What sets the new Home Slice Pizza apart in downtown Perry? Come and see

When Paul and LeAnn Register of Kathleen decided to venture into the restaurant business, they had planned to provide financial backing only.

“The vision was we would never be there,” said Paul Register, while seated with his wife at a table with a black and white checkered tablecloth at their pizza restaurant in downtown Perry. “We would come in here and see our friends and sit down and shake hands and ask about how they’re doing.”

Instead, the Registers ended up taking over full ownership and opening Home Slice Pizza at 717 Commerce St. on July 1.

Longtime pie maker Matthew Howard, who’s previously owned and operated pizza restaurants in Middle Georgia and works at Home Slice Pizza, is behind the idea, the recipes, and “what we do” at the restaurant, LeAnn Register said.

The family-friendly restaurant offers specialty and build-your-own pizzas baked in a brick oven, appetizers like pepperoni rolls and garlic knots, wings, pasta dishes, salads, calzones and more.

“We’ve had a great reception from the community ... We already have people who are here once or twice a week,” said LeAnn Register, who’s hands-on at the restaurant. Paul Register works full-time in medical sales.

Learning the ropes

While owning and operating a restaurant has been a fast learning curve for the Registers, who are also raising seven kids, the blessings far outweigh any challenges.

“I’ve seen our kids, especially the two oldest, like they could run the store,” Paul Register said. “You know, our son, Bryson, our oldest, I mean, like he’s thinking about, you know, entrepreneurship now, like never before.

“He wants to do everything in the restaurant — like he can do everything. I don’t know if there’s a part of it he can’t do.”

A junior at Perry High School, Bryson, 16, has expressed interest in possibly opening his own restaurant or ice cream shop one day.

Their oldest daughter, 17-year-old Haley, is a senior who’s part of Veritas Classical Schools, a hybrid home school program. She serves tables.

“We didn’t realize how much of a social butterfly she is,” LeAnn Register said. “She will talk to every single table in here at length.”

Haley wants to be a veterinarian.

Their 14-year-old son, Ryles, doesn’t work at the restaurant but was busy in front of the building putting in shrubbery on a recent visit.

Twins William and Colton, 11, Grayson, 9, and Ellie, 6, also like to help out at the restaurant from time to time.

“Then the other ones are up here,” Paul Register said. “They’ll make (pizza) boxes, or they just kind of do whatever.”

LeAnn Register interjected, “The little ones, they’ll come up, make (pizza) boxes or clean tables.”

“They enjoy it,” Paul Register said.

LeAnn Register, who has a background in nursing, oversees the restaurant full-time.

“I like helping people ... meeting new people,” she said.

Register enlisted the help of her sister, Felicia Layfield, a retired 30-year school teacher, to work at the restaurant.

A lot of Home Slice Pizza employees are high school students.

Active in youth sports and the youth group at their Warner Robins church, Second Baptist, the Registers desire to use Home Slice Pizza as a way to give back to the community.

“We want this business to be more involved with somehow helping and benefiting the community as much as it benefits our pockets,” Paul Register said. “That’s our vision. That’s our goal.”

What sets Home Slice Pizza apart?

The brick oven sets Home Slice Pizza apart from other pizza places in town, the Registers said. The baking time for their brick oven pizzas is about 20 minutes.

They also make their dough fresh daily and roll it out in the morning. They use smoked meats and 100% mozzarella cheese. Their veggie toppings for their pizzas and salads also are chopped fresh daily.

Their wings are baked.

One of their family favorites are the pepperoni rolls, which are described on the menu as fresh baked dough rolled and stuffed with pepperoni and mozzarella, brushed with butter, topped with garlic salt and parmesan cheese and served with a side of marinara.

Another family favorite is Cheerwine, a nonalcoholic, carbonated, cherry-flavored soft drink.

‘Where family, friends and flavor come together’

Home Slice Pizza aims to be a place where friends and family come to connect.

“If you come in here and you sit at Table 2, we’re hoping that you’ll see somebody you know at Table 6 or Table 12,” Paul Register said. “And so far, it’s been exactly that.”

The restaurant’s tagline is “where family, friends and flavor come together.”

“We wanted to be a place where his (Bryson’s) friends can come and hang out and their parents don’t have to worry about where they’re at,” Register said. “You know, if their kids say, ‘Hey, Mom, we’re going to hang out at Home Slice,’ then the parents are like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s, that’s cool.’ You know what I mean?”

Home Slice Pizza offers tables and large booths that can seat six to eight people. Overall, the restaurant currently can seat up to 84 people.

Updating the menu

The Registers are tweaking the menu — raising the prices on a few pizzas, adding new menu items and adding more lunch specials.

The 18-inch specialty pizzas are going up about $3 to $29.99 in order to offset the cost of the extra meat and vegetables on a pizza of that size. The baseline for the $16 large build-your-own pizzas also is expected to increase by a couple of dollars for the same reason.

The Registers also are adding strombolis and apple sticks to the menu.

The updated lunch specials, served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., include a slice of cheese or pepperoni pizza, side salad and a drink for $7.25, or two slices of pepperoni or cheese pizza, side salad and a drink for $8.25.

The original lunch special of two slices of cheese or pepperoni pizza and a drink for $7.25 also is available.

Additionally, Home Slice Pizza is offering a Monday and Tuesday night family meal deal for dine-in only that includes a 14-inch specialty pizza or a 14-inch, five-topping pizza, plus small cheese sticks and sweet sticks for $24.99.

A boost to the Perry pizza market

Just a few years ago, the only pizza places in town were chains such as Domino’s, Marco’s, Papa Johns and Little Caesars Pizza.

Today, in addition Home Slice Pizza, Perry now boasts other locally-owned pizza spots including Ghost Runner Pizza, Amici, and Trattoria di Napoli, an Italian bistro that features a Neapolitan pizza oven.

“We’re all different,” LeAnn Register said. “I don’t feel like we’re competing with anybody. I think we all have our own things.”

Home Slice Pizza offers dine-in and takeout, does not serve alcohol and is closed on Sundays.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Labor Day. The number is 478-313-0512.