The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Ray & Lauren Zayas Of Popitos Pizza Joined Jerry Miller Live On “The I Love CVille Show!”

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Ray & Lauren Zayas, Owners of Popitos Pizza, joined Jerry Miller live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on a Wednesday afternoon in downtown Charlottesville. Today's program is going to be a fantastic. fantastic one. We have two restaurateurs in the house that have navigated the dynamic of being husband and wife while owning and operating a business. I'll tell you what, my wife and I, we're still kind of figuring that out

right now. Maybe we've got some lessons to learn, sweetheart, from Ray and Lauren. My wife also named Lauren. So she's going to be asking me questions. I'm sure she's going to be texting me. Make sure you ask them this, because we're still working on this. My wife, a key component of our family business as well. And

And these guests, folks, Ray and Lauren Zayas, are the owners of a fantastic, fantastic brand that has become absolutely beloved in this community. And we encourage you, the viewers and listeners, to ask questions about Pepito's pizza, share your props about Pepitos, give them attention and kudos, and we'll relay them live on air. We have some news that I think perhaps we may have been the first to, you know, get out there. Maybe we should know. with the Mono Loco location. You know them from Ryo Hill. You know them from a mobile point of sale that's at Car's Mountain.

That's been at Winter Wander at Borset. That's been at King Family. They do a phenomenal job of getting the brand out there. And without much further ado, we'll highlight Ray and Lauren and welcome to the show. I would love to give some props to Coden Own of Sir Speedy of Central Virginia. He's locally owned and operated signage

in graphics. and branding company. He was extremely excited that Ray and Lauren were going to be on the program. Sir Speedy helps us with the banners behind us. We're looking to expand in downtown Charlottesville with some more real estate purchase, and he's kind of auditing the business for more signage there as well. So Conan Owen and Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, any signage needs, any graphic design needs. He's a good guy to call. Judah Wickhauer's behind the camera. I think we get to it, man. I've been pumped for this program. Ray and Lauren Zeyas are live on the Island of C-Mexam. show. Friends, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much.

Amazing. It's our pleasure. We'll go ladies first. Introduce yourself, the family, the business, to the viewers and listeners. I'm Lauren Zeyas, co-owner of Popito's Pizza. My husband, Ray Zeyas. We have three kids, and we've been in Charlottesville for six years about. And it's been wonderful for our whole family and our business. It's been, you know, amazingly welcoming and, you know, it's grown on us a lot, honestly, to live here. Yeah. That's awesome. You guys have done a great job of getting the brain out there, right? How about you? Talk to us about the community, family before we get to the business, the welcome reception that's been so positive from the community for you guys. Oh my gosh, so positive. And the community piece, like the support from this

community, wow, you know, we couldn't have moved to a better location to help to grow our family, right, and to raise our family. And now we find ourselves in business, you know, and like you said, live in the dream. I couldn't, couldn't feel more blessed with, by being here, with business, with family, you know, the support we get from, from our neighbors and our locals, you know, and at the end of the day, we're just trying to make really good food, really good pizza, trying to hone in on one thing. And I think we kind of did that

and here's the everything's blooming, you know, everything's blooming from here. So, you know, and to your point, this community and the growing parts of downtown Charlottesville, I'm just hoping we can add to that vibe,

you know, and make it a little bit more exciting, you know? Dude, your pizza speaks for itself, and we're going to get to the pizza, we're going to get to the menu, the quality of the ingredients, just the price point, the fantastic value they offer. We're going to get to all that. I'd love to know why Charlottesville for your family. I mean, three kids come to Charlottesville and launch a business? That's no easy task. I mean, three, we have two kids, and we're barely doing it with two kids. You guys got three kids, and then you're launching a business in a new

market. Like, give us the flipbook of what happened and why Charlottesville. I think COVID happened. Ovid had a lot to do with it, right? I think that COVID might have brought out a lot of lot of businesses, right? But for us, it was nearly a blessing. We came up to Charlottesville for something completely different, a different business and transitioned into this at that COVID time, right? COVID was kind of putting some hardships on the previous business we had, right? I'm sure a lot of people were experiencing that, you know? And so transitioning into pizza, just always having the, hey, we've got to make good, it's got to be good, right? The customers have to love it because they have to come back.

And so, like, following those values, you know, and kind of forgetting the business side, and that's where Lauren comes in. No, you can't do it like this. We have to do it professionally. We have to do it right. And most of the time, she says, just get in front of the oven and cook, right? You know, like, I'll handle this stuff, right? So, kudos to that part.

But as far as, like, launching and just having it from seed and to what it is now, it required a lot of family sacrifice, right? We always try to tell, you know, the kids and the family like, hey, you know, we're trying to do this, you know, for future. So we can spend more time with you down the line and those things, right? Yeah. And so with those type of principles and stuff, right, you know, and following that through, I think that's what helped bring success to Pupitos itself.

You guys are already getting props. And then, Laura, I'm going to throw this to you. First, I'm going to highlight the props, but I'm going to throw this question to you after highlighting the people and their positive praise for you. I'm going to throw it to you transitioning to a food and beverage business because of COVID. I want to ask why on that, because a lot of folks were doing the opposite. But first the props. Robert Gettelman, best pizza ever, great folks, love Lord and Ray. You have, I might butcher her last name, and I apologize if I do.

