PIE GUYS  

Housing market inspires two friends to seek a new business opportunity that isn’t so
  pie-in-the-sky; it’s just pie.

 

   AUGUSTA, GA. - Kirk Daniel didn’t dream
  of opening Robolli’s Pizza & Wings.  Like
 many former college food-service employees, he wasn’t under the impression that such a business move would be an easy ride.

 

But when the Augusta housing market slowed, Daniel, a general contractor and builder, began looking for a way to diversify his portfolio, so to speak.


“I just rode by and saw the place was empty,” he laughed.

 

He called his friend, Robert “Robo” Zimmerman, after whom the place is named, and asked if he was interested in partnering.  Zimmerman, who has a long résumé of corporate and franchise restaurant management experiences, moved back from Arizona.


    Daniel took that as a “yes.”

 

    And so, after searching high and low for the     “perfect” ingredients on which to build their     recipes, they opened their doors in November of     2007.”

 

    And so, after searching high and low for the     “perfect” ingredients on which to build their                                                       Continue Reading Below


recipes, they opened their doors in November of 2007.

 

Daniel didn’t actually have any food service ownership experience, although he did previously own the Mulligan’s and Plum Crazy nightclubs in town.  So he had some idea of the kind of service he wanted to provide.

 

His diverse business experience, combined with Zimmerman’s hands-on F&B background, Daniel says, guarantees that the skill sets needed to run the business are covered.

 

Their first concern was their product.  They didn’t want to go with the large food distributors for their menu, if they could offer a better pizza, wing, sub or salad at a similar price.  So they chose products like grande mozzerella, and a smaller-batch marinara sauce distributor out of California for their chunky cacciatore sauce.  The tomatoes go from vine to container in under seven hours, and the two partners say the taste is bolder, fresher and definitely worth it.  When they were testing tomato sauces, they had products lined up in front of them.  But the second they tried it, their decision was made.

 

“We just started eating it out of the can with a spoon,” Daniel laughed.

 

They get their produce shipped whole, fresh, and cut it themselves.  They make a ranch dressing that they say is so good that people stopping for salad at the nearby Sonic make a second

stop for dressing at Robolli’s.  Not that their salads are something to sneeze at. They offer a house, chef, Greek (with beets!), spinach and an accurate antipasto salad.

 

In fact, Zimmerman said that their menu reeks of more than garlic.  It also bears the aroma of authenticity.  He grew up in Detroit, home of massive Italian and Greek populations.

 

“In Detroit, there’s a Greek or Italian restaurant on every corner,” Zimmerman said.  “Little mom-and-pops.”

 

Not picking up the cuisine is, to an extent, like growing up in Georgia — as Daniel did — and failing to learn how to make sweet tea.

 

So that’s why you’ll find beets on their Greek salad — “That’s a Detroit thing,” Zimmerman said — and pizza dough that’s made fresh every day on premises.

 

The commitment to high-quality, fresh ingredients and authenticity means they’re quietly building a die-hard fan base.  And whether they come for a side of ranch dressing or the 14-inch Greek pizza, it seems that they always come back for more.