A growing regional pizza chain has come to Guelph.
Pyramid Pizza & Wings opened at 206 Speedvale Ave. W. on Sept. 7, a long time coming for Guelph's newest business owner Astle Kumar.
"I like to work in the kitchen, and I already have experience, more than two years," he told GuelphToday. "I always wanted to run the business in the food industry."
Kumar is a relative newcomer to business ownership.
Arriving in Canada from his native India in Dec. 2019, he was an international student studying information technology and human resources at the University of Guelph.
Kumar was like many a few months later, having to adjust to online learning because of the COVID pandemic.
But he got through it. And after working for Bell Canada for two years, he decided to "take the risk" down a new path.
"Without risk, you can't grow," Kumar said. "I just made up my mind."
After about a year of research into business ownership, Kumar connected with the Pyramid franchise and he was off to the races.
Kumar said Pyramid set him up with everything he needed, including finding the space in the plaza at the corner of Speedvale and Dawson.
The new spot sells whole pizzas, as well as pizza by the slice, chicken wings, panzerotti, salad, garlic bread, spring rolls and more.
It's the sixth location for Pyramid, which has three locations in Kitchener and one each in Listowel and Elmira.
Not only did Kumar's love of food direct him this way, it was his love of people.
"It's (exciting) for me (to be a business owner)," he said. "I'm learning a lot of things. Whenever a customer comes, it's good to talk with the people, and I like to talk with the people because I'm a talkative person."
He hopes taking the risk leads to a high reward, and perhaps more Guelph locations down the line.
"I can see the future opportunities," Kumar said. "It's good so far, getting a better response day-by-day."
It's open seven days a week, with adjusted hours to start. Pyramid is open at 11 a.m. each day, except Sundays when it opens at noon. Closing time is 10 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday and 11 p.m. Thursday to Saturday.
