Hunter Pizzeria marks 15 years with expansion and entertainment

FRANKLIN TWP. — The owners of a pizzeria are celebrating its 15th anniversary with an expansion that more than doubles the size of the eatery and a weekend blitz of live music.

Linda and Joe Denniston said they purchased a neighboring storefront to expand Hunter Pizzeria, 4165 Ohio 122, because its main area seats 80 people, which isn’t enough to accommodate the crowds that gather for live bluegrass music every Monday and karaoke Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“We’ve outgrown the other room as far as our music situation, so we just decided that we would expand,” Linda Denniston said.

A new stage will allow the business to offer new live music offerings, including rock and country music on Fridays and Saturdays, and gospel music on Sunday afternoons.

Adding a banquet room will allow the eatery to serve more customers and host celebratory events such as birthday, engagement or anniversary parties, as well as meetings for businesses, clubs and organizations.

“It’s been crazy since we have expanded,” Linda Denniston said. “I really don’t understand how we ever fit the other people who were coming in on the other side.”

Expansion means the pizzeria, which is two miles east of Interstate 75, will hire three or four new part-time employees, bringing its total workforce to 11 people, Denniston said.

Construction, which started in November, is wrapping up this month in advance of a celebratory weekend scheduled for April 13-15, a week before the company’s April 21 anniversary.

Acts scheduled to perform during the pizzeria’s celebratory weekend include The Haddix Family, B-Caged and Blue Rock. More acts are being added, Denniston said.

For more information, call (937) 746-5415 or visit www.tinyurl.com/hunterpizzeria.

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