Randy Eckman and his wife Judy seem an unlikely pair of restaurateurs.
Neither has any previous experience in the food business. A 24-year law enforcement veteran, Randy Eckman has been a police officer and was a warden for Community Corrections of America. His wife has been a nurse for 23 years.
It took a fox to convince them to become culinary entrepreneurs.
On July 8, the Eckmans opened Fox’s Pizza Den in Southwest Mall on Delaware Avenue, and quietly have been building a following.
Fox’s Pizza Den is a national franchise group. The Eckmans’ restaurant is the company’s fifth franchise in Mississippi. Others are in Hattiesburg, Sumrall, Richland and Vicksburg.
Randy Eckman said it took him and Judy about a year of researching Fox’s Pizza before deciding on acquiring a franchise.
Fox’s Pizza Den began in 1971 in Pitcairn, Pa. Founder Jim Fox opened a second store in 1973 and incorporated Fox’s Pizza Den in 1974.
The company now has 341 franchises operating in 32 states, with annual sales topping $150 million.
Eckman said he and his wife decided to go with Fox’s after talking to other franchise owners. He was impressed by their response about the company. But what really helped convince them was a call he made to Fox’s home office.
“I called and asked to talk to someone about franchise information,” he said. “They put me on hold, and the next thing I know, Jim Fox answers the telephone.”
Eckman said Fox was very open about the business.
“There was no hard sell,” Eckman said. “No pushing me to sign anything.”
He said he and his wife looked at two other sites in McComb, one in Hammond, La., and another in Brookhaven before deciding on remodeling the former location of the Bible and Book Nook into a restaurant.
And the result of the remodeling project was a decor that is unlike any other local pizzeria.
The walls are covered with a textured brown wall paper and the restaurant includes a separate dining/party area for groups, with two big screen TVs. Rhythm and blues music drifts through building.
While Eckman worked to get the business ready, he began interviewing applicants for employees, narrowing the pile of 300 applicants to the 18 people hired to work with him, along with his son and daughter, and his brother.
“We’ve got a great group of employees,” he said. “When we got ready to open, we just opened. We didn’t advertise it. We wanted to do things slowly. We wanted the crew to have time to develop their level of skills. We wanted them to go through the proper development and do things right, just the way Mr. Fox wants.”
One way of ensuring the product’s quality, Eckman said, is Fox’s Pizza Distribution, which provides the company’s franchises with the dough and ingredients to maintain product quality.
Fox’s Pizza is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Delivery is not available.
Diners can choose from pizza, salads, strombolis, spaghetti, hoagie sandwiches and the company’s trademark specialty, the “wedgie.”
Eckman said, “It is a one-of-a-kind sandwich,” made with Fox’s pizza dough instead of bread.
“We use all natural ingredients,” he said. “Nothing is processed.”
Fox’s pizza sauce has won international awards, Eckman said, but the key to making the pizza work is a special cheese mixture called “the good stuff.”
“The good stuff is put on during the saucing and cheesing,” he said. “It sort of binds everything together to give our pizzas their great taste.”
Besides providing a quality product, Eckman also emphasizes customer service. He said he’s worked with his employees to anticipate customers’ needs and to greet them pleasantly when they come in.
He also is looking toward the future, saying he wants to eventually expand his franchise to include other Fox’s Pizza Dens during the next three to five years.
But his focus for now is on his newly opened McComb restaurant and its employees.
“I want to create an atmosphere for my employees and make their job here a good experience,” he said.
“So that years from now — after they’ve graduated from college and gone on to other things — they’ll look back and say, ‘The best job I ever had was at that pizza place.’ ”
