The latest venture from veteran restaurateur brings a pizza place to Lake Wylie
A new pizzeria in Lake Wylie will be opening soon.
The first day for Big Papa’s Pizzeria at 5800 Charlotte Highway is April 1. The restaurant will be open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Big Papa’s Pizzeria will offer pizza, pasta, salads and subs to go along with a collection of appetizers, sides and desserts.
Store co-owner Jerry Simonetti recently spoke with The Herald about his history in the restaurant business and his goals for the store.
Veteran leadership at the (pizza) wheel
The 62-year old moved to the Carolinas in 2007 after a successful career running two restaurants on the east end of Long Island, New York.
Big Papa’s Pizzeria will be the Long Island-native’s second restaurant in the Lake Wylie-area. He also owns Lily’s Bistro, another restaurant on Charlotte Highway.
Around 2007, Simonetti said, “I wanted to open a restaurant in Belmont, (North Carolina). My family said ‘no, no, no, we want pizza.’ I did a little bit of pizza but not much, so I opened (Simonetti’s Pizza), and then 10 years later, I opened Lily’s.”
The distance between the two ended up being too much for Simonetti, who lives in the Charlotte area. He sold Simonetti’s Pizza and had Lily’s Bistro as his only active restaurant for the past seven years.
However, the opportunity arose for Simonetti to open another restaurant, and he once again is the owner of a pizzeria.
Big Papa’s Pizzeria will be the eighth restaurant Simonetti has opened.
His first was a small Italian restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida, over 30 years ago, followed by the two restaurants in Long Island and three more in Gaston County, North Carolina.
Now, Big Papa’s Pizzeria joins Lily’s Bistro as his only active stores. However, he didn’t rule out potentially adding more.
“I have a lot of people that like what I do,” Simonetti said. “And I’m not opposed to anything. I have some people that want to do more stores, but I don’t know. We’ll see how this one goes first.”
