We recently connected with Pete Richardson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pete, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
You have to love what you do and be passionate about it. First impressions are lasting impressions and can make your business or break it. A clean establishment and friendly staff is critical to your success.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Been in the restaurant business for over thirty-five years. Even though the name says “Lake Gaston Pizza & More”, we strive to bring an eclectic and diverse menu to our customers. Not just pizza, wings, salads and subs, we have seafood, home cooking, soups and specialty dishes that you can’t get in the corporate restaurants. We go out of our way to give our customers what they want. Anything from Fish, Oysters, Shrimp, Crawfish, Alligator tail, to Pot Roast, Meatloaf, Cabbage Rolls, Shepherd’s Pie and so much more. We are always making different home made soups every day in the off season. You just never know what’s on the “Specials Menu”. Our customers tell us what they’re craving and we make it happen. I absolutely love everything about customer interaction. I can’t help but to be humbled when 2, 3 and sometimes 4 generations of a family join us for family celebrations and dinners. We have the largest dinning room around the Lake Gaston area and love it when the room is full of families and laughter. Our wait staff strives to get to know the customers on a first named basis and treats everyone like family. Take out and online ordering is available but we prefer the personal touch. We’re a mom and pop’s establishment in a summer vacation destination and heavily rely on our local customers support in the off season. The thing I’m most proud of is my wife and staff. Without them, we wouldn’t be as blessed and successful as we are. We also sponsor “Lake-A-Palooza” (since 2015), a benefit concert on Lake Gaston’s Wobble Island that raises funds for local first responders and families in need. We also have a “Christmas Toy Dive” (since 2016), that helps Northampton and Halifax County Child Protective Services. It’s our way of supporting a community that supports us. We’ve recently received “Top Business Owner’s” award from Marquis’ Who’s Who.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Just 6 months after opening up Lake Gaston Pizza & More (July 2016-Dec 2016), our pizza oven went down and needed repairs. The parts were not available for at least 45 days due to manufacture shutdown for the holidays. In the depth of winter, when we needed revenue to remain in business, we decided to make anything and everything we could to keep customers coming in. Hard to have a pizza restaurant without pizza. Thus, we created our “Weekly Specials” menu, giving home style cooking to the locals we so heavily relied on to stay in business. We overcame a major obstacle that certainly would have shut us down permanently. When the parts came in and the oven got fixed, we took the “Weekly Specials” menu away. Not for long though, our customers requested that we bring them back, so we did. Thus giving the “& More” meaning in our name. Going into our 8th year in business we still have our “Specials” menu. Who would’ve thought thinking outside a pizza box would’ve been such a great idea.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
Simply put-COVID. With an empty 4,000 square foot dinning room full of new furniture, still wrapped in plastic and nobody going out to eat, we had to make major adjustments and decisions. First, we put our waitstaff out on delivery runs (never had delivery before). Thus keeping them employed as well as our kitchen staff. My wife and I kept everyone employed and paid, even though we didn’t take a paycheck for months, Fortunately, once the “Dinning out in restaurants” ban was lifted, we unwrapped all the dinning room furniture and opened up with people packing the dinning room. Yet, another obstacle we had to overcome. For this all of the credit goes to our staff. Most of which are still employed with us today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lakegastonpizza.com
- Instagram: lake_gaston_pizza
- Facebook: lake_gaston_pizza
- Linkedin: lake_gaston_pizza
- Twitter: lake_gaston_pizza
- Yelp: lake_gaston_pizza