Joe's Pizza and Pasta owner Rizah "Ricky" Karaliu plans to open a second Joe's restaurant that serves beer and wine, according to the owner.
The new restaurant is set to open in March at 2700 Richmond Road, Suite 17, near Sam's Club.
Offering an array of Italian dishes, including pizza, pasta, sandwiches, sides and their signature bread that comes with every meal, Joe's has enjoyed a steady clientele that has customers talking.
"I don't do much advertising," said Rizah "Ricky" Karaliu, owner of Joe's in Texarkana. Joe's has several restaurants in the Four States Area, and Karaliu has been with them since 2005.
"Word of mouth has been sufficient," he said. "... We just concentrate on making good food for good prices, and we get loyal customers who end up talking about us."
The success has been enough to allow the opening of the second restaurant, despite one common request from his customers that he refuses to grant out of respect for the neighbors of his downtown restaurant.
"Many of my customers continually ask me, this is an Italian restaurant, where is the wine? You serve pizza, why not beer? We could have done that, but there is a church right across from where we do business. We elected not to serve alcoholic beverages out of respect for that church being so close to us. However, the new Joe's will serve wine and beer," he said.
Joe's moved downtown in 2010.