Pizza place fit for youth

Over the last 30 years, tenants on the corner of 16th and B streets in Marysville have included a family restaurant, a furniture store, a bait and tackle shop, a bicycle repair shop and a party accessories store.

With the January opening of a new restaurant – serving Noble Roman’s pizza and Tuscano’s Italian subs – a local family has brought the property’s use fullcircle.

The pizza and sub shop is a corporate franchise two-fer, such as Togo’s/Baskin Robbins, and is run by Danny Horsfall, 45, his wife Debbie, 43, and father Richard, 69.

Richard and Danny Horsfall bought the 2,640-square-foot building in 1994 for $78,000. Eight months ago, it was appraised at $642,000.

Over the course of nearly 15 years, they have leased the building, mostly as a three-store space.

Richard Horsfall had an antiques and furniture store in a portion of the building for about seven years.

When he finally closed the store a couple years ago, the building was in disrepair, says Debbie Horsfall, “and we knew we had to do something.”

They had interest from a frozen yogurt chain, but the city nixed that for lack of parking space.

A liquor store owner came knocking, “but the property is too close to the high school for me to be comfortable with that,” she says.

They wanted a place that was family friendly and that offered youth-friendly jobs.

So they made the rounds of franchise restaurants, tasting the food and considering corporate histories.

The chain they settled on “blew the others out of the water,” Debbie says.

And it was the newest game in town. In January, the Horsfalls’ store in Marysville was only the fourth Noble Roman’s in California.

But, the mother of four confesses, one of the primary selling points for the franchise was its theme colors.

“Orange and black are the Marysville High School colors,” she says, laughing.

Transitioning to a franchise business model, however, has pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, “You don’t need to make a lot of the mistakes that you do as a mom-andpop place,” she says, “because you get a lot of support and guidance.”

But a small miscalculation can be very inconvenient.

On a few occasions, the Horsfalls underestimated the number of plates or the amount of pizza dough they would need when ordering supplies from the company.

When you own a franchise, “you can’t just decide one day to use some yellow plates” from the corner store, Debbie says.

She’s had to make trips to Chico in order to buy supplies from a Noble Roman’s/Toscano’s there, in accordance with the company’s requirements.

Among the Horsfalls’ 17 employees at the new restaurant are their two teenage sons and eight other workers who are 18 or younger.

Like the restaurant that occupied the space several incarnations ago, the two-month-old enterprise has become a popular hangout for kids from Marysville High, which is a block away.

On a recent weekday afternoon, the place buzzed with adolescent energy.

Josh Weidman, 19, is among the more mature members of Noble Roman’s employee roster.

He went to school with the Horsfalls’ oldest son, Matthew, and has known the family since middle school.

“We’re all friends here,” he says, gesturing toward the kitchen area with vinyl-gloved pizza-maker’s hands.

And an extended family too, he says, pointing to Richard Horsfall who stands behind the customer counter, directing traffic.

“We just call him ‘Grandpa,” Weidman says, laughing. “We all call him that. I almost forget his name sometimes.”

Debbie Horsfall, whose primary career has been as a social worker for Yuba County, says the family chose the pizza/subs franchise over other small business options largely because of the bonding and teaching opportunities it affords.

“It’s important for young people to learn job skills early,” she says. “And you can mold them. They’re more apt to learn” than adults.

Teenagers, she says, “can get very dramatic, but I’ve taught them to leave all that at the door.”

She and her husband accommodate a variety of busy teenager schedules.

On Friday, several young workers wanted to attend the Sadie Hawkins dance at the high school. The Horsfalls shuffled around multiple work shifts and signed themselves on so the kids could go.

Danny Horsfall, a public works employee for the county, plans to devote himself full-time to the restaurant – and future business plans – within the next few months.

“With two parents working, it’s so hard on the kids,” Debbie says. “This way, the kids can always be with us.”

And the Horsfalls are learning to work with, and around, the conformity of owning a franchise.

At their request, corporate officials have allowed them to be a test store for a Toscano’s pastrami sandwich.

And they make a point of shopping locally for produce and other perishables.

When tomato season starts, Debbie says, she will be buying at local fruit stands.

The family hopes to purchase another property in the next few years, either in Yuba City or the Lincoln area, and build a second Noble Roman’s/Tuscano’s franchise.

In the meantime, Debbie says, they are still learning about how to run the Marysville venture so that it will both turn a profit and allow them to nurture their “extended family” members.

“You have to baby these things so much to get them going,” she says.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or npasternack@ appealdemocrat.com