‘A dream of ours for years.’ Neighborhood pizza shop opens in historic downtown Perry
Brothers Cody and Wade Walker started their popular pizza business with pop-up events a couple of summers ago.
Thursday, their goal of a brick-and-mortar neighborhood pizza shop was realized when Ghost Runner Pizza opened its doors at 742 Main St. in historic downtown Perry.
“It’s been a dream of ours for years,” Wade said. “It means a lot to us and it means a lot to be able to do it with my wife and brother.
“We have friends who are working for us. It’s super meaningful.”
The brothers are all in. Wade left his teaching job in Houston County in May 2023 and Cody recently left his restaurant job at Macon Bagels in downtown Macon for the venture. They own their new pie place 50-50. Wade’s wife, Sydney, also works there full-time.
Keeping it simple
Ghost Runner Pizza is known for their sourdough pizza crust, unique name coined from childhood backyard baseball games and logo of a ghost wearing tennis shoes and holding a pizza box.
They offer five different pizza options and a rotating special as well. The featured rotating pizza is written on a chalkboard, while their main five pizzas are found on the menu.
“It’s a small menu,” Wade said. “It’s not build your own.”
The current rotating pizza is the BLT, which includes olive oil, mozzarella, arugula, sliced tomato, bacon and buttermilk ranch.
Their main five pizzas include:
Margherita with red sauce, mozzarella and basil
Pepperoni with red sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni
Sausage with vodka sauce, mozzarella and sausage
Pesto with olive oil, goat cheese, garlic capers and lemon-tossed arugula
The hand-crafted pizzas are heated in a Fiero Forni wood-fired brick oven with gas assist.
“There was a pizza restaurant in Savannah that has this oven and we really liked what they were doing and this was kind of like our dream oven,” Wade said.
All the pizzas are 12 inches and are priced between $15 and $18 each.
Additions include “herby ranch,” pepperoni butter, hot cane syrup and Calabrian chile cream. A kale Caesar salad also is offered. Ice cream “sammies” are available for dessert.
They serve bottled “bevies” of Topo Chico, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola and Yoohoo.
Canned or bottled beer choices include Miller High Life Pony, Modelo, Anderson Valley Holy Gose, Macon-based Piedmont Brewery’s Reckless German Pilsner and Piedmont’s Weird Science Hazy IPA.
Diners desiring wine should ask about Ghost Runner Pizza’s current wine selection.
Ghost Runner Pizza can seat 28 people inside and another 28 on picnic tables in the back patio.
In addition to dine-in, the restaurant offers takeout. But it doesn’t have a phone. Customers may walk in and place an order and they’ll get a ticket if they dine in. If ordering takeout, their name will be called when their pizza is ready.
Wade said he doesn’t expect to add a phone for the restaurant but that he expects they’ll eventually add an online ordering option via a website.
Also, they’re starting with limited hours of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
The name
“So Cody and I grew up playing baseball in the backyard,” Wade said. “Our brother Ben played some. He wasn’t as much into baseball as I think we were.
“But we did a lot of baseball in the backyard where it might be just one on one or two against one, and when you do that and you get a hit, you have to have a ghost runner on first base because you have to turn around and then bat again,” Wade said. “So, it’s sort of like a backyard baseball term: ghost runner.”
Wade and Cody reached out to their longtime friend Russell Robinson to sketch their logo idea of their sneaker-wearing ghost holding a pizza box.
Robinson also drew up their secondary logo that’s “just like a fun artistic pizza slice” that’s on sign on the restaurant.
The backstory
Back in July 2022, they invited a bunch of friends over to Wade and Sydney’s home to try their pizza.
That success led to pop-ups by pairing with restaurants not normally open in the evening like the Perfect Pear on Carroll Street in downtown Perry.
They next had a few pop-ups at Macon Bagels, which led to the use of the bagel shop’s commercial kitchen and more pop-ups such as at a couple of wine tasting events in downtown Perry and some private staff parties especially around Christmas time.
In January 2023, they started getting really serious about looking for a spot for a brick and mortar, Wade said. In April, they landed on the Main Street spot after an unrelated effort to bring a pizzeria to the same location didn’t pan out. They bought the property about a year ago.
With the opening of their restaurant, they do not plan to do any more pop-ups, Wade said.
Their pizza shop is in Wade and Cody’s hometown, where their family is well known. Their father is state Sen. Larry Walker III, a Republican representing the 20th District that includes Bleckley, Houston, Laurens and Pulaski counties.
Ghost Runner Pizza is next to the Main St. Bar.
