Against all odds, or some odds, or maybe we are just odd, we purchased this place last spring. Actually, it was around this time when we first looked at it. We drove up from the Seacoast, and were thinking of buying property here in NH or Maine. When we first looked at this place, we instantly fell in love with Moultonborough, but unfortunately, the property had left much to be desired. The owners were nice, and we heard a few stories about their time there working and serving people. As far as the property, we felt it was beyond something we could take on due to the condition it was in, so we decided to continue looking, to find something better. Until...
We got another call from the agent, asking if we were still interested. We were close to making a decision on other properties, so we gave another look. This time, it was different. We were in love with the idea of the property, just not what we were seeing at that point. After careful consideration, we decided to take the plunge, and spend the next few months (which is turning into almost a year now), to make the place shine. We decided to open this as an '80s pizza restaurant, with everything from a Pac-man arcade to floor to ceiling tributes to the 1980s. Since our daughter has a dairy allergy, for years we had made Friday's pizza night, with cheese pizza's for the parents, and vegan pizza's for the kids. It was a tradition for years, so we decided to name the restaurant after our daughter, who inspired us to continue this tradition.
We did so much to make the restaurant ready to open and a fun place to go that has great food. We redid everything from the floors to the ceilings. We made the bathroom fun, and actually a place you don't mind entering (truth be told, we were afraid to use the bathroom when we first saw the place). We had our grand opening on August 13th, 2021 against all odds. We couldn't find staff due to the staffing shortage, so a few friends drove up to helps us. After months of owning the place, and spending weeks cleaning the griddle and fryers, they were still what we would consider "disgusting," so we only sold Pizza that night. Since we were only making Pizza, it was actually more difficult serving people since there are only so many pizza's you can make, and when that is all you serve, it's increasingly difficult to keep up. It would have been so much easier that first night if we had the fryers ready... Anyway, we decided to "hang up the apron" the next day until we could hire staff.
At that point, we purchased all new refrigeration, preparation areas, shelving, fryers, griddles, and so much more. We continued looking for staff, upgrading additional equipment, repainted the walls (again), and did everything we could to make the place even better! All this, while dealing with the occasional angry call or insulting comment on social media about why we aren't open yet. We even had a person who owned a local place insult us on social media, and we had a few people tell us that the person owned another place and they were surprised a competitor (acting like a general commenter) would do something so petty. We dealt with all this while continuing to make improvements and work on everything to get this place open.
In December, we finally opened for curbside pickup during lunch hours, which was limiting. We started out with pizza and hoagies, since it was not worth keeping the griddle and fryers on if we were only going to be open a few hours per day. We eventually switched to evening hours from 4-6PM, only selling pizzas. It has been great getting to know regular customers and having others in the community support our endeavor so far. So, there's the history, now what we are doing going forward...
After spending all this time (and money), we are finally opening in April. We will be open around 6 hours per day, likely 12-6 until we hire more staff. By summer, we should be open full time and even extended hours. We are also open to special engagements, birthday parties, etc. We are excited about people having the chance to actually come in and see what we have done with the place. We are also looking forward to meeting all of our neighbors in Moultonborough we have yet to meet. Stay tuned!
"We Are The Music Makers And We Are The Dreamers Of The Dreams."