"Nick" Arnold Nicholas has been in the construction trades for a lifetime, but soon he'll spend time building pizzas bound for the porches and patios of Michigan's Great Southwest. Sometime soon he will crank up the oven at his new pizza emporium dubbed Lilli's Pizza & Subs at the corner of Niles & Myrtle Avenues across from the CVS Pharmacy in Southtown St. Joseph.
Nicholas is a transplant to the region, having arrived with his wife who transferred in last year with Whirlpool Corporation. He recently purchased the 600 square foot building at that corner which for many years served as the St. Joseph Dairy Queen before that business relocated several blocks south on Niles Avenue a number of years ago.
More recently the tiny building was home to a Charitable Donation Drop-Off Center and prior to that a music lesson house. Nick told me earlier this year that he was targeting an April opening, and that appears to be drawing closer with the placement of the colorful new logo on the building as shown in the photo above.
He tells me that he has tried virtually ever pizza style and design throughout the region and feels that he has a totally unique style to offer the pizza-loving public, a totally all-natural pizza. He says the recipe harkens back to a simpler day and time when pizzas were always truly natural in style before fast-food and chain retail offerings burst onto the scene with fast, cheap, and relatively low quality pies.
The Lilli's name stems from Mr. Nicholas' youngest daughter of the five kids in the family. Lilli is 11-years old and likely pretty proud to have her name in lights.
Due to the extremely small size of the building, Lilli's Pizza & Subs will offer take-out service only. There's no room to dine, and at the outset there are not enough bodies to arrange for delivery service. Nick will train his crew-mates in the creation of his unique recipes, and everything in the house will be made exclusively from fresh ingredients every day. There will be no frozen pizzas, dough or toppings engaged in the creation of any Lilli's Pizza pie.
Nick is hopeful he can fill the gap created by the recent departures of Chivo's Pizza and Ramona Bell's Pizzeria, both located a few blocks south on Niles Avenue. Chivo's closed headed into the New Year's weekend, and Ramona Bell's departed the scene at the end of June.
The front of the building still sports a sign for Nick's construction firm, Red Truck Services. That's the renovation and new construction business he has maintained as a licensed and insured builder with 52 years of experience. He has built everything from high rises to residential homes and done renovation work of all types over the years.
Stay tuned for updated information on the formal opening of Lilli's Pizza & Subs at Niles & Myrtle, coming this spring.
