NEWS

Marion place to be new pizza restaurant

John Jarvis
Reporter

MARION – A Jackson man, who decided his town had enough pizza restaurants, turned his eyes northward and to a classified advertisements website.

On Feb. 13, Wayne Lester opened Pit Stop Pizza at 809 Bellefontaine Ave. on the south side of Marion.

"I actually live in Jackson, Ohio," Lester said. "People ask me why I'm opening a pizza shop in Marion. If you've ever been to Jackson, Jackson's got a pizza shop on every corner. I noticed Marion's a bigger town. Jackson's a nice town, but every gas station there serves pizza, a pizza shop within a gas station, and there are stand-alone stores, as well. Putting another pizza shop in Jackson? I don't see how any of them survive."

Jennifer Morgan works in the kitchen of the Pit Stop Pizza restaurant, 809 Bellefontaine Ave. The new restaurant was recently opened by owner Wayne Lester, of Jackson.

When he spotted the former Mazzie's Pizza location available on Craig's List, he decided the location on the west side of Marion offers an opportunity for success in a restaurant field he grew up with.

Lester worked in a couple of pizza restaurants owned by his grandparents in Columbus and has had food experience "for years."

"It's a lot bigger town, and on the west side of town there, there's not a whole lot to choose from," he said, adding that his restaurant will not have a bar as does Dino's Pizza, a neighboring business. "Then you've got Tubby's uptown a little bit more. Other than that in that part of town the next one is Green Camp, so I think I've got a competitive edge there."

Pit Stop Pizza offers appetizers, sandwiches and pizza, "so we're not just a pizza shop. We offer hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and all of our food is oven-baked, nothing's fried so it's a little bit healthier than something being fried in a deep fryer. We have oven-baked fries baked in the oven along with other amenities."

Lester wants his potential customers to know his restaurant is not solely a pick-up or delivery store.

"I would encourage people to come in and dine in with us," he said. "We have seating capacity for 50 people. It's a very nice, little set-up in there. It's not a modern place. It's kind of rustic, but it's good and clean. We offer a clean environment with good ingredients ... top-of-the-line ingredients."

A pepperoni and mushroom pizza ready for delivery from the Pit Stop Pizza restaurant, 809 Bellefontaine Ave. The new restaurant was just recently opened by owner Wayne Lester, of Jackson.

Scott Smith is the manager of Pit Stop Pizza, which has three employees.

"I hope it turns out to be good and successful," Smith said. "We're not out to make millions. We're just out to make a good product and to get us some more employees, and we hope to get this thing off the ground on a long-term basis for the town of Marion."

Lester looks forward to success in his adopted place of business.

"I would have loved to find something a little closer toward Jackson, but you don't have many options in southern part of Ohio down here," he said. "The economy down here is very hard when you're starting a business, so again I think being up north here (Marion) will be beneficial."

jjarvis@marionstar.com

740-375-5154

Twitter: @jmwjarvis

Pit Stop Pizza

•Hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

•To order or for information, call 740-375-4343.