ Yet, on the other hand, I have had people who say it’s too expensive. We are two hours from many major cities. We’re a very touristy town, but it still is rural Appalachia. We pay our people well, and we rely on our crew. They make or break a buffet. We might be on the cusp of another price increase, but we will wait until it’s absolutely necessary. Maybe it’s our pride, but we want to be the last to hold out.”
The Youth Movement
From its staff to its customers, Downtown Pizza Company is more than just a restaurant—it’s a large communal space for the little town of Murphy. “We have about 120-130 seats, and a lot of people have a sense of ownership about the space,” Aquarian says. “It’s a little bit more complicated of a relationship than your average restaurant.”
It’s open all day, and to manage demand, Aquarian runs two shifts. “We have anywhere from four to seven people per shift and assigned stations. The kitchen is designed like a clock, so at any point someone can shift to the next position. Our senior staff are in management roles, but I hire really young. I usually start people at 14 years old. They run shorter shifts, but they are being trained on how to run a full shift while providing extra hands. I have a senior who has worked here since she was a freshman. Now, she is running the shift for me today. A lot of restaurants don’t like to invest in young workers because it takes extra care and time, but you will get workers who stay with you. It’s not hard to follow labor laws, but you do have to understand what it means to have minors in a kitchen culture.”
On top of managing a young staff, handling the demand of buffet service is its own special dance. “Pizza, especially Neapolitan style, doesn’t sit out. We use a 00-style flour and bake at 500° in a conveyor oven to get it really thin and crispy. At a buffet, we have time in lieu of temperature. We can only put pizzas out for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time. If it doesn’t get eaten, it gets thrown away. We have rounds, which means that, any given time, there should be specific pizzas on the bar. We keep a constant eye on the bar since we have a huge amount of interaction and awareness. You learn what is getting eaten and what isn’t. You have to accept that you will throw some pizza away, but you try to minimize what is lost. You learn the preferences of your regular customers, and you know which pizzas to focus on when they come in.”
When Aquarian transitioned from journalism to Downtown Pizza Company fulltime, she immediately started implementing changes. “I wanted to change management in terms of scheduling. I wanted employees to make their own schedules and tell me when they wanted to work. I wanted them to tell me their expectations of us. This essentially diminished the amount of callouts and absenteeism and helped us to eliminate employees who were not performing correctly. It put power back in the hands of the employees. My family and I run the business and have flexibility in who can be here at any given time. This changed the schedule structure and dynamics between my family and our employees. I was really sick of the classic old-school-kitchen nonsense and saw we could change that for the better. It also changed the community perspective of the restaurant.”
‘Very Much a Lifestyle’
Aquarian also started experimenting with recipes. “My dad and I collaborated on the sauce. Before we debuted anything, we really tested quite a bit. We would test some items on the bar, but we privately tested the big changes. It’s all learning as you go, and you must practice daily. This morning, we made 160 pounds of dough, and that’s on the low end. If you mess up on one batch, that’s 80 pounds gone. Same-day dough only happens in emergencies. We usually proof for 24 to 48 hours, but it really depends on [how much business] we are forecasting. Nothing is worse than coming in and your dough has blown. Disasters can easily happen if you’re not on top of dough management. Sometimes it keeps you up at night, and you think, ‘Did I make enough? Did I [remember to] put yeast in the dough?’”
Luckily, Aquarian works alongside family members who share her vision. “I love working with my family. My big brother is four years older than me, and he runs nights. We all get it and are all so in it. It’s so cool to be able to lean on someone. When things can get tense or there is drama or issues that can come to a fever pitch between all of us, we ultimately know we aren’t isolated in having a massive responsibility of running a restaurant. We live here every day, and it’s very much a lifestyle. I live only two blocks away.”
Aquarian only sees positives in working with her family. “My parents are retired. My mother essentially gave the reigns to us, which makes it a little easier, and she still helps with bookkeeping. It’s in our hands, which makes them a little stressed, but we’re happy to give them relief. Now they get to do the fun stuff. My mom wants to create a pizza mural on the outside, and I’m, like, ‘Let’s do it!’ She would never have considered that before because she would have been overwhelmed.”
The Woman in Charge
Aquarian’s advice for others running their own businesses is to be present. “You need to work side by side with your crew. You have to work harder than everyone. Your crew needs to see you doing the things that they do. This morning, I cleaned the bathrooms. You are no better than them. They are better than you, and you rely on them. You have to sweat, put in the work, and do the hard stuff. Make sure that they see you doing it. Absence from your own kitchen can breed resentment, so there needs to be a balance. They want to see that you care, and you should be there to support them. Even just popping in for 10 minutes can change the course of the evening for the crew. Keep your kitchen culture positive and not toxic.”
