Little Caesars open during health crisis

Real estate professional Conrad Serrano recently took over as the new owner of Little Caesars in Pahrump.

Serrano, who took over ownership of the pizzeria in the fall of 2019, hopes to provide an easy way to get pizza without having to interact with anyone.

Little Caesars has an app to order through. The food is put in a warmer and you can pick your food up without interacting with anyone at the store. According to Serrano, “It is convenient and makes it to where you don’t have to talk to anyone.”

But the app is what is making the restaurant boom right now. The app is at about 17-20% usage currently, but when used, the ticket average has been higher than usual.

Serrano is a native of Pasadena, California, and is a real estate agent. Although the pizza business is all very new to him, he is working toward making his eatery a success.

Moving to another city can be hard, but moving to another state can be even harder, but not for Serrano. “It has been quite an adjustment. There has been a lot of positives and many negatives, but generally, I love being out here,” he said.

Serrano is a very outdoorsy person who loves to ride his motorcycle and hike.

Recently, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifts for small businesses in the state, he had joined a bowling league in Nye County and was in the process of starting a volleyball league in Pahrump. He is also getting involved with search and rescue, “I hope to work with them and get some new experiences,” he remarked.

The atmosphere here isn’t that big of a change, as Serrano went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned a degree in hotel-restaurant management.

There are currently 18 employees working at Little Caesars, and though it is different from being a real estate agent, customer service is something that he does have a great amount of skills from his past experience.

“Real estate is more self-employed (based) so everything I did was on me. The biggest challenge for me is learning how to deal with crew members, I have never done that before, but I am enjoying it,” he said.

Even though he is the current owner of Little Caesars, that isn’t stopping him from being a real estate agent. He is currently working on getting his licenses for the state of Nevada so that he can continue doing something else he likes as well.

Though he still has a house in his former town of Pasadena, he spends about 95% of his time here in Pahrump to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

When asked if there will be an expansion of Little Caesars in Pahrump, Serrano commented, “That is a challenge as well. I don’t think that Pahrump could sustain another Little Caesars. We are always looking for other restaurants for sale.”

Now many people may be wondering when they will start delivering like other pizza places do here in Pahrump. It is a different possibility; however, Little Caesars is currently contracted with DoorDash, which sadly, are not located in Pahrump quite yet. Until they can get them out here, delivery doesn’t seem to be in the future just yet, but growth within Pahrump maybe just the thing needed to inspire DoorDash to make the move into town.

As for COVID-19, Little Caesars will remain open at this time. Serrano proclaimed that, “Our restaurant is taking additional preventive measures to protect our take-out guests and staff.” They will be conducting extra cleaning and sanitizing high-contact surfaces.

The store has also implemented other efforts to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Serrano also stated that they “are only allowing three people at a time in the store, and think it is of vital importance to continue to serve the community during these trying times.”

For additional information, contact Little Caesars at 775 751-5556 or visit their website at https://tinyurl.com/tqvmp5k