Lewisburg, Pa. — Lewisburg has long lacked late night food options, but two local entrepreneurs hope to change that soon.
Ryan Reynolds and Tina Parrilla recently started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to open Humble Pie Pa., a pizza shop in downtown Lewisburg that will have late night hours.
The owners plan to serve up delicious pizza from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The shop will be located at a satellite kitchen, also known as the “Shanty,” behind Brendan’s Towne Tavern. The pair hope to open the pizza shop at some point in July and start with to-go pizza and DoorDash delivery.
“It’s always been my dream to open a restaurant, but I think I moved away from that a long time ago,” Reynolds said. Reynolds previously worked in the restaurant industry before starting a family and pivoting to moving into a career in academia. But he never forgot about his passion for food service.
Humble Pie Pa. served their pizza on June 13 at a pop-up event in Lewisburg.
Meeting Parrilla was the catalyst that got Reynolds thinking about returning to the kitchen.
“It actually started as a conversation with Tina. I used to go to a downtown pizza shop where Tina worked. When that shop announced they were closing, we started talking about it,” Reynolds said.
The shop went up for sale, but that opportunity was soon gone when someone stepped up with cash to buy the business.
“But, we couldn’t let it lie,” Reynolds said. “Brady, the owner of the Towne Tavern, has offered us the space out back after they close.”
Reynolds, a self-proclaimed night owl, realized there is a market for selling meals during late night hours in Lewisburg.
“Young people are traditionally out later doing things. We will serve them well,” Reynolds said.
Bucknell University is just blocks away from the site of the future ghost kitchen. There’s also businesses open late in downtown Lewisburg, including the Campus Theatre and several taverns that don’t have food options past dinner hours.
For the past few months, the pair have been perfecting their pizza recipes. With Parrilla’s eight years of pizza shop experience and Reynolds’ background in hospitality, they have found some recipes using responsibly sourced ingredients that they hope will be a hit. Finding those quality ingredients from small businesses has been part of the fun, according to Reynolds.
Tina Parrilla of Humble Pie Pa. makes a pizza using flour from Castile Valley Stone Mill flour at a pop-up event in Lewisburg.
A base ingredient, flour, is from Castle Valley Stone Mill in Doylestown. The stoneground flour is made at the small business located in a beautiful old stone building from the 1800s. The company uses a hydroelectric dam to generate power. “They treat the flour with the same respect they treat the land,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds has been buying cheese from Caputo Brothers Creamery in Spring Grove. The owners of the creamery are cheese artisans. “They went to Italy and became Italian trained chefs and then came back and realized there’s a lack of fermented cheese.” This is when the family started making their own cheeses, with locally sourced milk in Central Pa. The handcrafted cheeses has become one of the essential ingredients on a Humble Pie Pa. pizza.
For meats, Reynolds found Carey & Schnalzer Quality Meats of New Tripoli. The shop is a small operation that uses animals raised in the local area and has a pit smoker. As he’s been ingredient shopping, Reynolds has enjoyed meeting the artisans and hearing their stories. “That’s the fun part of what we’re doing is finding these people who are mindful of ingredients,” Reynolds said.
The Humble Pie Pa. owners will be doing several pop-up events in the coming weeks. “We’re looking to get feedback for the sauce we created, the flour we use, and the cheese that we sourced,” Reynolds said.
A successful pop-up event was held on June 13 at St. Mary’s Park in Lewisburg. Reynolds and Parrilla provided index cards for people to write down their impression of the food. The reviews collected included positive comments about the sauce and crust. One reviewer wrote, “I rate the pizza 1,000/1,000!”
Ryan Reynolds of Humble Pie Pa. makes a pizza during a pop-up event in Lewisburg. Caputo Brothers Creamery is where the business gets its cheeses.
The pizza was free, but diners were asked to contribute to the Kickstarter as a donation. Reynolds is hopeful that doing more pop-up events will help grow the fund. The Kickstarter campaign has a goal of $20,000. Reynolds said funds are needed to buy equipment such as an oven and mixer for the ghost kitchen. Money also will be needed for ingredients and other business fees.
The Kickstarter works on a pledge basis. Participants can pledge as low as $1 but no money will be collected until the campaign is fully funded by the deadline of June 29. If the campaign is not fully funded, no money will be collected from those who pledged.
Reynolds said future plans include expanding Humble Pie Pa. to have Sunday hours to sell pizza kits. “We would provide the dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings. Families can pick them up and make Sunday dinner at home,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds is hoping that Humble Pie Pa. will soon become part of the Lewisburg community. Reynolds and Parrilla want their customers to return time after time as they get to know them. It is the opposite of the fine dining background that Reynolds once had. “This isn’t going to be a place where people go for special occasions. I want it to be a place where people go every week,” Reynolds said.
You can find link to Humble Pie Pa.’s Kickstarter here. Follow Humble Pie Pa.’s Facebook page for updates or Instagram page.
