Pizza Inn opens in Warner Robins for carryout, buffet coming 

Kasey Anderson of Kathleen was among a host of Pizza Inn fans ready at the door when the new Warner Robins restaurant opened this week for carryout.

The new pizzeria – known for its all-you-can-eat buffet and hometown family-friendly atmosphere – is expected to open for dine-in next week.

Anderson was a regular at Pizza Inn when he lived in Wilson, North Carolina, where he worked for BB&T Bank, which is now Truist Bank. He lived in Wilson from 2012 to 2018.

“Literally, there was a Pizza Inn a half mile from our office, and it was like the fastest place to get a fast lunch buffet,” Anderson said while waiting for his carryout order of a taco pizza Monday at the Pizza Inn in Warner Robins. “So like three quarters of the BB&T office used to always go to Pizza Inn for lunch, which was super cool.

“I always enjoyed it, plus the wife loves the taco pizza. That was the one place you could get a good taco pizza, and the chocolate chip dessert is the best.”

Anderson, who now works for Clover, a point of sales system company, said he’s looking forward to bringing his wife, Lydia, and their 10-year-old son, Robert, to the restaurant for the buffet.

William Sharts of Byron loved eating at Pizza Inn as a teenager in his hometown of Columbus.

“It was absolutely delicious,” said Sharts, a bus driver for Peach County schools. “It beat any other type of pizza in town, and I know because I tried almost every one of them.”

Sharts was also waiting Monday at the Warner Robins Pizza Inn on opening day for his carryout, create-your-own pizza with “high expectations.” His toppings included pepperoni, Italian sausage, black olives, mushroom, extra mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and pineapple.

“I want to check and see if it’s as good now as it was then,” he said.

Pizza Inn at 3151 Russell Parkway, Suites 100 & 200, is in the Shops at Aria. The shopping center is also home to The Brass Tap, Royal Nails & Spa and the coming Bubbakoo’s Burritos.

Friends Ansh Patel and Hery Patel are behind the Pizza Inn franchise restaurant, along with their fathers, Sanjay Patel and Jayesh Patel, who are providing the financial backing.

Sanjay Patel, and his wife, Nayna, are among the families that own The Maharaja Market, an Indian-Pakistani grocery store in Warner Robins. Additionally, the couple own a Texaco and liquor store at 2328 U.S. 41 in Perry. Jayesh Patel owns the Dev Food convenience store at 79 North Lee St. in Forsyth.

Both Ansh Patel and Hery Patel worked at their family’s businesses. Hery Patel expects to be hands-on daily at Pizza Inn, while Ansh Patel expects to be in-and-out of the pizzeria to continue helping at the Indian-Pakistani market and his parents’ gas station and liquor store.

“This is like one of our first like restaurant food type of business, so I was like, you know, something new; this is worth trying,” Ansh Patel said. “So, we’re like, let’s just try it out and see how it goes.”

Pizza Inn offers more than a dozen specialty pizzas, including a buffalo chicken, bacon cheeseburger, chicken alfredo, loaded baked potato and a BLT, according to the menu.

Guests also may choose from among about 20 meat and vegetable toppings to build their own pizza as well as from crust types such as thin, house pan, Italian and stuffed crust, according to the menu.

Pizza Inn dough is made fresh in-house daily, according to the company website. The pizzeria also makes its own signature pizza sauce and uses 100% real whole-milk mozzarella cheese that’s shredded in-store.

Garlic bread rolls, wings, salads, strombolis, pastas, and “pizzerts,” which are dessert pizzas, are also on the menu.

The restaurant offers Pepsi products and house brewed iced tea. Bottled and canned beer may be added to the Warner Robins restaurant’s menu in the future, according to Ansh Patel.

The restaurant offers booth and table seating, online ordering and a drive-thru.

The first Pizza Inn was opened by two Texas brothers across from the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas in 1958, according to the Pizza Inn website. 

Owned by the RAVE Restaurant Group, Pizza Inn is mostly a franchise restaurant system with nearly 100 locations across 15 states, including now four in Georgia with the opening of the new Warner Robins location, according to the Pizza Inn website. The other Georgia locations are in Brunswick, Jesup and Waycross.

The Warner Robins Pizza Inn is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, with the possibility of opening an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights in the future, according to Patel. The number is 478-236-2730.