by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
With the sounds of music legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger in the background, Rock & Roll Pizza is spinning tunes, and pizza. The pizza and sub shop opened July 1 on West Forsyth Street.
“Lisa Wagner, the former owner of Imperial Lounge, proposed the idea to us,” said co-owner Jon Bosworth.
Wagner urged Bosworth and his business partner Donald Dusinberre to open the pizza shop in the front of the club. Tuesday, Bosworth and Dusinberre took control of the club from Wagner.
“Sometimes we get people who just want to drink beer, listen to some music and play pool on their lunch break,” said Bosworth.
“Some people come for the food, others for the atmosphere,” added Dusinberre.
Despite the club environment, the juke box is not blasting at a million decibels during the day. When the sun goes down, live music takes over the club.
“We already have national and regional acts coming but we like to focus on the local groups,” said Dusinberre. “Our objective is to participate in the revitalization of downtown. We want the average Jacksonville citizen to feel comfortable coming down here at night. The Imperial was scary. It had a heavy skinhead crowd.”
“We have no objection to going to other places in town,” added Dusinberre.
“But we’d like to focus on downtown. One goal is to have downtown flourish into a destination spot. It’s what we’re banking on.”
Speaking of goals, the owners have ambitions to open a movie house, showcasing independent films. They consider the pizza shop a launching pad for their other endeavors.
Currently, the location is barely visible. A small black and white sign is hung in the window to identify the shop. Now that the entrepreneurs have full control, signage is the next order of business.
Bosworth and Dusinberre, who are musicians, have a natural appreciation for music. They were classmates and grew up next door to each other. The partnership is an extension of their friendship. Both have relatives working for them: Bosworth’s brother is an employee as are their wives. They have seven employees total.
So far, sales have been on par with their expectations. They attribute their early success to their original concept of a rock and roll motif. Where else can you hear Willie Nelson and Black Sabbath on the CD changer. It’s a concept that has been done before, but at this point, they don’t fear competition locally.
“There’s nothing like this in downtown, in Jacksonville period,” explained Bosworth. “This place has a schtick that no one else has. We focus on quality and originality. We provide an actual escape for someone from work.”
Clever word play never hurts either. For example, Rock & Roll Pizza has a meatball submarine sandwich called AC/DC, a salad named after Soundgarden and a pizza dubbed the Yoko Ono.
“Pizza is a very competitive market,” said Bosworth. “We’re up against the Hungry Howie’s, Dominoes, Pizza Huts and Papa Johns that advertise all the time on television.”
“Pizza here means something different,” said Dusinberre.
Different in their lingo means toppings like roasted garlic, shrimp, zucchini, broccoli, pesto and smoked gouda cheese.
“We want to show that you can have excellence here,” added Bosworth. “Jacksonville lacks its own identity. Everywhere you see corporate facades — Ruby Tuesday’s, Olive Garden. Those entities don’t represent Jacksonville and the money doesn’t come back to Jacksonville. We don’t want to be like New York pizza or Chicago pizza. We want to be Jacksonville pizza. We want to represent Southern culture as a whole. This is an investment in Jacksonville.”