Georgia grown, family owned. New pizzeria coming to Perry shopping center now going up

A Georgia grown and family owned pizzeria is expected to open a new location in Perry in early 2025.

Holy Pie! Pizzeria is going into a new shopping plaza now under construction near Perry Parkway and South Houston Lake Road.

The new spot will offer pizza, wings, pasta, calzones, sandwiches, salads and more.

“It’s actually a partnership we have,” said Jake Watson, who’s opening the Perry location with his family. “There’s three locations in the Savannah market, and of course, our two locations in the Middle Georgia market, where all five stores are family owned and operated.”

The Perry location will be the sixth Holy Pie! Pizzeria in Georgia and the third in Middle Georgia.

Two friends Kendall Wilson and Olman Del Cid developed the concept and opened the first Holy Pie! Pizzeria in Savannah in March 2021. Watson and Wilson are cousins.

Watson, his wife Penny, and son Jake Jr., opened the second Holy Pie! Pizza in Roberta at 256 Wright Ave. in 2022. They opened the Macon pizzeria at 5797 Houston Road in 2023. Meanwhile, Wilson and Del Cid also opened two more in the Savannah area — one in 2023 and the other earlier this year.

The Watsons operate the pizzeria’s under PB&J Restaurant Group, with the name coming from the first initials of several family members — including Jake Watson, his wife, son and daughter-in-law, Jessica, his oldest grandson, Bryden, and youngest grandson, Jackson.

“We have found that when the family comes together as a unit, anything is possible,” Watson said.

Serving the community

The ultimate motivation behind PB&J Restaurant Group is important to Watson.

“First and foremost, we are a faith based company,” Watson said. “We will not hide that from from anybody. Everything that we do is ultimately to bring honor and glory to God’s Kingdom.

“Our goal is to be a positive impact in people’s lives, whether that’s our staff members who help us operate the locations, or being a positive influence to the communities that we serve, or providing a product that ultimately, we hope, invites the families to sit around the table.”

Watson and the developers of the brand have years of restaurant experience. Watson worked for Shoney’s and Cheddar’s restaurants a combined total of 31 years prior to becoming the Crawford County zoning administrator. He was with Shoney’s for 12 years and 19 with Cheddar’s.

His wife and son are involved in the daily operations of the pizzerias, which have a management team. He’s usually in on nights and weekends.

“With our prior restaurant experience, we have learned that there are some keys to providing a quality product to our guests,” Watson said. “The first staple of our menu is that we use fresh ingredients.”

The dough for most of the restaurant’s pizza products is made from scratch in house using flour, seasonings and milk, mixed on site and then the pizzas are hand tossed, Watson said.

“Our salads, we know the key to having a good salad is using fresh lettuce and hand cutting it,” Watson said. “Daily vegetables are hand cut.”

Emphasizing freshness, the pizzeria will not have a microwave on site and only recently added a freezer to only hold french fries that have been added to the menu, according to Watson.

The partners also work to keep prices affordable, offering specials and a rewards program, Watson said.

A permanent special on the menu is a large one-topping pizza for $10.99, he said. For comparison, an ultimate supreme pizza with six toppings is about $16.

“We realized that the majority of people on a lunch break are limited in time,” Watson said. “So, we offer a daily lunch special where you can have two slices and a drink for around $6.29. And you can add a third slice for only $1.50.”

The pizzeria

The new pizzeria is expected to have limited dine-in with a few tables capable of seating about 12 to 15 people. The restaurant will also offer takeout, its own delivery as well as delivery via third-party services.

Additionally, the Perry location will have a drive-thru window.

“There is a wide variety on the menu,” Watson said. “So, it’s more than just pizza, salads. We have pastas, we have slow smoked chicken wings, and a variety of sandwiches.”

The pizzeria also offers several desserts such as cheesecake stromboli, chocolate chip cookies, and cinnamon rolls.

“I have a big sweet tooth,” Watson said. “I take credit for the sweet items on the menu.”

Best sellers include the restaurant’s jumbo sized, smoked chicken wings with meat that “falls off the bones,” a large pepperoni pizza because of the special price, and cinnamon rolls that are not made with pizza dough and covered with cream cheese icing, according to Watson.

Another crowd-pleaser is the chicken pecan salad with iceberg and romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, croutons, smoked chicken breast and then a honey glazed pecan dressing, he said.

Signature pizzas also are popular. Watson’s favorite is the steak and cheese pizza, which is made with shaved ribeye steak, green peppers, yellow onions, mushrooms on a ricotta cheese base with a mozzarella cheese on top. The garlic Parmesan crust is also gluten free and Keto friendly.

Watson noted that the pizzeria specializes in accommodating guest’s requests.

“If you come in and maybe you grew up with a favorite pizza place and they made a particular pizza that you liked, we can usually mimic it and get it pretty close,” he said. “We are a very guest friendly establishment.

“We just need a guest to tell us what they’re looking for, and we’ll figure out a way of making it happen.”

Watson believes in community involvement, with the pizzeria to offer discounts and sponsorships to youth groups whether its school athletics or through churches. A former Crawford County Eemergency Management Agency director, Watson and his son are volunteer firefighters and two of his grandsons are involved in the Explorer program to become firefighters.

Watson pledged to provide a safe working environment for the young people. In all, he’ll initially employ 18 to 24 people.

“We’re just very excited about going to the Perry market,” said Watson, who served as the general manager for the former Shoney’s in Perry for a couple of years in the 90s. “I remember how nice the people are in Perry.”

Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.