Phil’s Primetime Pizza celebrates 30 years

While working at his dad’s video store, then-16-year-old Kevin Martin dreamed of getting away from Chickamauga. Thirty years later, he’s running that shop, but it’s not a video store anymore.

Phil’s Primetime Video opened in 1989 when Phil, Kevin’s father, realized the closest video rental shop was a 20-minute drive away in Fort Oglethorpe. “You were at the mercy of whoever was going 20 miles per hour,” Kevin Martin, now 45, said with a chuckle. “My dad struck gold opening the video store.”

The shop was open four days a week, partly run by Kevin, who would come by after school from 4-9 p.m. A few years in, he said his father noticed that after people picked up their movies, they’d still drive to Fort Oglethorpe to grab food. Figuring that pizza wouldn’t be that hard to make, by ’92, his dad was crafting his own recipes and changed the name to Phil’s Primetime Pizza and Video.

“It was the worst crust you could’ve imagined,” Kevin Martin said. “But the recipe he hit on in ’94 is what we use today, only with a few tweaks.”

In 2018, at age 75 and looking to retire, Phil came to his son with two exit strategies: become the owner or the shop would close. So Kevin took over, and he hasn’t looked back.

When his father was running the shop, there wasn’t a menu, so Kevin developed one. Specialty pies are named after family members. The restaurant’s version of a deluxe pizza is named after Phil, and it happens to be the most sought after. Other pies are inspired by pizzas Kevin Martin has tried around the world. Because of a trip to New York, he started carrying garlic powder at the counter. Because of a slice in Italy, he’s added arugula to his salads.

Chickamauga is a small town, he said; it’s easy to learn everybody’s order. “It’s validating people think they’re good,” he added.

The “Kevin” pizza is a specialty barbecue pie he has toiled with for months.

Martin has also started Facebook and Twitter accounts, added wings, beer and salads to the lineup, and started hosting cruise-in events throughout the summer, with the next scheduled for Aug. 24.

The cruise-ins started when Martin’s friends offered to drive up and fill the parking spots outside the shop to bring some attention in May. In July, the city began co-sponsoring the event along with neighboring businesses including Red Barn Designs, Droop Scoops and One Eleven Gordon. With each event, Martin said the crowd doubles.

The growth and expansion of the shop, he said, is thanks to his dad’s hard work the past three decades. “I couldn’t have been more guided into port.”

One lone rack of movies still stands in the corner, offering titles like “Indiana Jones,” “Night at the Museum” and a few others. Martin doesn’t rent the movies out anymore, but if somebody really wants one, he said he’d make an exception.

“They’re a tip of a hat to where we’ve come from,” said Martin. “There are people who come in here and say, ‘I remember when this place had shelves of movies up and down both walls and in the middle.'”

Primetime Pizza is at 122 on Gordon St. and is open Tuesday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Email Sabrina Bodon at sbodon@timesfreepress.com.