Brian Padigimus and Tim Wright didn’t always dream of starting a restaurant, and they knew even less about pizza, but people come from all over Idaho to try the unique creations coming out of the Lucy’s Pizzeria kitchen.
While working in construction in 2006, Padigimus and Wright had the bright idea to open a hot stuffed pizza place in Roberts, Idaho.
Their friend, not sold on the idea of fast, casual pizza, introduced them to Rich Franco who used to run a New York style pizza shop in Connecticut. Franco convinced them to pursue New York style pizza, and even said he’d work for them to help get the business going.
“After about three or four months … we went to bank after bank after bank trying to get a loan,” Padigimus said.
Twelve banks said no to them, but Padigimus said the 13th one was crazy enough to take them on.
“We got the SPA loan and right after that we were just slinging dough,” Padigimus said.
With the recipes in the works and the location set, they still needed to settle on a name.
“For inspiring us to go New York style we told him [Franco] we’d name it after whatever he wanted, and he picked his dog, Lucy,” Padigimus said. “So, we’re named after an English bulldog.”
So, Lucy’s Pizzeria – a 600 square foot pizza place – opened in the little town of Roberts in June of 2009.
“Six months after we were there we had such a huge outcome, people were coming from all over the place – Rexburg, Driggs, Pocatello – and they wanted to try our pizza,” Padigimus said.
Since then, Padigimus and his partners have opened three other locations: two in Idaho Falls and one in Orem, Utah. But, they aren’t stopping there. Salt Lake City and Boise can expect a Lucy’s in their area soon.
