By Donna Cornelius
Pizza is usually a popular choice for family meals. But there’s often no consensus about which pizza to order: Mom wants the veggie special, Dad’s a carnivore and the kids will eat nothing but plain old cheese.
At Your Pie, a new restaurant that opened in Homewood Dec. 18, different tastes are no problem. Customers can customize their own individual 10-inch pizzas – or paninis or salads.
“You choose your dough, sauce, cheese and toppings,” said franchise owner Lloyd Peeples.
“All the main menu items are $7.99. That includes as many ingredients as you want.”
Your Pie started seven years ago in Athens, Georgia, and is rapidly expanding. The Homewood store is the company’s first in Alabama – but it won’t be the last. Peeples said he plans to open two more stores. He’s signed the lease for a Liberty Park location and is negotiating for a downtown spot, he said.
“We’re targeting the opening of our Liberty Park restaurant for this fall and are aiming for Labor Day for back-to-school time,” he said.
Peeples first came to Birmingham to attend Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law.
“I practiced law until 2012,” he said. “Then I went and helped my dad with our family manufacturing business.”
Peeples discovered Your Pie – and a new opportunity – in Atlanta.
“I was there on business, and it was one of those situations where I had a meeting at 2 and was early,” he said. “I wanted to go somewhere where I could take my iPad and work. I went to Your Pie and had some good food in a nice atmosphere. While I was sitting there, I emailed the corporate folks and asked if they had any plans to expand into Alabama.”
Peeples said he met with corporate officials and with several Your Pie store owners.
“I talked to other franchisees and visited their stores,” he said. “What struck me was that most of them had plans for future stores. None of them was looking to sell.
“It seemed like a good concept and struck me as a solid investment. I did a lot of research about the fast-casual concept, which is a growing restaurant model. You get more customization, more choices and can eat healthier.”
Fast-casual hits a medium ground, Peeples said, between fast food and more formal dining.
“You come in, order, sit down and have a beer or wine,” he said. “We’ve had people come in from youth basketball games, before a movie or on their way home from work, and we’ve already gotten a fair number of call-in and takeout orders.”
Your Pie is in the SoHo Square retail center at 1831 28th Ave. South, in the space formerly occupied by Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina.
“I was looking at a lot of different sites and while I was driving around, I noticed that Salsarita’s had closed,” Peeples said. “This is a busy area. And this is a good centrally located site, in SoHo on the corner.”
The interior of Your Pie has an industrial-chic look, with wooden tabletops, metal chairs and barstools, concrete countertops and floors, and an exposed ceiling. There’s a community table that’s already become a favorite spot for large groups of kids. Parents can keep a watchful eye by sitting nearby at smaller tables or in booths if they choose.
In addition to custom-made dishes, there also are “suggested” menu items that were selected from popular customer choices. There’s the Southern Heat pizza with buffalo sauce, mozzarella, chicken, red onions and jalapenos and served with ranch or blue cheese sauce, and the Ischia, with extra virgin olive oil, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and garlic. If you don’t want to devise your own panini, you might opt for the Pesto Chicken with basil pesto, mozzarella, spinach, tomatoes and chicken, or the Nonno’s Italian, with mozzarella, spinach, tomatoes, red onions, ham and pepperoni and served with balsamic vinaigrette.
Rotating flavors of gelato and sorbet are available, too.
“Kids really like the gelato – well, so do parents,” Peeples said.
Customers can see their ingredients being added to their order and also have a view of workers tossing the dough and of their dish going into the brick oven.
“Our oven makes us different,” Peeples said. “It’s made by Wood Stone in Seattle, which is one of the highest-rated brick oven manufacturers.”
Your Pie prides itself on its gluten-free options, Peeples said, adding that “it’s amazing how many people” are affected by gluten intolerance.
“We’ve enjoyed catering to those folks,” he said. “They don’t have to special-order anything or ask for substitutions, because for us, almost everything is a special order.”
All beer on tap is local, Peeples said.
“We support Alabama breweries,” he said. “We also have other specialty beers in bottles as well as Bud Light and Miller Lite.”
The Homewood Your Pie serves tea from Birmingham-based Red Diamond. Veggies, too, are locally sourced, Peeples said, which means they’re always fresh.
“When all the ingredients are in the open, you can’t hide bad tomatoes or wilted lettuce,” he said.
Peeples said his store already is getting involved in charitable efforts.
“We have Community Mondays where we give 10 percent of our revenue to a local charity such as the UAB Cancer Center and autism and Alzheimer’s support groups,” he said.
He’s looking forward to Your Pie’s quarterly Craft Series, which features an out-of-the-box pizza.
“We’ll do a specialty pizza that we’ll promote for two months,” Peeples said. “Your Pie did a peach and prosciutto pizza last summer and has done a Sriracha Nacho pizza. From Jan. 15 through March, we’ll have a Gyro Pie with lamb, dill, feta and a Greek-style sauce.”
To kick off the promotion, the Gyro Pie will be $3.14 on Jan. 15. The cost will be $8.49 until March 6. Peeples said $1 from the sale of each Gyro Pie throughout the promotion will be donated to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society.
Peeples’ wife, Candi, is an attorney. The two met when they were attending Cumberland. Their second date was at DeVinci’s Pizza, a short distance away from his new Your Pie store. The couple’s son, Chandler, is 9, and their daughter, Lily, is 7. The family lives in Liberty Park.
For more information, visit www.yourpie.com or follow the Homewood store on Facebook or on Instagram @yourpiebirmingham. The store’s phone number is 739-2212. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
