JEFFERSON, Ohio — The brick-and-mortar Colucci's Pizza may still be a shell of itself, but its parking lot is busy.
That's because owner Ryan Stevens launched a food truck for the business this week — and its popularity quickly spread.
"By 5 o'clock, we had to stop taking orders [our first day] and we were cooking those orders until 9:30 at night," Stevens said.
It comes after a fire last September tore through Colucci's Pizza and the neighboring Mr. Hero along South Chestnut Street in Jefferson.
"Our shop rags combusted overnight and just caught the building on fire," Stevens said.
Rather than wait for repairs, Stevens and his son came up with the food truck idea to keep serving their loyal customers.
David Pantoja showed up twice on the first two days to grab his pizza.
"I'd eat it every day if my diet allowed me," Pantoja said.
Anthony Jones drove down from Ashtabula after hearing the news to grab some food for his wife's workplace.
"We were waiting for them to hurry up and open," he said.
"It's great to see it back. It's been a staple of this community for years," Matt Taylor said. "It’s the pizza to have – it beats everybody hands down. This is where you go."
For Stevens, the immediate success is proof that the secret sauce to success is more than just ingredients, but a mentality, too.
"When tragedy happens, you just got to move on," Stevens said. "You can't lay down, you can't sit down, you got to rebuild, you got to keep moving."
Stevens hopes to reopen the physical building by July.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
