There is a new pizza business in town with a unique concept.

CheeZies Pizza, located at 1601 Clemon Dr., Ste. A, officially opened on Wednesday, June 25. The business offers carry out and drive-through service.

“We own Simple Simon’s in Granby and it has been a good business for us,” said Joe Culp who owns the business along with his wife, Mandy. “We like the pizza business, as far as restaurants go. It is really simple. Our franchisees were telling us about the CheeZies concept — that is a completely different concept than Simple Simon’s.
Simple Simon’s is a full-scale restaurant. You sit down, you have drinks, a salad bar and all of that. Here it is all to go and the drive-up window. So we thought, maybe we can make money over there and enjoy it. And this concept should be a breeze for us.
They started this about five years ago with this concept and it has worked for them.”

All of the pizzas come in large, with cheese and a one topping going for $4.99. They also have specialty pizzas including Lotz-A Meat, Taco Pizza and Tropical Delight.

“We also offer hot wings and barbecue wings and calizones,” remarked Culp.
“Pepperoni is our No. 1 seller, followed by cheese pizza.”

The pizza dough comes in frozen made rolls. They roll it out, then put it in a pan and make the toppings. The pizza takes seven minutes to go through the oven. All in all, it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Thus far, business has been very well for the new owners.

“We have been pleased with it so far. We have had a lot of people come in and SAY good things,” Culp said. “Really until the Sunday ad (in the Neosho Daily News), it was just word of mouth.”

So far, it has been mostly walk-in traffic. But with the new concept of using the drive-through, business will take a turn.

“We just got the stripes down Sunday morning,” said Culp. “It is a fairly new concept until Pizza Hut opened their new location. They can’t order here. They can call or stop by order and then pick up through the drive-through.”

He noted that once people pick up about that, that a good 50 percent of their business will be drive-through.

The business employs five people. Hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 3-9 p.m., Friday from 3-10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. The phone number is 451-3100.

According to Culp, in about three weeks, CheeZies will have a grand opening.