A Guy and His Pie Opens a Pizza Shop
Brian Cauti's pizzeria has moved into a larger space in the Lorraine Mills with sitdown dining and a beer and wine license.
Brian Cauti at A Guy and His Pie. Photos by Kimberly Cauti of @prettydeliciouslife.
Every time Brian Cauti made one of his Detroit-style pies, slid it into a box, closed the lid and placed it in the hands of a customer, he would miss their expression when they took a first bite of his thick, cheesy square pizza with a caramelized lacy crust. As of this week, Cauti will be serving pizzas inside his newly renovated sitdown pizzeria located at the Lorraine Mills in Pawtucket, and he’ll finally get the in-the-moment feedback he’s been waiting for. That’s the main reason he wanted to open a larger location in the same building where he started.
“That was the biggest thing, just being able to serve it fresh on a plate,” Cauti says. “When we’re making it and putting it in a box, it looks so good. Then it sits in the box for twenty minutes, and by the time they open it, I think it loses its presentation.”
He also welcomes the opportunity to get to know his customers by inviting them to hang out inside the space. “I want to be able to have that sense of community. People can just come here and chill,” he says.
A Guy and His Pie pizzeria is soft-opening to the public this Friday and Saturday at 560 Mineral Spring Avenue in Pawtucket (park in the big lot on the left side of the building). The hours moving forward will be Wednesday through Friday, 4-8 p.m., and Saturday, 3-7 p.m. Some of the Friday and Saturday hours coincide with Crooked Current Brewery and White Dog Distilling that are both located a few doors down, so that guests can come in and grab slices or enjoy a whole pie to eat indoors or at the tables located outside all three businesses. He obtained a beer and wine license so local beers and wine will also be available for purchase at the shop. They plan to have pizzas including standard cheese, pepperoni and buffalo chicken available, and rotate a special every week. Past specials like Loaded Baked Potato and Big Mac have done well.
A spread of pizza at A Guy and His Pie.
“When I was at my other location at the end, I think a lot of people would come down here, especially with slices,” Cauti says. “So it’s nice to be in between them now. We will have outdoor seating so everyone can mingle with the brewery and the distillery right there, and have one big outdoor area.”
Guests can get a bite to eat before or after visiting the beverage-focused businesses. Of course, pizza is also still available for takeout.
This is Cauti’s fifth year in business. During the pandemic, he put down his drumsticks and picked up a pizza pan. The former drummer in local bands, such as, Mad Passenger, Royal Street and Lions Lions, and drum tech for Bad Rabbits, started a pizza side hustle in 2020. He found solace from boredom in making topping-stacked pies for friends and family. Cauti says Detroit style was originally perfected by Detroit’s automotive workers who once used steel parts pans to bake their pizzas, and not many people were making it around here. Since he was a one-man show, he named the business A Guy and His Pie and created an instagram account to sell it to friends, family and new fans.
As the business grew in popularity, Cauti knew he needed his own kitchen space. In 2021, A Guy and His Pie originally moved into the small commercial kitchen space in the Lorraine Mills that was previously used by Ming’s Asian Street Food, when Ming’s moved into a larger space with a sitdown dining area in the same building. But this past fall, Korn Suom and Josh Burgoyne of Ming’s decided to move out of the building altogether to open a full restaurant in Pawtuxet Village, which left their larger space available. Once again, A Guy and His Pie followed their lead, and is reopening in that vacated larger space.
Over the summer, Cauti says he was almost ready to call it quits, but everything worked out in his favor. “I was questioning if this is what I wanted to keep doing. I was feeling really burnt out,” Cauti says. “But I had discussed with Josh a while back that if they ever left, I would be interested in their space as kind of the next step.”
Now he’s officially moved in and putting the final touches on the signage outdoors. “Once this became available, I was like, ‘Yeah, I guess, we’re gonna go all in,'” he says. “And I’ve always had inspiration from smaller New York slice shops.”
Inside, a blank white wall leaves space for a projector to air sports games or music videos, there are several small tables and a wall shelf featuring some of their favorite wine bottles. There’s a white and eggplant-hued color scheme with pops of green from live plants and some retro speakers blasting indie and emo tunes. Natural light comes through from the skylights in the ceiling. “It’s really kind of cozy. Feels almost like a little wine bar,” he says.
While he’s been very busy getting ready for the opening the last few weeks, Cauti says he loves running his own business because he can better manage his work/life balance. He’s only open four days a week, but they crank out up to eighty pies a day. The former one-man operation now has a team of four people helping him out in the kitchen. He’s still able to pursue his life’s passions including distance running and spend time with his fiance. He awakes at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. nearly every day to run.
“One of the things I told myself is that I still need to have a healthy work and life balance, because it’s really important to me,” Cauti says.
Five years ago, Cauti told me: “My endgame would be a brick and mortar. I would love to have an actual restaurant with a bar and a cool vibe and have people come and hang out.” Mission accomplished.
560 Mineral Spring Ave., Pawtucket, aguyandhispie.com