Is it Sue Cusick? She says Ray and Lauren. Cusick, Cusick, Cusick, Cusick, Ray and Lord are the absolute best. Brett Donnelly, giving you some props right now. Philip Dow, giving you some props right now. You have the print radio and television stations watching the program as we speak. And you have elected officials watching the program as we speak. Your fellow restaurateurs watching the program as we speak.

You're all amazing. Thank you. Give them some love, and I'll relay it live on air by putting your props in the comment section. So I'll ask you the question. Yeah. COVID, folks were getting out. of food and beverage. You guys are getting into food and beverage. Talk to us about that. So because COVID was like everyone was, you know, had social distancing, you couldn't hang out.

I was like kind of a part-time stay-at-home mom. I worked on the computer at home a little bit after the kids went to bed. So pretty much a full-time homemaker stay-at-home mom. And so we would make pizza for fun previously for like 15 years now at home. Not wood-fired pizza, which is funny. it was just in the oven, so totally different style than we do now. But we would host like pizza parties on our block for all the neighbors that would be comfortable to come out. And so we would like make a bunch of dough, have a block party essentially, five or six families would all come together. And we would just make pizza, have some drinks, and hang out on the road. And so.

There's a vision there. Yeah. And so then once that kind of got popular in the neighborhood, we teamed up with a neighbor and we like went to a vineyard. and we just, like, sold pizza, one of the vineyards locally here. And it just was so fun that we were like, we have to keep doing that. That was so fun. People liked it. So crazy.

And so we just started booking stuff on the weekends, and it went from, you know, because everyone in COVID needed to be outside. And so the wineries, the breweries, the outdoor event spaces were, like, becoming really popular to hang out at. and so we kind of fit into that to feed all the people because you still need food if you're all gathering around and hanging out and King family vineyards and Carter you know there's enough space to roam around still social distance you could go hang out and so it kind of was like thank goodness for those places during COVID around here so I think a lot of the

venues a lot of the venues put together they had a strategize right. They had to pivot. They still wanted their customers to come, but they couldn't allow them to come based on the rules, right? And so a lot of the venues started to build, you know, outdoor, whether pergolas or coverings or whatnot. And they really, they didn't have food before, but it was a bigger thing, I think, at the moment, right? Well, because they wanted them to stay, maybe. And so as COVID was rising, our bookings were rising, right? All the rules were getting, we're, we're, we're, we're getting, we're. being enforced a little bit more. And so as that was happening, right, the whole outdoor thing and the vision, like she said, there was neighbors coming out, everyone feeling safe, you know, feeling healthy or whatever they want to feel, we're all outside. But that was the vision like this could be done, you know, in a setting where, whether it

be a winery or whatnot, where people are paying for this and they're still enjoying their time, right? you know and I think that that's where we saw a huge lift and like she said it was a weekend thing right and transitioning from that to full-time a little bit of a scare right kind of stress huge gamble especially with three you have three kids when you're back against against the wall you're just married and doing it you have three kids yeah yeah right that's ballsy oh gosh so so crazy you know we felt like our back was against the wall a little bit right you know COVID messed up a lot of things. And so what a time to take a huge risk with the intentions on, of course,

you know, we want to make a living. We want to provide for the family and whatnot. And this is something that we, like, had a lot of fun doing, right? I think that's why we kept doing it. It's not a job. It's not a job. I got to tell you that. You know, I have fun. It is stressful at times because there is a business to it now. You got to make money. I'm not good at that. I'm not good at that part. We do what we can. But, you know, It is a blessing, right? And so that piece right there, COVID rising and our business rising, right? We had to figure out where it kind of met, you know?

And so locking in, getting really professional and honing in on making meaningful relationships with a lot of the venues. Yeah. And then, like, so we have like a double layer of customers. Sure. They're our customer, the venue, and then like their customers. There's customers that are eating, right? And so it's the impressions that we made. hopefully the good food that people like you know it's so good and and that combination yeah so

thank you so much man really appreciate that i sincerely mean i'll throw this to you um walk me through and guys we're going to get to them opening in the former mono loco spot we're going to get to the flip look of them at rio hill right walk me through the conversation of making pizza in your home kitchen and an oven to buying a mobile point of sale i mean that's was that like the mental hurdle of clearing, like the level of risk that you were taken, how, like, what happens if this doesn't go right? What happens with the family? Like, give us

the inside scoop here. I remember the oven getting delivered to our house. Remember it got dropped off the lift gate. They're holding it, and we're like, what are we doing? This thing is so heavy. What are we doing? The first mobile oven, yeah, it came. I think a lot of those conversations

were, you know, we were just, I was ambitious, right? I had like a full tank of gas. So we were like, and it was exciting stuff. So to transition from like the trial session, we went to our first venue. Well, you still had a full-time job too, and we did this on the weekend, so it made it easier because like we had that to fall back on and still did this on the weekends. We were just working all the time, you know, and so that's kind of. Yeah.

So in that moment, though, where it was like, you know, the, it kind of settled in, right? It was like, this is something, right? Have the conversation. Are you going to dive all in, or is this going to continue to be the, you? side piece, right? Like a little side hustle, yeah. And I think, like, from our customers, from the community, they were pulling us like, no, no, no, you've got to dive in.

