House of Pizza and BBQ, a new restaurant located north of the Pi Beta Phi house on Hillsdale Street, is opening next month.
“We just have a few more inspections that are beyond my control, but the goal is to open in March,” said Greg Mauldon, one of the owners of the business.
Mauldon is opening the restaurant with his girlfriend, Lori Burger.
The restaurant will sell a variety of pizzas, salads, subs, and barbeque food items such as ribs and pulled pork.
Although they have not yet decided if they are going to hire a wait-staff or take customers’ orders at the counter, Mauldon is currently taking applications for “cooks, counter people, dishwashers, and multitaskers” and he welcomes Hillsdale students to apply.
For Mauldon, opening the restaurant has been a dream for a while.
“About 10 years ago I had the chance to buy a pizza place and that didn’t happen,” Mauldon said. “I saw that this place was for sale, it was a bank repo and in pretty bad shape, so that was really right up my alley. I could come in, redo it, and make it the way I wanted.”
Mauldon, the owner of Mauldon Construction in Mason, Mich., has done a lot of the construction work on the restaurant.
After buying the building in the fall of 2011, Mauldon said they had to “completely gut the place and start over.” That winter, he and his crew put a new roof on the building.
In the spring of 2012, Mauldon said they had to slow down the construction process of the restaurant because he had jobs lined up to do in his construction business, but they returned to working on it in the fall.
Now, the restaurant has plenty of new tables and chairs, freshly painted walls, polished oak trimming, and two large TVs hanging on the walls.
Mauldon is especially proud of the refined woodwork in the building.
“It’s a completely different place than what it used to be; with the new ceiling and woodwork. It’s beautiful now,” Burger said.
After opening, Mauldon hopes Hillsdale students will come to the restaurant.
“We put plugs all around the walls so people can plug in their laptops and we’re getting free Wi-Fi so people can come hungry, eat some good pizza, and hang out here,” Mauldon said.
Mauldon and Burger both look forward to the grand opening.
“I’m nervous, because we’ve never done this before, it’s a new experience. I’ve worked at a restaurant, but never run one,” Burger said. “We’re excited though. We hope to create a really homey place.”
sscorzo@hillsdale.edu
