Photograph by Paul Myers
Vijay Maranthe, former owner of the Round Table Pizza at Park Saratoga, is opening a Mountain Mike's Pizza place at Argonaut Shopping Center.
Pizza restaurateur prepares to make dough with another chain
By Rebecca Ray
After owning a local Round Table Pizza place for 12 years, Saratoga resident Vijay Maranthe is opening a Mountain Mike's Pizza outlet in the city.
Maranthe is opening his new pizza parlor at the former space of Olympic Pizza at 12850 Saratoga Sunnyvale Road, at the north end of Argonaut Shopping Center. Maranthe will open the restaurant after various agencies finish inspecting the space.
Maranthe left Park Saratoga shopping center, where his Round Table was located, and where Zen Research is now, in May 2000, after the outlet's 20-year lease expired and Stanley Properties bought the complex.
Before Maranthe left Park Saratoga, he had spoken to Argonaut Associates, which owns Argonaut Shopping Center, about moving his Round Table there. The leasing agent was interested in Maranthe's Round Table relocating there, because the agent's children had patronized the pizza place, Maranthe said.
Maranthe later chose to open a Mountain Mike's, instead of a Round Table, partly because he saw the potential for expansion. The nearest Mountain Mike's was in Los Gatos, and there were no Mountain Mike's locations in Saratoga or Cupertino. Also, Mountain Mike's had relatively few franchises in the area, compared to Round Table, Maranthe said.
Argonaut Associates approved the Mountain Mike's franchise, so Maranthe had walls inside the space knocked down, brought the space up to code, had two windows built into one wall to allow for more light and made other preparations for his new business.
Maranthe said he was "quite pleased" with the location of his new pizza parlor, which is near many parking spaces and occupies 2,100 square feet of space. With the dining room, which is 55 to 60 square feet, the outlet can accommodate two groups at once, such as sports teams. Although Maranthe's Round Table location was bigger and more groups could use it over weekends, Maranthe said he felt fortunate to move into the space at Argonaut Shopping Center and that he'd never expected to find a location that big.
Maranthe has retained most of his staff from Round Table and said he hopes the family atmosphere he established will transfer to his Mountain Mike's outlet. Eight of the 10 employees who worked for him at Round Table before it closed now work at Mountain Mike's.
Maranthe is looking to hire three or four more workers. He wants to hire more people, because some of his employees will leave for school in the fall, and it's good to have more staff members when starting a new business, he said.
He also said he hopes to retain his Saratoga and Cupertino customer base. When he owned Round Table, the place received 200 to 300 calls a month, he said.
Maranthe, an engineer by training and education, worked in electronics for Hewlett-Packard and other companies before he bought Round Table. He worked both jobs until 1993 or 1994, when he decided he couldn't do both of them effectively. Maranthe decided that owning a business was a better way to ease into retirement, so he left the electronics industry. His Round Table earnings also helped the 18-year Saratoga resident put his two children through college.
But Maranthe didn't completely sever his ties with his former colleagues; many of his customers at Round Table were people he worked with in the electronics industry.
Maranthe said there is a good possibility he would start a Mountain Mike's in Cupertino in a couple years and that it is conceivable he could expand by one or more locations.
"I'm hopeful that once we get this thing going and people know about the location, we will be kept quite busy here," Maranthe said. "Hopefully, six months from now, people can close their eyes, and they'll know exactly where we are."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