Like, this is good. This could be really great, right? You've got to follow through with this. And so the, you know, the conversations, the private conversations we were having was like, you said, this can go totally wrong and we just what do we have? We have to find ourselves, you know, again, somewhere, jobs

and this and that. Or it can go totally right and at that point like we had to put a game plan in place right you had to put a business plan in place you couldn't you couldn't go anywhere um and so rio hill was was was in that game plan right and we didn't know that it was exactly rio hill right we didn't know like that was we were looking for a commissary kitchen or a space yeah we wanted to invest into the thing that was doing good to us right um the first time we went out there we went with little uni ovens not the not the bigger ones it was a hit Second time, same thing.

And so we started to invest a little bit into the equipment, developing meaningful relationships, which is everything, right? That's why we're successful, I think, is because the relationships we have with the venues, with customers. I think it's really strong. It's really good bond. It's very good, yeah. And it's been going on for a really long time, right?

And so we follow through. I think we follow through with our word is a big thing, too. you know but anyways yeah to answer that question huge huge stress right huge risk yeah um you know back against the wall yeah um but determination you know determination and and us working together like hey you know you got to separate the kids the business the fit right yeah um i think we're really good at that we're a really really good team in identifying the uh hey this is conversation for later or hey you know um you know can't talk about this with with the kids because we'll find ourselves just kind of going into it right always work always working yeah same

with us always working i'm sure yeah same thing and it's like you have to find the balance and i think we've we've done really good finding that balance um and that's that's helped a lot because you know we want our kids support i i care about everyone's support but like our kids support means a whole lot, you know, so those times are like, you guys are working too much, I haven't seen you, or you're not making a soccer game, that sits with me. Totally get that. You know? Yeah.

And then you're saying like, and it's tough because how old are your kids? 11, 9, and almost 7, yeah. And yours, you know, mine, ours are 7 and 2, and they don't understand it. Your 11 and 9-year-old may probably understand it. Like, the reason you're working so hard is for them. Yeah. And it's like this balance of like, we have to do this because we want to provide you a better life. But you're the same time, a better life for them is you guys in the life. In the life

being around. Yeah. In the life being around them. So it's like this balance that like business owners that our parents have to do. And I totally and frankly, I struggle with it. And my wife is the one that like keeps me like in the moment and grounded. Because if it wasn't for her, I would constantly probably be like on my phone or like doing something work wise as opposed to being 100% in the moment. When when you guys went from mobile point of sale to signing a lot, lease at Ryo Hill. Give me that flip book. Because that's another completely different level of risk, right? Completely different level. Freaking out. He were freaking out. I was. She was freaking out. I was freaking out. I had a sense of relief because I felt like we had a home base. We can get

organized. We can get systems in place. You can have one drop for, you know, suppliers, right? Yeah. Like everything lined up in my head and on paper and in the plan going into that place. We were seeking something. I was just going to get an empty warehouse and, hey, production here, right? Before then, we were going to a commissary making the dough, storing it, like, it was just a big logistical. It's messy. Yeah, and so this was like one spot, one job, store it here, make it here, keep it here. It felt so easy. So you're thinking is like, we have a cost for a commissary kitchen or a storage headquarters, and that cost is X. Yep. If we open a restaurant on Rio Hill, that cost might not be X, but it's marginally more than X.

X. So if it's marginally more than X, we might as well just open a point of sale that can drive revenue where it's not going to happen at a commissary kitchen or a headquarters. And then what ended up happening is you figured it out. And now it's in the black commissary kitchen, headquarters, point of sale, your epicenter, if you may. The epicenter, yeah. And it had the oven already in there that cooks up style pizza. You can imagine how much an oven is to put in a place right now. Because it's a former brick oven. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just cook at a different temperature with, I'm not sure their dough recipe,

but our dough recipe is probably a little different. So just the higher temperature, but yeah, same. The oven, and that oven is amazing. You can't find an oven that big right now. It's maybe 30 years old, right? Yeah. But I'm thankful for it. The floor space on it is giant.

Yeah. And so. Her name's Bertha. Bertha, the oven. All of our ovens have names. I like it. I like it. As you should.

As you should. You actually should. So Ben Bertha is part of your family. She's bad. She's bad. She's the mom. She's the mom. Yeah, she's the mom.

She's mama, Bertha, yeah. I think you may have a mom watching right now. Is it Mary? Yes. Hey, Mary. Mary is so proud of you kids. I love you guys so much. Lauren and Ivy's watching the program right now.

You have, I see, four different states watching you guys on the show. Awesome. We got folks asking for the inspiration of the pizza. We'll get to that in a matter of moments. What did you guys start figuring out that Rio Hill, that location, that you guys really made a great decision there? Was there like an aha moment? I think the sense of relief from it being the home base was like, ah, right?

When we realized, like, okay, we need to get the feet moving on that location, that became a bit of a speed bump. But that whole complex was going through a remodel, right? You went in and it was totally like Yeah, it was getting a facelift, right? The front was just gone. Yeah. And it was wires hanging everywhere.

It was honestly so crazy. So people were like, are you open? Are you closed? Yeah, I think we opened. That was a huge speed bump. Our sign didn't go up to like April, like up in the front. So it was like four or five months of us like, hey, we're open, but like it looks like the whole shopping center is closed type of a thing.

