Kyla A SanfordTallahassee Democrat
Eric Riser, owner of Munchies Pizza on Virginia Street, said he finds happiness in those special moments where he gets to serve the community.
"There's a lot of like joy in that ... it helps you kind of get through the hard spots," he said.
The 29-year-old pizza enthusiast is fueled by his ambition to serve more than a pizza, but to aid those bustling nights by gracing families, college students and everyone in between with the convenience of his hand-tossed slices prepared daily.
"One of the best feelings for me is taking a delivery order to a family, which unfortunately I don't get to do as much anymore, but you know, the parents open the door, and the kids are in the back like, "Pizza's here!" and they're all excited and stuff," Riser said. "That feels really good, I get a lot of enjoyment out of that."
While attending the University of Florida to study engineering, Riser applied to work at a nearby Domino's Pizza (simply because he loved it), where he found joy in delivering orders and other areas of the operation. The entrepreneur-at-heart left school and was on a fast track to manage his own Domino's franchise, but things fell through, he says, for the better.
"I wanted to be able to do my own thing, and flexibility to get creative and try different things. Like if something's not working, which was great because when COVID started, we released the stuffed deep dish, which saved our business. If I had been a franchise with Domino's, I can't just release a new pizza."
Moving from Connecticut, where he anticipated opening a Domino's franchise, down to Tallahassee to join his family, the Ocala native put school on the back-burner to fully pursue building a pizza empire in June 2019. He landed in a spot he found with decent foot traffic to reach Florida State students while driving for Uber.
The building's decorations feature one of Riser's childhood favorites, a family-friendly version of the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater from the Purple Eater book and Sheb Wooley's song, inviting people in to satisfy their late-night munchies.
Inside, there are a few custom-made wooden benches that line the windows giving guests a glimpse of the Florida State campus. Vintage gaming machines that take only a few quarters to play fill the space, with display cases in the front showing off the freshly prepared pies.
The family-owned establishment is a local treasure that garnered a large following of pizza connoisseurs when it introduced a Chicago-style deep dish pizza in the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking for substantial ways to generate business after losing nearly 80% of it when FSU students left for spring break and never returned that year, Riser paraded through the social food group, Tallahassee Foodies, on Facebook. This is when he noticed that people desired a deep-dish pizza but had no local options to pick from. Using this as momentum, he went back to the drawing board to curate a new recipe by doing extensive research and travelling to Jacksonville and Orlando, to sample the pizzas and perfect his own recipe.
Calling for people to taste test the pizza during the recipe's trial period, the pies became an overnight hit and demands skyrocketed after word spread. Phones were ringing, orders were flowing in and hope was restored. It was then that Riser was able to add more people to his team and expand to a second store, Coach's Pizza on Apalachee Parkway, in which he has shared ownership.
Coach's, a collaborative pizza joint from Riser and pizza restaurateur Jacob Meister, is inspired by deep dishes and named after Meister's and wife Jessica's passion for coaching youth soccer. It's located in Parkway Terrace, 2475 Apalachee Parkway, next to Helluva Sub and the 7th Hill Taproom.
Little did he know that only two, 12-inch pans from Walmart, which he used to bake inverted layers of thick crust, gooey cheese and rich tomato sauce, would save his business, which he said was just four to six weeks away from shuttering.
Outside of the deep-dish specialties, fluffy (garlic or cheesy knots), oven-baked subs, salads, wings and New York-style pizzas displayed in glass cases near the register are offered starting at $5.99 for an appetizer.
New recipes are in the works as well, including a tavern-style pizza, which features thin, crispy crusted pizza cut into squares, as well as a pizza wrap and other vegan options, Riser hopes to release by the end of summer.
Inspiration from pizza conventions, the "Pizza Bible" written by Tony Gemignani and observations in consumer's preferences, have rekindled the pizza engineer's desire to explore the addition of new menu items. Riser hopes it will generate some of the same responses the store received when introducing the Chicago-style back in 2020.
"I think on one side, it's experimenting with new recipes and working on new products, getting to share that with other people, and seeing how much they enjoy it and appreciate it," Riser said on what helps him maintain. "I think I'm realizing how important that is for me to keep myself motivated and excited about what's going on."
Riser says the last six months have been the most difficult. Between the costs of labor, a reduction in pedestrian traffic, inflation and more, Munchies Pizza, like many other local businesses, is brainstorming ways to get people excited about eating and spending at local establishments.
Riser says he is grateful for the support he's received and encourages people to even consider using the store's delivery services, the part he's found the greatest joy in. He said third party delivery apps including Door Dash, Uber Eats and Grub Hub, tend to hurt their books by consuming over 30% of the subtotal of orders. He added that alternatively delivering from the store themselves saves money for customers and the shop.
"I'm pretty grateful for the support that we've gotten over the years, and that we've made it as far as we have," he said happily.
If you go to Munchie's
When (summer Hours): 11 a.m.- 1 a.m. Sunday-Tuesday; 11 a.m. - 2:30 a.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
Where: 695 W. Virginia St.
If you go to Coach's Pizza
When: 12 p.m.-9 p.m., Sunday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Monday to Thursday; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Where: 2475 Apalachee Parkway.
Kyla A Sanford covers dining and entertainment for the Tallahassee Democrat. New restaurant opening up, special deals, or events coming up? Let me knowatksanford@tallahassee.com.You can also email your suggestions for a future TLH Eats restaurant profile.
