The Stone Pizza Company offers the community its well-known Neapolitan style pizza, set apart by specially grown tomatoes from Italy topped with mozzarella cheese.

Located just seven minutes from campus at 500 E. Park Ave., Stone Pizza has a wide variety of pizzas to choose from, from margherita to prosciutto and arugula to carbonara.

They also offer options for those less adventurous. Their antipasto selection includes an Italian salad, soft Italian breadsticks, meatballs and bruschetta as well as varieties of pastas and sub sandwiches.

Pizza prices range from $14 to $16, while salads, pastas and subs fall between $6 and $15.

The restaurant sets the mood with dimly lit lamps in the center of the room. The tables are copper topped, creating a rustic feel.

There is plenty of space for large parties or people just wanting to enjoy a family meal together.  An enclosable outdoor dining room offers customers ambiance year-round.

According to general manager Hugo Montanez, Stone Pizza was opened by Wayne Gathings, who spent a month in Italy visiting dozens of kitchens.

He gathered inspiration to bring back home to Greenville, along with the materials to build a wood-fired oven to begin business.

Montanez described the minute details that go into making their specialty pizzas.

“When you make the dough, you have to let it rest for at least one hour, it should be two,” Montanez said.

“Once [the pizza] is ready, you make the balls [of dough], and you have to let it rest for 12 hours.”

He later said the baking process takes only 90 seconds in the wood-fired oven, which is heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

The pizza is then quickly taken out of the oven with a long paddle, set directly on a plate, cut and served to the customer.

More information on Stone Pizza can be found on their website stonepizzacompany.com, or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. through 10 p.m.