So it was actually really scary. I think the community kind of stayed away from that whole shopping center for a period of time, right? Yeah. And so us open. there. And again, we were operating mobile at that time, right? And so a lot of our efforts was going into mobile. And we thought, okay, we're out in the community at different venues. Hopefully we can drive people. Hey, we have a spot now, right? Yeah. Hopefully that helps. Telling people about it while we're out now. Hopefully it works both ways. Right. It helped a little bit.

But I think, I think that plaza is kind of peak now, right? You've got Planet Fitness going in there. you got those three big box retailers in there. Dude, that plaza is like completely revitalized from what you guys got in. Yeah, and Home Depot across the changes opening. Like the whole area is buzz in now. Like with the benefit of hindsight and like in retrospect, you guys look like freaking geniuses here because you got into this plaza when it was like extremely distressed.

So scary. Like it was almost ghost town-esque. And now it's like completely got energy and positivity. And you're right, Home Depot, Planet Fitness. It's completely different now. I would bet you, and, you know, you guys already know this, that if you had gotten into this plaza now, the rent structure would have been completely different had you had got into it when you did.

Yeah. And then you're crushing there, right? Yeah, we're doing great there now. We're starting to see business really well. And I think that location, there's a lot of growth. If you look a little bit, maybe a couple miles, right? North on 29, a lot of development going on, right? a lot of housing going up

some hotels right there on Burkmar in the back more housing more apartments you know and as we grow the relationships with a lot of those the hotels we have you know Pepito signs up there right I think it's only going to help that entire plaza you know

so talk to us about Mono loco you're going from a mobile point of sale where people know you from King Family you did the pavilion Yeah, for a day. Yeah, this was our first year.

Yeah, okay, so pavilion. Thank you so much. Yes. King family. You've done Cars Mountain, Winter Wonder. Where else point of sale have you guys done? Foxfield. Okay.

Foxfield races. Yep. Yeah. That's a big one, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's so many, like we set up in some little neighborhoods. Yep.

We also, like, we work, we love working with local schools. because they invite us out for like a carnival or a PTO event or they send people to our restaurant, host restaurant nights and then we give back to the school and like that relationship is incredible. There's great camaraderie within all those, right? Yeah, we love working with all the local, we work with a lot of schools already. But to name other ones, Chisholm Vineyards, Keswick Vineyards, Carter Mountain throughout this entire apple picking season. We're going to be up there five days a week. Hunt Country Market. DuCard Vineyards.

vineyards, you know, the wineries, we're like in the Napa Valley of the East Coast here, right? I don't want to forget about anyone. I don't want to forget anybody, but we're there. Shout out to all of you for having us. Rassowick vineyards. We do like two festivals a year. We go out there. So I think that's where a lot of the community, like my family specifically,

has fallen in love with the brand and has gotten to know the brand. And then the Rio Hill made absolute perfect sense. Mono Local makes sense as well. But like when you start adding these like brick and mortar storefronts, You're adding a different layer of risk here. So walk us through the mindset of why Mono Loco and the Mo space. Mono Loco has been like in, it's been in our sites for a while. I think even Amas, right?

And I asked the owners, Amas, hey, can we do a pop-up on your off days here, right? Because I think that corner is like, it's an access point to the downtown mall. We've kind of been eyeing it for a couple years, even when we were initially looking for Ryo Hill, because we didn't know Ryo Hill was available at the time it was available. We were just like, we need a home base. Let's look. And so we would come down here,

we're like, oh, that building is so good. It's so beautiful and the patio and all the things. It's always been in our sites and the vision of a patio, right? Yeah. Always an outdoor patio is our area. Always an outdoor patio, I think that's a good, that's really good vibe to have,

especially here in downtown Charlottesville. Yeah. But the initial thought of it was that we're not capturing a customer that we'd like to have. And I think that downtown customer... Or the customers from downtown,

they don't come up to Rio Hill. It's just capturing it's different. The place is filled with families down here. There's great, you know... And so they're not working their way up. You know, they're not working their way up to Rio Hill Shopping Center in that way. I totally agree with that.

I don't think this competes at all with any of your points of sale. And I also think there's... Bear with me here. I think there is a... complete like flip flip book synchronization of what you guys did at rio hill where you got a shopping center that was distressed and needing some tlc and a family business like yours with what you are doing in downtown charlottesville like i've been in this community for 25 years

i am so bullish on downtown charltsville and it's upside but i'm also realistic that downtown charlesville right now needs a lot of tender loving care and i think like families like y'all's and families like ours and all these other locally owned and operated businesses need to implement or integrate this TLC to help the downtown recover in a lot of ways like you did with the Ryo Hill Shopping Center. I think there is like this parallel of success in trajectory. Because we want people to keep coming down. We're flirting the script, right?

And it just takes kind of moves like this. Oh, they're doing it. Exactly. Maybe they're doing it. That's what it is. We can do it and we can be successful. And the community is here, I promise you. We listen to quite a bit of you.

And I agree with a lot of what you say, right? There's a vision here that can make this place so vibrant. So vibrant. It was like this before COVID. And like 2018, 2019, dude, this place was like... We don't know what that's like. It was the spot. It was like it was...

