Crust Serving Up Pizza Pies in Two Locations
Crust owner Jim Cervone and manager Lexi Politis make pizza's at the Williamstown location.
Owner Jim Cervone said his inspiration was his love for cooking and pizza.
"I love pizza, and I'm Italian, and I grew up with cooking. I remember my grandmother cooking. Some of the recipes we have here are from my grandmother, specifically the meatballs," he said. "So I've always grown up with food. I'm a good, amateur chef. Always liked cooking. Whenever I travel, I always look for pizza, because that's one of my things. ...
"I wasn't really crazy about the offerings, not just around here, just in general. And so the inspiration was, how can I make a really good pizza at an affordable price?"
Cervone said his most popular pizzas are chicken bacon ranch and buffalo chicken, flavors requested by customers and not something he was planning to add to the menu at first since chicken pizza isn't usually found in an Italian restaurant.
"I personally think the Grandma's Pizza, which has got a sliced mozzarella cheese underneath, and the organic red sauce on top with meatballs, is one of my favorites," he said. "They're homemade meatballs. It's my grandmother's recipe — that's a popular one."
Also on the menu are red and white mushroom pizzas, a "green" version with housemade pesto, peppers and mushrooms, and the option to build your own pie with a wide variety of crusts, sauces, cheeses, toppings and finishes.
Cervone has his favorite go-to pizza when he wants sometthing quick without having to think too much about it: "Organic red sauce, a 50/50 shred of provolone and mozzarella, and some hot soppressata and pancetta and red pepper flakes and olive oil, and I'm good to go."
Crust is not only proud of its pizzas but also its employees.
"We're pretty proud of the fact that we think we offer a very good product at a very good price. We're also really proud that we've taken kids, giving them their first job, and we take that very seriously, that we want to be an enjoyable experience," he said. "A lot of the kids start with us in high school, stay through high school, come back college."
Lexi Politis worked at Crust during high school and has come back as a manager in Williamstown during college break. She said she loves working here and plans to keep coming back as long as she can.
"I started when I was a senior in high school and I was playing lacrosse, and Jim was really flexible on when I could come in and work," she said. "I have also really liked working with the people who come through here. They've all been really great and I've met a lot of great people."
Cervone said people should pursue their business dreams but also understand that it's a lot of work.
"If you have a passion of a dream, you should pursue it. Whether you're 58 years old or 28 years old, you might as well give it a shot, right? The worst thing you do is fail," he said. "I think you need to understand that it's going to be a tremendous amount of work. And if you think it's going to be a tremendous amount of work from 8 to 6, you're wrong. It's with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
He and his wife, Lisa, also own Ayelada, a frozen yogurt shop, since 2013, which they will soon be bringing into the Williamstown pizzeria. Cervone is also working on getting his pizzas in the frozen section at your local store.
The goal's been to create the same experience you get from picking up a pizza fresh from Crust, but out of your home oven.
"We're really close, so that's going to be the challenge for the next couple of months, and then we almost have our wholesale permit, and we'll try to roll that out to stores here and there, and then see how it goes," he said.
When asked what he defined as success, he said it should be fun, although his answer was different when he was younger.
"So I think if you'd asked me that question when I first got out of college, the only way I would have defined it was based upon money. I did finance, and I was successful in New York City financially, but I was miserable. I did construction and I did home building and custom home building, which I enjoyed more, and that was successful," Cervone said. "This is fun. This in my mind, this is the most success I've had. You know, this is really very rewarding."
Crust is located at 46 Spring St. in Williamstown and at 505 East St. in Pittsfield. The menu and contact information can be found here.
The Pittsfield pizzeria is open Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The Williamstown location is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from noon to 9, and Sunday from noon to 8.
Tags: pizza, restaurants,