Being a leader isn’t easy for most of us, and being a woman taught Aquarian about her own authority. “The big thing for me was being the boss and showing people that I could be a tiny woman and be a boss. I had to learn how to exercise my authority and hold court. I’ll be in the kitchen, and [a customer] will say ‘Can you ask him to make me [a particular pizza]?’ People automatically use the he/him pronouns because they assume it’s a man making pizza.
“I also deserve respect. That has been my biggest takeaway. I’ve shared some stuff on my TikTok where I’ve been disrespected because I’m a woman. I have been physically assaulted and had to go to court over a customer. I’ve had to call the police several times. People love restaurants, but as much as they love them, their emotions get high in here. But our customers are awesome and usually regulars.”
In fact, a woman has always been the boss at Downtown Pizza Co. “Everyone assumes my dad is in charge or involved, but it’s my mom. My mom started this business back in 2001. My dad is not an owner. I went up to New York three or five years ago, and we went to my mom’s favorite pizza shop that she grew up going to. I said, ‘Mom, look, there are no female pizza makers. I’m wondering how they would feel if I went up and said, ‘Oh, I’m a pizza maker.” It felt very macho in there and was the first time I really started thinking about how unique my mom’s story was and what she did.
“She doesn’t make pizza anymore…but she was in here day in and day out for 20 years. Before then she was in the Army, and then she started working in Domino’s as soon as she got out. I don’t think my mom gets enough credit, even in my family, for the dues she paid in physicality. That’s the thing about pizza—it’s physically demanding, especially if you are making our volume.”
Planning for the Future
When it comes to the future, Aquarian is already working on bringing other dreams to life. To commemorate the history of Downtown Pizza Company and tap into her journalism skills, she has been compiling a book called Downtown Pizza History. “I started doing it so my kids one day will have it. I also started writing a book based on this restaurant. I’m trying to tie in some of the history of my family and the building. I’ll hopefully be publishing it in 2025!”
Meanwhile, she’s also writing a horror novel—set in a pizzeria, no less. “The building, the history, everything takes place in the pizza shop. Fiction is new for me since my background is journalism, but it’s a personal dream, and I feel like I can leverage my being in the pizza world to some degree.”
At the same time, she’s focused on infrastructure changes to the pizzeria itself. “We are in a historic downtown building that used to be a farmers’ market and are repurposing the building for long-term sustainability,” Aquarian explained. “I want to make sure this building can last another 50 to 75 years. We have everything going for us except for our infrastructure. In terms of everything else, we are killing it. Business is good. Our landlord passed away last year, and he was the one that helped my parents find this building. We rent and don’t own it, but before he passed away, he said I would be the first in line to purchase the building, which is a long-term goal. We want to do Paul (the landlord) proud and maintain the building.”
She also hopes to keep the family’s pizza legacy going. “I want my son to be able to do this in 50 years. Klaus…is big into cooking. My last TikTok post showed him making potato soup from scratch. I taught him how to make pizza, and he enjoys it for now. He can roll dough, and he helped open the restaurant this morning.”
Aquarian also put her young nephew to work in the pizzeria. “I was 12 when my parents opened the restaurant and it really impacted me growing up, so I think it will do something for them,” she said.
On a personal note, Lizz wants to become more involved in the pizza community. “I would love to continue the trajectory that the PMQ cover gave me. My dream for my mother was to get us on the cover of a magazine, and it was just on a whim, and it happened. I made a media kit and sent it to four places, and the goal was to get some type of coverage. [The story] was [originally] going to be an e-edition thing, and then they said September was open.
“Now, I’m talking to Rick [Hynum] about writing some guest spots for PMQ. When I went to the Pizza Power Forum in Atlanta, that was a unique experience for me. I had a lot of imposter syndrome and felt like I didn’t belong. I felt really intimidated. It was a very strange situation to be in because, while it was great and I enjoyed it, I felt like I was a new kid on the block and everyone else knew each other. It was a big step for me. What if [Downtown Pizza Company] could be a Top 50 Pizza pizzeria? What if I could make this little pizzeria something on a bigger scale? I’m an outgoing person, and I was nervous.
“I was also overwhelmed because my picture was on the cover, and I wasn’t prepared to see that everywhere. It made a big impact on me. I want to do this again, and I want to hold court a little bit more. I want things to keep happening and to continue moving in the pizza world. I’ve been in this little microcosm, but the more eyes I can get on this business, the better. My crew is so proud of the restaurant, and it was so big for us locally. I want my crew to think that it’s special. It’s been a long road—24 years is a long time.”
Aquarian is a visionary leader who is both hands-on and humble. Her employee-first management practices have boosted morale and strengthened the overall team dynamic. She leads by example, working side-by-side with her crew, and she believes in being visible and engaged to foster a positive kitchen culture. Creative and ambitious, she is tying her journalistic background and family history into a book that involves the pizza business, all while working to elevate Downtown Pizza on a national scale.
