Judy Waller opened her first U.S. Pizza store at 3124 Pike Ave. in Levy in 1972. It had 10 tables and seated 36, and word of mouth soon got people lining up at the door. She finally moved it two blocks north to a former Pizza Planet location in 1989.

Waller says she also owes her success to maintaining her basics and listening to her customers, whom she credits for the signature salads.

"We're just as well known for our salads as for pizza," Waller says.

"Our customers created our Salad Supreme, early on, maybe 1973," she recalls. "A customer would say, 'Hey, throw a few olives on there.' Another would say, 'Throw on a few mushrooms.' Now we throw all of that on there, and you can just delete what you don't want."

Waller now operates 8 pizza outlets, including restaurants in Hillcrest and the Heights, on JFK and Fair Park Blvd., and behind McCain Mall in North Little Rock, on Rodney Parham Rd. in West Little Rock, in Maumelle, and on Dickson St. in Fayetteville. Various former employees over 33 years have opened their own places and U.S. Pizza clones have sprung up in eastern Arkansas and Tennessee. Waller, who admits she has little other choice, considers imitation the sincerest form of flattery.