RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond baker, restaurateur and food entrepreneur Billy Fallen is returning to the brick-and-mortar restaurant business with the latest chapter of his Billy Pie brand. His new, compact pizza shop is scheduled to open this month in the Ridge Road Shopping Center in Henrico's West End.
Fallen, whose career has spanned artisan bread, Lebanese cuisine, pastries, pasta and frozen pizza production, said the new 700-square-foot location will focus primarily on takeout but will also feature eight bar stools, a four-top table, outdoor seating, three beers on tap and wine service. The menu will include pizza, a couple of salads and antipasti.
"It’s perfect. It’s small, it’s manageable, the neighborhood, the demographic,” Fallen said during an interview for the Eat It, Virginia podcast. “It’s really, really great for what we’re going to do there.”
The pizzeria will use one of Fallen’s preferred Marra Forni ovens, a hand-built, 8,000-pound unit capable of reaching 870 degrees, with volcanic ash bricks sourced from Mount Vesuvius.
According to Fallen, the oven can cook pizzas in about 110 seconds on its rotating floor.
The West End shop marks a return to restaurant service for Fallen, who in recent years stepped back from daily kitchen work to concentrate on his wholesale frozen pizza business, also called Billy Pie.
That venture, launched after he experimented with freezing pizzas during slow nights at his former brewery residency at Triple Crossing Beer, now produces nearly 1 million pizzas a year for distribution across six states.
The frozen pies, including margherita, pepperoni, seasonal white pies and other varieties, are topped with ingredients Fallen sources in bulk from trusted producers.
“We can buy entire crops of tomatoes grown in Italy,” he said. “So I know I’m going to be consistent through the year.”
The original Billy Pie gained traction through brewery kitchens and, in 2019, a standalone shop at Patterson and Three Chopt roads.
Fallen closed that restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing a need for more family time.
“You meet wonderful people, interesting, colorful people… it’s nice to bring something like that to the community,” he said of the social draw of restaurant work.
Before becoming known for pizza, Fallen built a reputation with Billy Bread, a naturally fermented multigrain sourdough he began baking in the Fan in the 1990s after apprenticing with French bread legend Gerard Rubaud in Vermont.
His bread, milled from rye, spelt and hard red winter wheat, was supplied to restaurants and grocery stores across Virginia, including Mamma Zu in Richmond, The Cheese Shop in Williamsburg and Kroger grocery stores.
In 2008, Fallen and his mother, Rusty, opened Aziza’s on Main, a Shockoe Bottom restaurant named for his grandmother.
The spot offered Lebanese specialties and Rusty’s famous cream puffs. Style Weekly named Aziza’s its 2013 Restaurant of the Year.
The cream puffs, which developed a “cult following,” will return at the new West End Billy Pie, made once again by Rusty, now 83.
“She is so energetic and just on top of everything. It’s beautiful,” Fallen said. “If you want them, I’ll do them,” he recalled her saying.
Fallen, who grew up in Newport News, attributes his willingness to take professional risks to a long line of entrepreneurs in his family. He was voted “Most Daring” at Peninsula Catholic High School.
The new Billy Pie is co-owned with Fallen’s friend James Schroeder, also in the pizza business.
Fallen said they plan to open soon after the Fourth of July holiday. Updates will be shared on the restaurant’s Instagram and website.
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