PREBLE COUNTY — Sarah’s Pizza will be celebrating 25 years of business on Wednesday, July 22. The local chain has three locations in Preble County, one in Lewisburg, Eaton and West Alexandria.
According to Bob McKee who owns the location in West Alexandria the chain will celebrate their 25years by giving back to their customers when all pizzas will be 50 percent off regular menu price for the day.
McKee said the chain started in Lewisburg in July of 1990 when Bob’s brother Jim opened the first location at what is now the Lewisburg Police Department building. Two years later Bob opened his location in West Alexandria and a few months later the Eaton location opened.
The chain saw success almost right away in Lewisburg and took off almost immediately according to McKee. The two other locations started a little slower but still were successful early in the stages of operation.
McKee said he believes the success of the three stores boils down to one simple fact. “We have a good product. We make our doughs fresh every day, make our own sauce, grind are own cheese and cut fresh vegetables.” He also believes, especially for his store in West Alexandria, the people who work at the store contribute to their success by providing a friendly atmosphere.
McKee said the sale of pizzas is the restaurant’s way of thanking customers who have been loyal to the stores since they opened in the early ’90s. “The main reason for this special sale for customers is we’ve had very loyal customers, if you open a place in a small town like this and you can be successful for this long you’ve got a lot of loyal customers.”
McKee mentioned one of the best experiences of owning the location in West Alexandria has seen been seeing multiple generations coming through store. McKee shared several examples of people who came into the store as children themselves who have remained customers with the restaurant and now bring in their own children.
McKee said at the beginning they knew they could be successful but doesn’t remember thinking the restaurants had the potential to become as successful as they have. “I think Jim envisioned a future but I don’t think he envisioned how the well the future would go. We’ve opened a few stores that didn’t make it (Camden, New Paris locations) but we cover probably 80 percent of Preble County currently. We’ve had a few other pizza places open in the time we’ve been here (West Alexandria) but none of them have been able to make it. I think that says a lot about how loyal our customers have been.”
As for the future, McKee said he doesn’t envision many changes for the restaurant saying. “We know who we are; they (our customers) know who we are,” he said.
