RICHARDS PIZZA
What: Family-owned restaurant with 5 Butler County locations selling pizza, steak sandwiches and more
Where: Two Hamilton locations, as well as Fairfield, Monroe and Trenton
Owners: Sisters Gayl and Karen Underwood
Founder: Richard and wife Peggy Underwood
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays to Fridays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays
Website: richardspizza.com
Some owners get in the restaurant business just because they love to cook. But it was the search for good-tasting pizza in Hamilton that prompted Richard Underwood to enter the pizza-making business about 60 years ago with no restaurant experience.
He didn’t like having to drive all the way to Cincinnati from his hangout spot in Hamilton to buy a worthy slice.
“At the time I thought there was an opportunity for a good quality pizza place in Hamilton, and that’s how I got started,” Richard Underwood said. “I like pizza.”
While any member of the Underwood family can get behind the kitchen counter to bake a pie or assemble the well-known steak sandwiches — and have done so — the family’s long-running success comes from an almost scientific and business-minded approach to quality food: an assurance of consistency, no sacrifices to cheapen the product in tough times and attention to detail.
“Attention to detail in the little things, it obviously translates to big things,” daughter Karen Underwood said.
The approach could also have to do with the fact Richard graduated from Miami University with an engineering degree or that his daughter Gayl, who now runs the business with sister Karen, studied chemistry. In fact, only Karen Underwood has a degree in the field of food and hospitality. Richard’s wife Peggy was in charge of the accounting books.
It’s a combination of skills they think works.
For example, a whole year’s supply of a certain type of naturally-sweet tomatoes is contracted in advance.
“That’s to ensure we don’t run out during the year and have to substitute something else,” Richard said.
And if you don’t think the type of onion flavoring on a steak sandwich matters, think again. Gayl Underwood still remembers the time there was a drought affecting supplies of yellow Spanish onions.
“People noticed,” Gayl said.
Also, pizza toppings don’t hold the same flavor if they sit on top of the cheese and are allowed to escape, explained Richard. That’s why Richards puts the cheese on top and it’s the only way Peggy orders it, no matter where they are.
Ordering a supreme pizza for dinner? The crust was made from dough that spent at least three days rising.
“From the very first, I’ve always had the concept of freshly made products to get a good flavor,” Richard said. “Behind-the-scenes, there’s quite a bit to it.”
Richards Pizza may have survived 60 years, but it’s not been without competition. Richard remembers in 1965, a former Cincinnati Reds player opened a national franchise pizza shop across the street on Main, and celebrities attended the opening to boost sales. That’s when the logo of the mustached man throwing dough was born. Fresh dough wasn’t something the competition could claim about their product, Richard said.
The business also strove to stay at the forefront of new trends and was one of the first area restaurants to get computerized point of sale systems from Dayton-based NCR in the 1980s, they said.
“I think good food, consistency and running the whole business,” have been keys, Richard said. “We always had good books, we always inventoried. We always ran everything by the percentages, we had so much allocated to food costs, so much allocated to labor costs and so much for overhead and insurance and all that.”
“The money was reinvested into the business to grow the business,” he said.
Richards Pizza started its first location in 1955 on Dixie Highway in Hamilton. While that location was closed, there are now two Hamilton locations at 417 Main St. and 3015 Dixie Hwy. Richard and Peggy’s daughters Gayl and Karen now lead the family business and expanded to new locations in Fairfield, Monroe and Trenton.
A month-long celebration of Richards 60th anniversary culminates Saturday with 50-cent day. Steak sandwiches are sold at all locations for 50 cents. Customers must make the order in person and be present to buy the sandwich at the discounted price.
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