Kings Oak Pizza in Seekonk a Dream Come True

Melanie Plouff bought Kings Oak Pizza in Seekonk two years ago, and she’s never looked back.

“I used to waitress and bartend a lot,” she said. “I grew up locally and remembered this place, how it was when I was a kid. It was for sale so I bought it.”

Plouff said she was working for a phone company at the time, and wanted to try being her own boss. Originally, she wanted to open a diner, but fate had other plans.

“When I was a kid this was my local place,” she said. “I would come here for food, and I guess for the nostalgic reason I bought it.”

King’s Oak has been in Seekonk for over 30 years. She bought the pizza shop off a dentist who had tried out making cavities rather than fixing them, but it turned out it wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“Dentistry was his real passion,” she said.

Plouff made some small changes to the recipes that came with the restaurant, but they’re mostly the same.

She grew up just across the state line in Pawtucket near Slater Park, but lives in Seekonk now. She said the hardest part about the business wasn’t exactly changing over from a desk job, but more of a problem with managing.

“I’m just to easy going and nice,” she said. “It was a tough transition to become a boss and tell people what to do.”

She said she persevered though and made it through the fabled restaurant two year mark unscathed. She said her favorite part of the is trying new things and interacting with the people that frequent the shop.

“I love working with customers,” she said. “I’ve been in customer service forever. I’m really a people pleaser, so when people like what I do it really makes me happy.”

Plouff said she’s always loved to cook, and experimented at home all the time.

“We throw a lot of parties at home and cook for a lot of people,” she said. “We throw toga parties, fiestas, luaus, and I try to cook and make drink that go with the theme.”

Keeping most of images conjured up from the film Animal House aside, Plouff said she enjoyed the toga parties the most.

“It was the most fun because most of the people dressed up,” she said.

She’s found that consistency keeps her customers coming back. She added when she came to the spot, she did a complete renovation of the shop.

“The one thing I get more than anything right now is how clean this place is,” she said. “We redid the whole place when we bought it just to make it more modern.”

Plouff sponsors two youth baseball teams, one in Seekonk and one in Pawtucket. She said she also gives out gift certificates for charity raffles whenever she’s asked.

“I’m from the local area, and now we live in Seekonk so I’m truly in for both towns,” she said. “It’s for the community, I mean we have customers from both Pawtucket and Seekonk since we’re right on the line here.”

King’s Oak Pizza is located on 21 Brook St. and is open Tue - Sat, 11am - 10pm; Sun, 3pm - 9pm.

Frederick Remington reviewed Kings Oak on Patch, and only said “Best calzones in the neighborhood!”