Faye's Pizza to Get a New Look for Vintage Building
Petrie, Bob. The Sheboygan Press. November 28, 2009, page A1.
The oldest pizza restaurant in Sheboygan is about to get a new look that will respect its historic roots.
Faye's Pizza, 1821 Calumet Drive, which opened in 1957, will be remodeled to add new windows, landscaping, a small outside seating area, a few more parking spaces and some new signs.
"We want to make our building beautiful again," said Alicia Reichgeld, 37, the owner of Faye's, known for its large round pizzas that are cut into square slices. "We want to make it historical and we're going to open up the windows and make it brighter."
The Sheboygan Plan Commission approved the use permit on Tuesday for Faye's to move ahead with the project. It still needs to get approval from the city's Redevelopment Authority, but Reichgeld hopes to get the work started this winter.
"The whole idea of the building is to bring it back to what it used to look like when it was first built," she said. "More historic. It will look like a brand-new building by the time we're done."
The restaurant will stay open during the makeover.
"The building's very nice and most of it is in original condition," said Jennifer Lehrke of Sheboygan, who is designing the makeover. "We're hoping by opening up the windows that were previously blocked in people from Calumet (Drive) will be able to see inside the restaurant and see the activity that's happening in there and they might stop in and frequent it."
Paulette Enders, the city's director of planning and development, said she thinks Faye's will only benefit from the exterior upgrades.
"I give them credit and kudos for undertaking a project like this, particularly during these tough economic times," Enders said. "But I think it will do wonders for this business."
Reichgeld, who purchased Faye's in 1997 at the age of 24, said she's wanted to make some changes to the building for a long time. "I had to pay down my debt and that kind of stuff and it was quite an undertaking," she said.
Now, she's looking forward moving ahead on the upgrades, as a way to honor the business.
"It's been there 50 years, we're very proud of that," she said. "We're the oldest pizza place in Sheboygan, it's a competitive market, and we really want to stand out and be proud of what we have."