We hear amazing stories. Shoulder to shoulder. Like the energy downtown was palpable. Like there was like the bars were open till 2 a.m. They were all busy. The lunch business was off the chain. You struggled to get a table at lunch. like it was dude it was like it was it was awesome

we got to bring it back we got to bring it back let's go so talk to us about the vision the city's not going to bring it back no we got to do it no one's going to do it right you know you got to take the risk you got to bring it back you know and you'll get support

did opening downtown make you nervous with what's currently going on and you don't have to go down this road or not I am extremely vocal on my thoughts with how this city is run in the politics here. You don't have to if you don't want to. But did it concern you at all with setting up a, maybe it's your most expensive point of sale, I don't know what your overhead is. I know your build out at Mono Loco is going to be a lot. You know, your lease is probably years, five probably minimum with some extensions over there. You got a lot of risk here. Did it

make you nervous at all with how you, I mean, downtown, you see it, we all see it. Yeah. Do we see it? Yeah. Yeah, I'm nervous. We're definitely nervous. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really nervous. I think we're willing and we're in a position to take the risk to turn it to turn it around, right? I got to be honest with, I haven't had any issues with the ball rolling in the milestones that we need to make in the, whether the construction there, and any of that, right? I took a different approach, though. I'm in their face numerous times a week, like, hey, this, this, this is to the point where it's like, that guy's walking in again. That's great. That's what you have to do. Yeah, because at the end of the day, I do that in the beginning.

We want to be proactive rather than reactive, so we're just trying to be pro, and being and not only that, I want them to say, just go. We don't need, you got it, blessed, approved, right? I want to overcommunicate. This is what we're doing. This is when I need it done. Had you not, for the ones that are thinking about doing something, not necessarily similar to pizza, but doing something, had you have not done that, would it have been as, like,

frictionless for you? Or do you think because you're like almost like a woodpecker with your persistency, that it's become frictionless? I think that, right? I think it's the mindset. I'm there, yeah, it's the mindset, right? And I think that's what it takes. Well, they're like, oh, this guy is doing his due diligence.

He's taking care of business. You know what I'm doing things correct and proper. So I think that's helpful. So what's the plan for the location? Like, give us an idea, take us behind the curtain of what you're going to do to the monoloco site. Because that is as iconic of a site in downtown Charlottesville in the city as hang. So you walk in.

I hope we live up there. I spent many nights there. Some that I remember. We hope you still spend more nights there. We have to have a redo. I need pictures of this place. I've never seen this play. We need a resurrection of it.

Yeah. So what's behind the curtain, Lauren, of what you guys are doing? So you walk in and the outside patio, you know, we just put in a deck. and so it's a big, I don't want to say jungley feel, but I love plants. So it's jungle. It's jungly in there. There's lots of plants hanging from the top,

hanging from the sides. There's plants everywhere. Crazy lights. You know, there's crazy lights, bistro lights, ratan lights, chandeliers, all that under there. And then, you know, the, oh, flow,

we'll flow inside. So we're going to go inside then from the patio. And we have a beautiful, her name is Blanca. Okay. Because she's white. Okay. And she is.

Is this the pizza oven? The pizza oven. Okay. So we got Blanca already delivered to... So Blanca and Bertha, B's. What's the mobile pizza oven's name? So we have three bellas. Okay.

So it's always B's. They're all triplets. Oh, that's awesome. They're all bees. Because the very first oven we got, the one that got delivered to our driveway, was named Bobby, because we bought it from a company called Chicago Brick Oven. And a guy named Bob sold it to us. So I was like, oh, this is Bob.

And I was like, oh, a guy oven, oven, that's weird. No, Bobby. So they're all girls. girls. Yeah. They're all girls. B-O-B-B-I-E. Yeah. For Bobby. Yeah, okay. Yeah, Bobby. A great pizza on our menu, by the way. Yeah, we have a Bobby. It's a great one. And then we have a Bella after the ovens. Okay, okay. So funny. Well, we need a Bertha pizza. So Blanca. Yeah, so Blanca, anyways. She is like marbly, white, sparkly, and so she has lights all on her and she glistens. And then we're also going to have a deck oven we're going to get. We haven't gotten it yet, but we are.

And we're going to have three different styles of pizza. at Monoloco. That is so awesome. Three different styles. Yeah. Yeah. So at Rio Hill we have two styles. We have Sicilian and then we have the wood fired.

And then we're going to introduce Chicago Tavern or Thin because I'm from Chicago originally. And nowhere makes it here and I'm craving it. And so I got to bring it. Deep dish is not Chicago pizza. Deep dish is not Chicago. It's not Chicago. It's for like the tourists of Chicago. It's honestly, it's just made.

Tavern style is the way to go. And this is the perfect setting for it because. Well, offering those three different style pizzas, you know, there's not a pizzeria that really does something like that, right? It's like a pizza market in there, have your choice. But not only that, it's cut in squares. It's family sharing style, right? Yeah, it's like party cut.

I love it. Right. You can just grab a couple. It feels more shareable than a big slice. I love that. Right. And so it's really thin, crackery, no flop at all, even on the middle pieces. Okay.

And it has a... Dude, that's a perfect fit for downtown. Perfect. It's going to be. perfect fit, I think. That is genius. So you, Ray, for you here, improvements to the space. What have you seen? Physical improvements to the space. What have you done? My favorite part, actually. We, um, so the deck is obviously taking up one whole side, right? It's a huge, 50 foot deck, right? Under the entire awning in there, I'm not sure. And then coming out.

