You’ve heard of a sneak peak, which is usually an exclusive chance to see or experience a place before it’s fully open to the general public.
A couple of days ago I had something similar — but more like a sneak snack — at a new pizza restaurant in downtown Hopkinsville that’s slated to open on Dec. 9.
The owners and employees of The Crusty Pig at Seventh and Virginia streets have been putting the final touches on the restaurant that will specialize in Neapolitan-style pizza known for a soft, thin crust. The restaurant’s oven cooks a pizza in about two minutes.
“It’s about simple, fresh ingredients,” said Mallory Lawrence, a Cadiz grocer and caterer who owns The Crusty Pig with Mindy Hargrove and Margaret Prim. Hargrove is in the barbecue business with two restaurants — Bar-B-Que Shack on Pembroke Road and Bar-B-Que Shack II at Knockum Hill on LaFayette Road. Prim is executive director of the Pennyroyal Arts Council.
Chef Bryan Camp was preparing several different pizzas for family and friends to sample when I stopped by Friday afternoon to see how the restaurant is coming together. I tasted a veggie and a Margheritapizza. (I’ve never been a restaurant critic and I won’t start being one now. Suffice to say I already preferred Neapolitan pizza and what I sampled at The Crusty Pig more than hit the mark for me.)
Obviously pizza will be the focus of this place, but there are other aspects of the business that make it noteworthy as a development for downtown.
The building, a former auto garage that sat vacant for several years, was renovated by owner Hal McCoy. Lawrence told me the idea for a pizza restaurant in that location actually started with McCoy.
He already owned the property, and one day when Mallory was dropping a catering order at the McCoy home, he said, “Mallory do you want to do a pizza restaurant?” She responded, “Well, maybe.”
McCoy also developed the former Young Hardware building on Sixth Street to house The Mixer restaurant, which is one of The Crusty Pig’s closest neighbors. Prim said wood salvaged from the hardware store was used to build The Crusty Pig’s chairs and dining tables.
Prim also points to the pizza restaurant’s logo — featuring a trio of pigs — on the building’s exterior signs and on the pizza boxes. Her niece Grace Snowden designed the logo.
The Crusty Pig sits on the lot formerly occupied by Hopkinsville’s storied Hotel Latham that was destroyed in a fire on Aug. 4, 1940.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The menu was still under wraps when I stopped in Friday, but Lawrence said they will serve Neapolitan and New York-style pizzas, salads, appetizers, a smash burger and sandwiches, including two made with chicken salad and pimento cheese from the grocery store, Hancock’s Neighborhood Market, that she owns in Cadiz.
Here’s to another good slice on downtown’s revitalization and to local business development.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
