It may have been the fresh dough or the simple pizza sauce, but as that first week wrapped, hundreds of people had tried Richards Pizza. Seven decades later, Richards Pizza remains one of Butler County’s favorites.
Just as Richards Pizza fought to survive in 1955, the small family business continues to make decisions to see the next 70 years in business.
“Any small businessperson will tell you it’s about fighting to survive because everything you do throughout your day, week, month, year, is making sure your company is okay,” said Underwood Kramer. “You’re always making sure you’re just doing it the best you can.”
In Underwood’s second year, he wanted to introduce a new menu item, so in 1956, he introduced the Italian steak sandwich, which still has the same recipe today as it did when it debuted.
The elder Underwood left the daily operations in the hands of his eldest daughter in the late 1980s, and his other daughter, Gayl Underwood, a trained food chemist, came on board in 1989.
“He liked working on the new stuff and coming back (into the restaurant) at his leisure, not being solely responsible, and that was after 32 years,” Underwood Kramer said.
Seventy years in the restaurant business, and a lot of the time it comes down to “just keep doing the things that work and don’t do the things if they don’t work.”
How things were made in 1955 is the same way as they are made today. In 2015, Richard Underwood told the Journal-News ahead of the 60th anniversary: “We don’t believe in shortcuts or adding sugar to our sauce. You can make a cheap pizza that way, but that doesn’t work for us. It’s all about quality.”
Richard Underwood was a self-made businessman, graduating from Colerain High School in 1947. In the late 1940s, when he was on vacation in Miami, Fla., he first tasted pizza. That taste stuck with him until after he left the Navy, and that curiosity and memory led to the first Richards Pizza on Dixie Highway on Oct. 24, 1955.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Some nine months later, the Italian steak sandwich was born, and it’s something fans of the restaurant rave about, which was supported a decade earlier during the 60th anniversary. Underwood Kramer said the line was a mile long for the 50-cent steak sandwich special.
She expects that line to be longer at the Hamilton restaurant on Friday when the 50-cent special returns at all four Richards Pizza locations — Hamilton, Fairfield, Monroe and Trenton — for the 70th anniversary.
Underwood had hoped to be there for the 70th anniversary, his daughter said, but died at the age of 95 this past spring, survived by his wife and restaurant co-founder Peggy.
The 50-cent Richards steak sandwich on Friday (one per customer, must be present and no special orders) will further cement the restaurant’s legacy in the community, as well as Richard Underwood’s, who believed that toppings go under the cheese and quality cannot be undercut.
But Richards Pizza is just “our family thing,” said Underwood Kramer. “Everybody has their family thing, and ours just happens to be pizza restaurants and steak sandwiches.”
RICHARDS PIZZA
What: Family-owned restaurant with four Butler County locations
Where: Hamilton, Fairfield, Monroe and Trenton, or online at richardspizza.com
Owners: Sisters Gayl Underwood and Karen Underwood Kramer
Founder: Richard and Peggy Underwood
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