And then coming out a little bit, right? So seating all throughout that area. Because the inside spot does not, how many covers can you do inside? Oh. Is it like 20, 25? No, 10. 15, maybe. With the bar, not including the bar? So no bar, right? Oh, you took the bar out.

Yeah, so what we're doing is we kind of limited the space seating inside to really put the objective of sit outside and enjoy, you know, all of this, right? I've ever been to glass house, wine. Oh, yeah, I love glass house. We want to resemble that. That's the vibe we want in there. Plans. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's amazing there, right? And so beautiful. And so that whole feeling in there. Another place we have served at, too. And there's, oh yeah, and then so inside has the booth in the back. But we'll have like wall seat, and it's for single people that come in, they get their own personal pizza, they can sit on the window, right, and then kind of boogie on out of there, right?

And so that's kind of limited seating inside. If you come in with your family, you're going to want to sit out on the deck. We're going to make it really comfortable in the wintertime. Yeah, we're going to make it really comfortable in the wintertime, right, with some heaters, and super comfortable in the summertime with some fans and stuff, right? And so it's going to be a year-round piece. Genius. I got people all over the feed asking about late night here.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, how many times have you heard the late-night question? Oh, man. We're not sure, like, as in far as, like, what days or what, but, like, we have to do it. It's the spot for it. I love going down, like, when we first moved here, I would go downtown mall with my girlfriends.

We would have girls' night. All the husbands would stay home with the kids. We would go to Babadero and to. You'd walk the whole down from. You'd go Zocalo, Bevedaro, Fitzroy, you'd hop around. You'd hop around. And then what do I want to do? I want to go dance somewhere, but there's nowhere to do that.

Of course. So we'd go back to my house and have a dance party in my living room or something like that because there was, and so now like I need to make that happen because I want to go do it. We're trying to fit in a lot of the things that people have memories of, right? The connotations of the space. Yeah, we're trying to fit those in. We want to do trivia. I want to do different types of music.

Like I want to have like maybe a salsa night and then also a, you know, just like a guy playing guitar, like more acoustic style. And then a DJ in there pumping out some beats, you know, all the things. We just have to find the transition because this is, you know, new, that's new to us, something like that, right? And so finding the transition from like, hey, we're a pizzeria and then it's like, hey, we're like a night, a nighttime scene, right? And so I think initially opening, what we're going to do is have late night hours, and late night to us is 11 p.m. Okay. That we're going to extend the hours to 11 p.m.

I understand. Or 12. Or 12. And I understand industry people, it may be a go-to. We want to support all of you, right? And we want to. You just worked hard on your shift. We want you to come and chill now.

Have a pizza, chill, have a drink. When we get off, we want to go do the same thing. Exactly. So we want to provide that environment, but bear with us in the beginning as we get used to, you know, the downtown and the business and the workflow and all that. Because this model is so, this model is so different than Ryan O'Hill. Oh, it's so different. Can I tell you one of the best part? This is my favorite part of the location.

So the deck is on one side, the other side, we completely cleared, and we're going to put, we have some turf on there already. We have to fill out with more turf. you know yard games giant janga giant beer pong to lay out with if you have a toddler cornhole

go and then we'll block it off too we'll block it off and go and sit on the turf with your toddler right there's shade over there you know it's safe eat your pizza there'll be little tables right and so that's one of my favorite part

I go over there with the soccer ball my kids right I think it's and this is like kind of like how like we're like you know just evolving of life it's like you guys are evolving this model in the stage of life that you are as parents of three kids.

There was a time when you probably would have built this model had you have done this like 15 years ago where it would have probably been like a bar late night get out of the same. That would have been easy for us to do because that's what we're already doing. Totally, totally. Now you're like a two year old.

Now we're like to go to bed at 10 p.m. What's late night now? We want to serve the families now. That's genius because you do what you know and that's like I think that's what makes it special. Let me get comments that are coming in. So this one's coming in as, what's the spicy pizza called? The hot pig.

The hot pig. That people love the hot pig. You had that now? That one is coming in. Hot pig was damn good, guys. It was legit. This question, this is from Earleysville, Vanessa Parkhill. I absolutely love this couple and their optimistic attitude.

This is from Waynesboro and Kevin Yancey. He says, what's the inspiration behind the business and the pizza? and everything you guys are doing. Oh. I mean, I think you guys is the inspiration. Just our fans, not fans, our customers and our supporters. Yeah, absolutely. I like making pizza because I like eating it,

but there becomes a point where you're like, nah, I don't want to eat like, you know, every day for five years, I'm like, I don't really want to eat that today. But in two days, I'm like, oh, wow, that looks good. I have a pizza every single day. That's awesome. Every day. I know.

I'm like 20. You're super fit. I'll stop when you're doing it. I eat pizza and I'm like, oh my God, I can go run or so. I have a feeling that Wright has energy for days, is he not? Yeah. I mean, that's what keeps us going. The energy and, I mean, we motivate each other and then honestly the community.

Like, saying that you guys like it makes us want to keep doing it. And saying that, like, wow, that was good, makes me want to create something else that was good. Like, that's my only motivation. I don't know about yours, but I... And it's the pizza industry. Like the pizza industry is inspiration in itself. There's so many great stories in the pizza industry, right? We go to Dave Portnoy's Pizza Fest.

