This spring south Columbia will welcome one of the city’s most enduring small businesses.
Shakespeare’s Pizza plans to open a third location on 3911 Peachtree Dr. as early as March or April 2012. This will be the business’ largest exp ansion yet, as the new building will be 14,000 square feet — more than double the size of either of its two other locations.
The new Shakespeare’s will include not only a restaurant and bar, but also a production facility for frozen pizzas, a large party room able to hold as many as 200 people and the main office of the business.
Kurt Mirtsching, marketing director and general manager for Shakespeare’s Pizza, said the company has been searching for an expansion to a third location for some time.
“We’ve been looking for another location for several years,” he said. “But we got real serious about it in the last year. … Then we settled on [Peachtree Drive] a couple months ago and actually closed on the purchase of the property” in early November.
Mirtsching said Landmark Bank approached Shakespeare’s, in September and offered them a deal on the property. It was an offer neither he nor owner Jay Lewis could refuse.
“They had foreclosed on the property and approached us and said, ‘Hey we got this piece of property. We’re really in the bank business, not the real estate business. Would you like to buy it please?’” Mirtsching said. “And we said, ‘OK!’”
According to Mirtsching, the proximity of the new location to RBHS played a significant role in the decision to go ahead and buy the property.
“Having Rock Bridge next door [gives us] built-in lunch customers and the whole after-school crowd,” Mirtsching said. “Usually restaurants are slow at three or four in the afternoon, but with a little luck, we’ll get some high school students stopping by.”
Senior Andrew Keller is looking forward to having the restaurant so close to school. The area surrounding RBHS has been without a pizza shop since the CiCi’s Pizza on Peachtree Drive relocated more than three years ago.
“It’ll be great to have a really good pizza place near the school,” Keller said. “That’s something that’s been missing throughout the time that I’ve been here.”
Despite the soaring reputation and high name recognition Shakespeare’s Pizza enjoys — Good Morning America named the downtown restaurant the “top college hangout” in the nation just a year ago — it took nearly 30 years for the heralded company to expand to its second location on West Broadway and another eight years to plan another expansion, this time to the south side of Columbia.
“There is no, nor has there ever been, a master strategy or plan. We just get up every day and do what needs doing,” Mirtsching said. “We found ourselves needing more room, so we expanded, … no strategy, no thought process. It’s just pizza.”
Whether it was a planned business decision or not, Shakespeare’s employee senior Maria Ramirez believes this latest expansion to south Columbia will bring greater visibility to the business.
“It’s going to be packed, and that will make for good business not only there, but for the other Shakespeare’s locations also,” Ramirez said.
But Keller said he is confident the new restaurant will do well, especially with RBHS students.
“If it’s anything like their restaurant downtown, it’ll be a great place just to hang out and have fun with friends,” Keller said. “I wouldn’t really be surprised if it’s the most popular spot to eat with students as soon as it opens.”
By Mike Presberg