Previous owners of Waterville House of Pizza reclaim ownership less than a year after it was sold

WATERVILLE, Maine (WABI) - Nicholas Komodis and his father Stavros owned and operated the Waterville House of Pizza since 2008.

Earlier this year, the pair decided the time was right to make a change and sold the pizza shop to another family.

“I’m 71 years old, it is time to retire so I sold the business to mother, her brother and her son,” Stavros said

Soon after, the thriving business began to suffer. Stavros who had already spent a few months in Greece and had booked a one way ticket back to his home country said the new owners were in over their heads.

“I told them I said don’t change anything, the pizza place been here for 40 years, keep everything they same,” Stavros said

But they didn’t listen. Stavros said they changed everything including the beloved recipes, service and even let go of employees who had worked at the shop since he first bought it. He said it was time for a serious talk.

“Dont make me go back to Greece to come back. I don’t see you doing very well here, if you think you are going to give up, you might as well let me know before I leave,” Stavros said.

Not long after, the father and son pair started the process to reclaim ownership, and did just that on December 18th.

“We brought all of our original recipes back, our pizza, our sauce, our caesar dressing, everything is back to normal how we had it,” Nicholas said

The plan is for Stavros to show his son the ropes who would eventually take over the business. Nicholas said he is ready and full of new ideas..

“Once I get situated here, I will start doing more like daily specials, deals and loyalty program for customers,” Nicholas said.

For now, the two said they are glad to be back to serve their new and existing customers who are thrilled to have their old recipes back.

“Do you still have the same dressing the Caesar dressing, homemade? yes we do. Do you still have the blue cheese, home made? yes we do. Do you still have the pizza you used to have? yes we do,” Stavros concluded.

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