We went there and ate all the slices, right? And the Pizza Expo in Vegas. And the Pizza Expo. And these are just families like us, like trying to make a living. And I think the pizza industry blew up in like the past 10 years or so, right? I think COVID really helped the pizza industry. 100%. Yeah.

Because so many of us still wanted to experience, like, dining out, but couldn't do it because of the restrictions. Yeah. So then we became more into carryout or delivery in some capacity. And pizza is the perfect. Perfect. I mean, the perfect delivery, the perfect to go is pizza. It's what it's made for in a lot of ways.

Right. So you'll appreciate this. Cindy Schorberg of the Keswick Vineyards family. She's watching the show. She says Ray and Pepito's pizza are absolutely awesome. I love working with them. When he makes pizzas at Keswick Vineyards for special events, he does a great job. Great company to work alongside.

Best of luck on your new. endeavor. That's from Cindy over at Keswick Vineyards. Amazing, thank you. I'd say somewhere between 9, 10, or 11 vineyards that I see watching the program as we speak. Thank you all so much. These are who you want to partner alongside folks that are out there. Comments continue to come in. Here's a good one. What do your guests think that are ways to make the downtown mall better than it is? Because I agree with Jerry. It's not in a good place right now. Who wants to take that one?

Yeah. You know what I made it? I think it's something we can overcome. Yeah. Like, I think, you know, that whole, why did Grick Coffee go there? Mm-hmm. Right? Great Coffrey's in the old clock tower.

The old clock building on Waterbird, I think, was there. Waterbird. And it's beautiful. They did it. It's so gorgeous. Yeah. You know? And so I think like that location in itself with the history that it has of being

Monoloco, right? And the new Afghan kebab just opened up, just up the road, the old Felini spot. Like, I think it's, I think it's happening. It's just maybe a little slow. Uh-huh. I think it's happening, too. I think it's trying to happen. People want it to happen.

We don't want to let downtown Seville go. No one wants that. I totally, I totally agree with you. I think it's trying to happen. I think it's on the cusp of happening. A couple of things that are in our favor for this happening. Next year's the 50-year anniversary for the downtown mall. Yeah.

The city is going to allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars of, marketing and branding and awareness taxpayer dollars to the 50 year anniversary. They just hired the clean crew from Louisville Kentucky. Taxpayer dollars $1.2 million over two years for ambassadors on the downtown mall

and the ambassadors are going to be just like positive presence. Not only will they clean them all but they'll offer intel for folks that are around them all that have questions. For example, tourists. And I think the city, I think Chief Kachis, the police chief and his police department, are doing great things.

I think we just need to, like, just, you know, turn the corner. You step into it. Yeah, you step into it. Like, it takes, like, a ray and a Lauren, and then, like, the Afghan, and then, like, grit going to a very noticeable spot on Water Street. And once these things happen in close proximity of each other, then, like, momentum happens, and then the corners turn. Yeah, then people just notice, like, oh, this is new, this is new, this is new, okay, let's go.

It's not vacant anymore. Yeah, yeah. Like, this is legit. Yeah, when you walk down and see all the vacant for lease, that's, terrifying. Right. Because it's there. Yeah, and not terrifying as business, but just terrifying in your community. You're like, what is going on? What is going on? What's going on? Yeah. But it's been a bit, and you're right, it's taking a turn. And I think, whether Afghan or us or or anybody seeking to do this, I think they're doing it for the community too. I want to believe

that, right? And I want to believe it's for the whole good of downtown Charlottesville, bringing it back to, what, 2018-type feel, right? This comment comes in on YouTube. My name is Amir, and I want to say they have the best pizza in Charlottesville, and everyone should know about them. This comment comes in on the feed. What is the couple's favorite pizza to eat and why? Oh, go ahead.

All right, go first. All right, so my favorite, I get a margarita. And he eats a pizza every day, though. Every day, he said. He really does. I made him one yesterday. I literally have no doubt. It's legit.

Every day. I get a margarita and I put Italian sausage on it. I keep it simple and it's one of my favorite things. Okay. Oh, man, it's incredible. Okay. And then Lauren? I'm pretty plain.

I just eat pepperoni. Okay. A little well done. I like it. And then I add hot honey because our hot honey is so good. Love hot honey. I have to shout out Ames. A.R.

A.R. is hot honey. He's local out of Richmond. His business is blowing up right now. He's like in Wegmans. He just got in Kroger. Anyways, if you use Mike's hot honey, sorry, go try A-R. Go try A-R. I love it.

It's incredible and it has two ingredients. Fantastic. We'll make a switch at the house. We use running all the time. I'm going to come bring you one. Please, please. We literally do it three or four days a week. This comes in.

I have family in Chicago pizza business, several, and you're going to have to help me with the name. Is it Masiano's locations? Machiano's locations? Yeah. I've had that thin crust style, Lauren, was talking about. I can't wait to give Papito's version a try here in Charlottesville. Yes.

This question comes in, or this comment comes in, there's absolutely no higher profit margin than pizza and pasta and the food and beverage business. I'll concur with that. Eggs also very high profit margin. Multiple people are asking when the grand opening. I'll ask you that. Janice Boyce Trevillian says there's a new steak restaurant opening in the old paradox pastry location. Is that the nobles?

