East Idaho Eats: Lucy’s serves up fresh, hand-tossed, New York-style pizza daily

IDAHO FALLS – For more than a decade, Lucy’s Pizza has been serving hot, hand-tossed New York-style Pizza to customers.

With three locations in eastern Idaho, one in Twin Falls and one in Orem, Utah, the menu offers nine specialty pizzas and calzones, along with several different salads, subs, wings and appetizers.

We stopped by the location in downtown Idaho Falls to try four of the restaurant’s most popular items. Watch it in the video player above.

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Geoff Padigimus and his partners, Brian Padigimus and Tim Wright, have owned the business since it first opened in 2009. Geoff tells EastIdahoNews.com getting involved in opening the restaurant was a “no-brainer” for him.

“I’ve done a lot of different business ventures with the other two guys,” he says. “The three of us together are more doers than talkers and it makes sense to stay on a train with people who are like-minded.”

The inspiration for opening a pizza place stemmed from the trio’s experience eating Hot Stuff Pizza when they worked in construction. They were planning to open their own location until an acquaintance from Connecticut introduced them to New York-style Pizza.

“He hooked us up with his brother, Frank Franco, who had Franco’s Pizza on 1st Street for six to nine months. We ended up purchasing that kitchen and all the equipment in there, (which is still in use at the Roberts location),” Geoff says.

Each pizza is hand-tossed and cooked exactly the way pizzas in New York are made.

“We’ve gone (to New York) a couple times for research and development,” says Geoff. “They hand toss it. It looks very similar. Our ovens are actually a lot of the same ovens that are in New York.”

In addition to the signature style, Geoff says the time and effort employees spend in preparing food every day is another thing that sets them apart from competing companies. All the meat and dough is made fresh daily and they shred the cheese and make the sauce themselves.

All the vegetables are sliced in-house and nothing on the menu is frozen, he says.

“It’s legitimately being home-cooked in our kitchen,” says Geoff.

Geoff and his team added a new item to the menu in January. It’s a pizza flavor called The Blaise and it includes bacon, chicken, mushrooms and cheese along with a stinging honey garlic sauce mixed with ranch. Geoff says it’s really popular at the Twin Falls location.

He’s looking to open another store in Utah and Boise in the near future. If you’re looking for a job, Geoff says they’re currently hiring. Those interested can apply in person or through the website.

The Idaho Falls locations are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday with a 10 p.m. closing time on weekends. The Roberts location has its own schedule.