Shakespeare’s Pizza is planning a large expansion this summer, including a new restaurant in south Columbia that will add a party room to seat 175 people, co-owner and manager Kurt Mirtsching said.
With July 16 as the target opening day, Mirtsching said he anticipates a lot of additions to the business, including more administrative space, changes to the frozen pizza aspect of the business and additions to the fundraising section.
According to an announcement on its Facebook page Monday, Shakespeare’s has completed a new building permit for a location at 3911 Peachtree Drive, just southwest of the Providence and Nifong intersection.
The expansion will include an extra 40 to 50 full-time positions and numerous part-time positions, Mirtsching said.
In addition to the physical restaurant, the restaurant will add space for operations involving its frozen pizza business and fundraising functions, which will allow for a large increase in production capability, Mirtsching said.
“We’re moving our frozen pizza operation out there,” Mirtsching said. “We are going to greatly expand that part of the business as well as the fundraising part.”
Currently, Shakespeare’s partners with Columbia Public Schools to offer frozen pizzas as an alternative to magazine or candy fundraisers, and that portion of the business is growing, according to the company website.
The company also prepares various combinations of frozen pizzas that are sold in grocery stores from Kansas City to St. Louis, Mirtsching said.
Mirtsching said the new restaurant will accommodate several hundred patrons, and they are attempting to make it very similar to the downtown location.
“The south store will be just as big, but we’re going to tack on a very large party room that will seat about 175 people,” Mirtsching said.
To complete the hiring process, he said they always take applications, but will not be doing full hiring until early this summer.
Based on availability and how many full- and part-time positions get created, Shakespeare’s could be hiring more than 40 or 50 people, Mirtsching said. Applications can be downloaded from the website and brought to the downtown location.
Founded in 1973, Shakespeare’s has grown to be a local landmark, and plans to continue serving Columbia and its patrons, according to its website.
As a result of its continued growth, Shakespeare’s Pizza won Good Morning America’s 2010 Best Bites Challenge, ranking first as America’s best college hangout.
More than 10,000 votes came in for the top four college eateries in the nation. Shakespeare’s Pizza defeated the other three competitors, winning the Best Bites Challenge, according to its website.
As of Thursday, Shakespeare’s Facebook page had 28,570 “likes.” Its post regarding the new location had 266 likes and 36 comments, and that number continues to climb.
According to the company’s mission statement, the reason behind Shakespeare’s continued success is simple: “It’s the pizza, stupid. And maybe the beer. Everything else can go fly.”