Nobles. What she's saying is adding to what we're talking about, where it's like, happening now. And I heard really good things about Noble already. They have had really good reviews, so we got to go, try it. It's happening. Argentinian steakhouse in the glass building, Oliver Kootenar, the owner of the glass building, and he's going to do

Nobles in conjunction with his mom, Beatrix, is going to do art in that steakhouse. And then to Lauren's point, Waterbird Spirits, which was vacant for a while, is now Grick Coffee. The Afghan spot is opening the old Falini spot. They took the old Bono

Locos spot. It's happening, folks. to you. It's happening. The hardest question, grand opening date. And if that's a hard question, we watch this interview, right? Oh, man. So I think we want to stick with the 11-11. We open Ryle Hill, November 11th, three years ago now. Yeah, it'll be three years this year. So the times line up, and we didn't do that on purpose. It's just, it lines up. So November 11, it's like a month and a half. A month and a half. That's awesome. Yeah, a month and a half. What has to happen in a month and a half for you guys to open. Are you going balls to the wall here? Oh my gosh. So much. So much has to happen. But the plan is in place. The people are in

place. Hopefully the city is playing ball with that. And yeah, it's lining up good. So 11-11 is the target date. We're going to get there. How much, how close with a couple more questions here. And this has been a flawless interview here. How much time are you guys putting into the opening of this location. Like give the viewers and listeners an insight into like how hard this is. Oh man. I mean in the morning I wake up and I usually go open Rio Hill. Okay. Yes.

It's my jam. I love going there. I get the team going. Yeah, I get the team going and then I leave around noon. Okay. I come straight down here. Okay. Until I got to go pick up the kids like you know, elementary school at 3 o'clock or so. And then I usually bring them back down here. To back to Monooka. Back to Montaloka.

Your three kids? Yeah, my three kids. They sit in in a booth inside and sometimes they help. Sometimes they're on iPads. So your three kids are all at the same school right now? No, I wish. Only last year, we have one in middle school this year. So, yeah, one, three o'clock, getting out one or two-thirty and then four o'clock. But they are all down there.

Yeah, they all come. They're pulling wallpaper. That is so legit. I'm saying, hey, you hammer that thing in, right? It's so awesome. It's happening. They're getting to work down there. And then we give them some iPad time.

We're like, mom and dad have to do some more stuff, you know, sorry. But no, they're enjoying it. They're able, like, we give them freedom. Hey, go walk across the street. and get something from auto, right? Yeah. And they're like, oh, okay. Auto's legit, man.

They've been honestly fueling our renovation. So thank you, Otto, because we have been, and Jack Browns, Jack Browns, and Otto, we've been eating there all the time. Those are places. The kids love them. And so that's what it is. Fueling our renovation. They need to learn hard work, grit, right?

Get in there too. And I hope they pick up something from what they see from us, you know? What's your day like? And then on the weekends, yeah, he goes to mobile. Saturday, Sunday I help the mobile teams, but during the week, yeah, I'm down there. I'm knocking walls down. How many hours you clock in a week? In the business?

I bet. Yeah, yeah. Maybe, yeah, because I'm, you know, working in the business. When we get home, then we, like, do the schedule. We're, like, doing banking and, like, doing all that stuff, too. A lot of people don't realize, like, just, and with you and I talk about this, my wife sees this every day, just because we're not, like, in our, like, at our desk or inside of our business, doesn't mean we're not working.

Yeah. Because we're constantly consumed with the business. And you're thinking about what you can do to make it better or like what should I do in one hour or... Yeah. Close with this. Anywhere you guys want to go. Final thoughts. Show is yours.

A lot of people watching. Papitos, the community, everything, anywhere you want to go. I just want to thank the community again for all your support. And we're excited to open downtown and serve some good. pizza and good music on the patio. That's what I want. Just like our neighborhood pizza parties, there was music outside playing, hanging out, drinking. Same vibe on the patio is what we're going for. I think that's the vision, folks. We want to, we host pizza parties at our house. We're going to host them at the old Monooco, and we hope that the community enjoys that as well, right? Yeah. And that's

what we're doing at mobile events too. We're just, we're going out. There's a party already going on. We're just bringing the pizza and then we're making it a pizza party. That's awesome. You know, so. That's the vibe we try to bring. That mindset has helped a lot and not as much as you guys and the support from the community. So thank you so, so much. Yes. You know, so much. Dude, you guys crushed this.

Ray and Lauren just crushed this interview. I mean, it was an absolute brief. You crushed it. We went in 55 minutes without stopping. But Pito's guys, locally owned and operated. You see the hard work this family is putting into it. They have three kids living the American dream and successes. earn and they embody

success. Successes earned guys. And they embody that. I cannot wait for the grand opening. I cannot wait to champion people that are doing awesome things with a business mindset where they're leaving the community in a better footprint than they first arrived. They took a vacancy

and they put a family and business in it and are helping turn around the most important eight blocks in central Virginia at the downtown mall. That is baller. That's all I've got to say on that. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. This is what the I Love Seville show is all about. It's about Charlottesville.

It's about Central Virginia. And it's about just talking about what's going on in our community. Thank you for joining us. We're back tomorrow at 1230. So long, everybody. You guys are crushing. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Yeah, you're so awesome. Yeah, you're so awesome. Thank you.