To say Tim Garey is familiar with the pizza business would be an understatement.  Tim grew up in his family’s pizza business in Springville.  He started working in the family parlors when he was 16 years old, and in 1977 he took over the business.  By that time there were four stores known as Blasdell Pizza in locations like Buffalo, Hamburg, and Dunkirk.  Five years ago he was persuaded by his son-in-law Kody Sprague to take over a failing bowling alley in Springville.  The alley was in pretty bad shape, but Tim invested a lot of time and effort to fix it up.  As the business grew Tim found he was spending most of his time running back and fourth between the stores.  About a year ago he decided to “cut lose” the other stores and concentrate on running the bowling alley and pizzeria.  He changed the name of the pizza store to Tim & Bonnie’s Pizza.  Keeping with the family tradition both Tim’s wife and daughter are partners in the business.

For a long time Tim scouted out the Ellicottville area looking for a good location for the restaurant.  Son-in-law Kody kept telling him to wait for the perfect location.  Last year Kody revealed that he and his grandfather had purchased the old bat factory on Elizabeth Street.  Kody gave Tim a tour and he realized that not only would it make a good pizzeria but there was plenty of space for a bowling alley as well.  The eight lane bowling alley will have all new state-of-the-art equipment, and will be “screaming nice,” as Tim puts it.  The restaurant will feature their popular pizzas, subs and wings.  Tim admits “we sell a lot of subs,”  He also mentions they will be serving some pasta as well.  They will serve beer and wine, but will not have a full bar.

In talking about his years in the business, Tim seems to get the most satisfaction from working with the many teenagers he’s hired.  “I hired a lot of kids.  They get their first job at 16 or 17.”  Hey says most of them go on to college, work their way through school and then come back to Tim and Bonnie’s and have pizza.  “I’ve changed a lot of kids lives, I installed a work ethic in them,” he says as a smile crosses his face.  Tim also points out he spent a lot of time in the various approval meetings listening to the locals concerns about the business.  Some of his future neighbors have expressed concern about noise emanating from the establishment.  He assures them that the alley will be a good neighbor, adding “We’re (the pizza parlor in Springville) right next to the alley and we never hear the alley, the sound won’t go through a brick building.”  Remodeling of the factory should be under way buy the time you read this, and Tim hopes to have the alley and restaurant open sometime mid October.