Pizzeria Grande in Walpole Taking Tradition Up a Notch

Doug Smith, owner of Pizzeria Grande in Walpole, first ventured out into the restaurant business back in 1998, and he said it was the best change he ever made.

He said it originally started out as a side job from his other business.

“I used to have  a vending business, so I had experience with sandwiches, sodas and snacks,” he said. “I did that during the day and sometimes when I didn’t like sitting around the house, I got a job in the evenings delivering pizza for four or five years. Then the owner said he was thinking of selling the business and I bought it.”

Smith started at Grande and learned a lot from the previous owner.

“I pretty much knew the business because I had been a delivery driver,” he said. “I was helping on the cash register, cooking on the grill, washing floors and then I graduated into making the pizza.”

Smith said he’s made a few improvements over the years to the restaurant, but he feels he wants to let his cooks follow their own tastes to get the best product possible.

“I made lots of improvements, but my education is not in the culinary arts,” he said. “My degree is in business management, and it’s the business side where you hire really good people.”

Smith said the most off the wall pizza he’s ever made was in the dessert pizzas, which he said are gaining popularity all over the place.

“You can do a cherry pie pizza and a banana pizza,” he said. “You use cinnamon sugar, butter, garlic cheese and bananas. You can use plantains too. People don’t usually associate pizza with dessert, so we don’t sell it often but sometimes it’s a real gift. Our greatest reviews have come off the banana pizza. People scream about it.”

Smith said for the run of the mill regular pizza, the most important thing to start with is the dough and the sauce. Without good sauce and dough, he said it’s not really pizza.

“It’s sauce, dough and cheese, in that order,” he said. “You must have the finest ingredients you can possible get. The recipes here go back 120 years. We’ve modernized, Americanized and improved upon them, but it’s still the basic recipe.”

Smith said he donates to local charities in Walpole and Wrentham, where his other restaurant the Tavern is located, because he feels citizenship is a part of being a good business person.

“You have to be a good citizen and give something back,” he said.

Pizzeria Grande is located on 1185 Washington St. and is open Mon - Sat, 11am - 10pm; Sun, noon - 9pm.