Pizza and good tunes: Shenandoah Pizza has become a Staunton music hotspot
The gentle wafts of gourmet pizza draw you in from Beverley Street. Sharing the Shenandoah Pizza air with the aroma are the sounds of music.
“A customer said it might not be a bad idea to get somebody in there strumming a little music maybe one night a week,” said owner John Huggins, and being a smart guy he listened, and initiated what the musicians have taken to calling the Playing for Pizza music series that has grown from Wednesday nights back when Shenandoah Pizza opened five years ago into live performances several nights a week today.
“One thing led to another, and I’m booked months-out now,” said Huggins, who has involved himself more and more in the local music scene since starting those once-a-week shows at Shenandoah Pizza.
Huggins jumped on board with the new Staunton Music Guild when it launched in 2009, and with his wife, Cheryl, debuted a new concert series, Shenandoah Concerts, that same year.
“I guess I’ve come to realize that I’m a natural-born promoter. It’s something that I like to do. It just comes easy to me,” said Huggins, who spends as much time chatting up patrons as he does in the kitchen at Shenandoah Pizza, which he and his wife opened in 2006 after moving to Staunton from North Carolina.
Both had been successful in other business – John in contracting and real estate, Cheryl in mobile computer repair and support. But opening a pizza shop had been a life’s dream for John Huggins.
That he uses his life’s dream to help musicians work on theirs is par for the course with Huggins.
“We want to see young musicians and up-and-coming musicians have a place to play,” Huggins said. “All we’re doing is we’re doing a good service trying to give them a place to perform and work on their craft. And we feed them and make sure they have gas money and are taken care of. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
On the web
Interact with ND
Sign up for our Newsletter
Stay updated on Facebook
Follow AFP on Twitter
Watch videos on YouTube
Join us on LinkedIn
Advertisements
