Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
May 10, 2007 issue
Scott’s Pizza Place—Pizza Made With Love in
Avery County
Story by Sam Calhoun
One of Scott Stanley’s regular customers routinely calls Stanley’s pies, “pizzas made with love.”
That’s a fitting description for the two-employee operation, Scott’s Pizza Place, located in the Sugarfoot Shops across from Sugar Mountain Resort, because it’s a business based around a love for cooking, a love for the region, a love for great ingredients, a love for pizza and wings, a love for customers and a love for Stanley’s children.
Scott’s Pizza Place originally opened its doors on April 20, 1999, as a joint venture between Stanley and a financial partner, but after parting ways with his partner, Stanley took over the business on February 17, 2001. With a limited amount of money from “a couple of great friends,” said Stanley, “we got a hell of a jumpstart in 2001.”
“That’s when the true passion [for owning the business] began,” said Stanley. “And since then, I’ve just refined the whole process.”
Today, Scott’s Pizza Place is the spot for pizza, pasta, calzones, salads, subs, bread sticks and wings in Avery County. 
Stanley has a horde of regulars from the surrounding area. Most take advantage of his delivery if they live within four miles of his restaurant, and a good portion join him for one of the fastest lunches in town. But he also has regulars from as far south as Charlotte and as far north as Roanoke, Va. and has won over the hearts of many second homeowners who call Stanley as soon as they arrive in town. To put the popularity of Stanley’s pizza in perspective, hungry customers in Hickory sometimes ask him to overnight his white pies to them—and he does it.
You can call the product “Stanley’s pizza” because he’s the only cook at his restaurant.
“I don’t mind being the only cook. I’m a stickler for consistency,” said Stanley. “I am the cook and the answering machine.” The other employee handles deliveries.
With such a small operation, you might think the output is small too. But that’s not the case.
Although Stanley admitted that High Country markets are up and down, “I do more pizza than anyone in a night,” he said.
In high-volume periods such as Christmas and popular ski weekends, Stanley will make 200 pizzas in one night in his 650-square-foot restaurant/kitchen. With enough notice, Stanley can fulfill an order of any size. Just last year, he baked 70 pizzas for an event at Lees-McRae College.
Stanley was born in Laurel, Md., and considers himself an “army grandchild” because his grandparents raised him and his grandfather was in the military. After moving around the country for many years, his grandparents settled in Boone in 1973 after his grandfather took a job with T & T Electronics. Stanley was 8 years old.
After graduating from Watauga High School in 1983, Stanley went into the Navy for 10 years, serving in the Pacific and Indian oceans as an aviation electronics technician. When he left the Navy, he had trouble finding a job in the electronics world, so he took a job at Pizza Hut America in Chesapeake, Va. Stanley, who had worked at the Boone Pizza Hut—he was a junior cook starting at 14 years old—was accepted into the pizza chef training program.
At Pizza Hut America, Stanley honed the cooking skills he had learned from his grandmother. He also learned how to manage a restaurant and learned about Pizza Hut’s delivery philosophy.
“Without what I learned there, I wouldn’t be able to do this now,” said Stanley.
When Stanley followed his ex-wife back to Boone—she also was a graduate of Watauga High School—in October 1994, he took a job with WECR radio as a systems technician. While in Boone, he had an idea to start a food delivery company, similar to Boone Take-Out Express.
With a truck equipped with multiple cell phones and a credit card machine, he started At Your Service Delivery in Avery County. One-third of his business was delivering pizza from Sorrento’s in Banner Elk. When the original Sorrento’s burned down, Stanley’s business took a hit. That’s when he had the idea to start making his own pizzas. From day one, Stanley used 100 percent mozzarella cheese and has a special, secret recipe for his sauce. He makes all of his crusts by hand, dusts with light cornmeal and uses a propane brick oven to cook his pizzas and wings.
“I truly believe I have one of the best hand-crafted pizzas in the area,” said Stanley.
Beyond the pizzas, Stanley is also very proud of his wings. He claims that they are the freshest around and they’re healthier too. His wings are not breaded, making them low carb.
“They’re awesome,” said Stanley, who has a crew of regulars who, he said, couldn’t live without his wings. “The hot wings speak for themselves and people just love my barbecue wings.”
Stanley also cuts his own meats and veggies and bakes his bread in the pizza oven.
“I just have a knack for cooking,” said Stanley. “I’m ADHD; that’s why I’m so good. This type of business [caters] to that kind of deficit.”
Stanley thinks that one of his business secrets is staying small and not expanding before he is ready. The operation’s size allows him to make a decent living and still have flexibility.
The two most important things in Stanley’s life are the restaurant and his children—Gabriel, 10, and Jordyn, 4. He has arranged his restaurant hours around dropping off and picking up his children from school. As a single parent, Stanley has operated his business for eight years with his children by his side—sometimes literally by his side as his children often play at the restaurant, by themselves or with customers’ children.
“They’re the love of my life,” said Stanley.
Stanley takes one vacation a year that he calls his “heart boost.” He takes the first two weeks in April off—the first is for him and the second is for his children.
“You know, sometimes I get tired of being called the pizza man,” said Stanley, “but then I sit back and realize, ‘That’s what I am.’”
Scott’s Pizza Place is located at 2951 Tynecastle Highway across from Sugar Mountain Resort in the Sugarfoot Shops. The pizza place is open from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to late on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, closed Tuesday. The pizza place is open from 3:00 p.m. until late on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 828-898-4646 or click to www.askavery.com and search for Scott’s Pizza Place.