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Simple recipe, lasting success

As Luigi's Pizza marks its 35th anniversary this year, the ingredients for its popularity are obvious.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published November 20, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - The secrets are not secrets.

"Say hello," George Kirshy was saying one day early last week.

He was sitting at a small table in the corner of his restaurant called Luigi's.

"Say thank you," he said.

"Say goodbye.

"And treat people nice."

Good food. Good price. Good service.

That's it. Simple.

But the guy is onto something. His dad and his uncle opened Luigi's Pizza in 1970 in what is now known as the old Publix lot and then moved it in 1979 to the current location down a bit on S Broad Street. That makes it the longest-running single-family-owned restaurant in and around the Hernando County seat - celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

As Brooksville grows and continues to add chain restaurants and big-box stores - a new Lowe's is set to open next month by the Wal-Mart Supercenter, next to the Sonic, sort of catty-corner from the Applebee's - Luigi's stands out more and more as a bridge to a different time in an always-shifting city.

But some things don't change.

The lunch crush at Luigi's is usually the busiest time of the day. The busiest day of the week is usually Friday: payday, pizza day.

A crazy day.

The booths on the sides of the restaurant fill up. The tables in the middle do, too. The front door opens and closes and opens again.

Regulars include sheriff's deputies, county officials and Brooksville-bred Boston Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo, and they order all kinds of regular food: omelets, grits and biscuits for breakfast; hot, cheesy subs for lunch; the pizza special on Monday; the all-you-can-eat spaghetti on Tuesday.

"I have people coming in here since they were this big," Kirshy, 54, said Friday, holding his left hand about 3 feet from the floor, "and now they're adults with kids who are that big."

The Bishop Boys were in their booth on Friday. There is Billy Bishop; Frank Bishop is his dad and Joe Bishop is his uncle. All of them drill wells for a living.

"We come here for breakfast and lunch every day," Joe Bishop said.

"And sometimes I'll get takeout for dinner," Billy Bishop said.

Think this is a family place?

The Kirshys came from Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., to Hernando County back in 1970.

George Kirshy's Uncle Louie had a Luigi's in South Attleboro, Mass., before coming down here, and the name worked here, too.

George Kirshy's wife? He met Vicky at the restaurant. His smooth pickup line: "So when are you going to take me out?"

Both of his 19-year-old sons - George Jr. and Gregory - have worked for him part time at some point or another.

The people who work at Luigi's are also like family. Manager Dianna Elswick has been an employee for 20 years. Eddie Baker, a cook, has been here, off and on, he says, since 1972, and fellow cook George Pappas has been here for 12 years. The servers have been here for what seems like forever.

Back in the beginning, Luigi's was the only pizza parlor in all of Brooksville, and opening night was a see-and-be-seen affair.

"It was packed," Brooksville native and longtime local Realtor Ginger Garnett said last week. "There was a line outside. Everyone wanted pizza."

Coney Island Drive Inn, the hot dog joint on the way out of town, arrived in the area in the mid '50s, but the Collins family has owned it only since 1971 - which makes Luigi's, of course, by one year, the restaurant in the city that has been under the same family ownership for the longest time.

"When we first opened up," Kirshy said, "there were only, like, three or four restaurants in town. Now you got the chains."

Brooksville's food scene is no longer luncheonettes, greasy spoons and drugstore soda counters - places like Murphy's, Bacon's, the Florida Cafe and the A&W and the Cottage Dinette, all restaurants at this point frozen in Nick at Nite black and white.

The first McDonald's opened on the U.S. 41 commercial strip in 1976.

Now, of course, the stretch has an Arby's, a Wendy's, a Taco Bell and an Applebee's and so on.

"Chains feed on themselves, but they also feed on independent restaurants," Don Luria, the president of the Council of Independent Restaurants of America, said last week from his Tucson, Ariz., office. "They're there to gain that market share. The dining-out pie gets cut into smaller and smaller pieces."

"But customers will vote with their feet, whether it's a big chain or a mom-and-pop," said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the Washington-based National Restaurant Association. "Only those establishments that offer a top-line experience will survive."

The Luigi's lunch rush starts well before noon. By that time, only a couple of tables are empty, and the phone is ring-ring-ringing for takeout orders. The waitresses are scurrying to serve the eat-in crowd.

Todd Pickett, who owns nearby Pickett's True Value Hardware, comes for his lunch, a grilled chicken salad, every day - well, not every day. "Not Sunday," he said. "They're not open on Sundays."

He was sharing a booth Friday with Garry and Jill Allen. All three are Hernando High School grads.

"Know what else people like about here?" Jill Allen said. "George'll come out when he gets a break in the kitchen and say hi to you. Not many places do that."

"Most people are used to the chain restaurants and stuff like that," Garry Allen said. "I want to go where locals go."

"Other places are too fast-food-ish, too Applebee's-ish," Karen Higginbotham said. "You get a hamburger here, you're going to get a hamburger - it's not going to have any special sauce or something like that. You know what you're going to get."

She was sitting in a different booth on Friday and is the daughter of George Receveur, one of the three brothers known in the past for raising Cain, doing demolition derby and going through pounds of pasta on Luigi's all-you-can-eat spaghetti day.

Higginbotham has been coming here all her life, which is 35 years - long enough to see plenty of change in her hometown, and just on this commercial strip around Luigi's.

"We were in here two, three times a day when I was a kid," she said. "And here I am, 35, and I still come here all the time. That should say something.

"The crowds ain't got no smaller."

Times researchers Mary Mellstrom and Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified November 20, 2005, 00:54:20]