A bad break or two along the way, and Richard Carramusa might have ended up a heart surgeon.
The co-owner of Red Deer’s two Boston Pizza restaurants, as well as a remote kitchen operation in the city, enrolled in pharmacology at the University of Alberta with every intention of becoming a doctor. But as luck would have it, the young man from Morningside, who had worked at Ponoka’s Boston Pizza, ended up living in a house owned by Bill and Laurie Hancox.
Bill Hancox operated a Boston Pizza in Edmonton and convinced his tenant to work there part time. Carramusa progressed from serving tables to managing the restaurant, and eventually reached a watershed point on his career path.
“I was very happy with the work,” he recalled. “I loved the people. I had so much fun. I couldn’t imagine doing anything I liked better.”
That included medicine.
“My parents were not happy about that,” said Carramusa. “I told them, ‘I’m going to sell pizzas for a living instead of fixing hearts.’”
He went on to work at a various locations: Ponoka, St. Albert, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and even Boston Pizza’s corporate training centre in Richmond, B.C. Eventually, his current partners Barry and Rick Arndt — who were already BP franchisees — asked him to join them in a new outlet at Hinton.
“I begged, borrowed and stole some cash from friends and family and bought in,” said Carramusa, who remains a partner in that restaurant.
About seven years ago he bought into the Red Deer Boston Pizzas. He’s since acquired an ownership interest in the Edson Boston Pizza and is involved with the development of a new Boston Pizza in Blackfalds. Carramusa and his partners are looking at other opportunities as well.
Throughout his long and winding career in the restaurant industry, there has been one constant — Boston Pizza.
“It’s the only job I’ve ever had.”
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com