STAUNTON — When Justin Hershey opened his new brick-fired pizza restaurant to the public in mid-May, he had a plan. He figured the first few days would be busy, but then the demand would calm down some. The first week he'd do dinner hours only. Then he'd add lunch hours the second week and pickup orders the third.
However, the demand at Pizza Luca hasn't slowed down since that first day of May 14. If anything, Hershey said it's grown. There is usually a line of customers waiting at the door when Pizza Luca opens at 5 p.m. It's a good issue to have, but still an issue.
"Best laid plans," Hershey said. "We had an idea how the rollout was going to go in our heads, but the response has been overwhelming."
The restaurant is located at 213 N. Lewis St., next to Silver Line Theatre Exchange in downtown Staunton and not far from Hershey's other restaurant, Chicano Boy.
The Italian-American menu offers brick fired pizzas, pastas, and more. For now, hours will remain dinner only, open Mondays through Saturdays 5-9 p.m. They will be closed this Monday for Memorial Day.
"Because of the strong response we're chasing our tail on some things and working through the night trying to resolve others," Hershey said. "I want to communicate how incredibly grateful I am. It's obviously been well-received. It's exceeded our expectations from the get-go."
He still hopes to add lunch hours but not as soon as he'd planned. There is no timeline on when that will happen, he said. There are just certain constraints in the 230-square-foot kitchen that limits the amount of food Pizza Luca can produce. The oven can only make so many pizzas at a time, so it's not even a question of staffing, just the physical restraints.
The one thing that Hershey will add next week is online orders for pickup and to go at pizza-luca.com. He expects that site to be functional for online orders by Tuesday when they open. There will be to-go shelving installed by Tuesday as well.
As for lunch, he won't add additional hours until he's comfortable that they can handle it. That might involve finding an auxiliary kitchen. Hershey is still figuring all of that out.
"We're not going to add lunch until it makes sense," he said.
Hershey is just hoping the public will understand that he and his staff are working as hard as they can to handle the demand.
— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
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