Meet Gregory Gillaspie | Owner of GaGa’s Grandma Pies

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gregory Gillaspie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gregory, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

The business wasn’t exactly my idea in the first place.

I started making pizza as a hobby since I was creatively stifled after moving to Nashville to continue my film career and focus on more music video work, with no work lined up.

It was meant to be a community event where I would make pizza and invite anyone who wanted to give me feedback. It started small, but as the pizza got better it grew. It grew to up to 70 people packing into my friend Seth Massa’s house who hosted my “Pizza Nights”.

It was mostly church community, but even Lyft passengers I had driven showed up. Everyone unanimously encouraged me to turn it into a business.

As a person who loves to create, I decided I really would love to make this thing exist. This led to an obsession of trying to improve what I was doing that will probably never end.

The thought process now is a zero compromise approach to pizza. We mill the flour, we make the cheese, we grow the basil. We obsess over every ingredient down to the Arkansas spring water and the Utah mineral salt. The milk for our cheese comes from a local dairy farm. We have developed our own unorthodox and laborious dough method that takes a full week.

Our brand stays centered in more traditional Italian flavors. We play Frank Sinatra music in our dining area. We make gelato and offer it as dessert. Our drink menu consists of the same water we use in our dough in flavored sparkling variants, and Abita root beer and cream soda which is made with spring water and sugar cane both local to Abita Louisiana where it is brewed.

Hopefully you can see a theme. Do few things, and do them to the very best of our ability. Put intentionality into everything.

Turning that into a brick and mortar business without any compromises is proving to be challenging. Our own restaurant space would be something smaller, more intimate, and more on brand.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I have been talking about making movies since I was in kindergarten.

I went to New York Film Academy in 2011 and have worked in film since.

I think my background as an artist helps my intentionality of what I want to produce.

I love the process of making something exist.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing work with moving images, but in the meantime I’ll try to create other things along the way.

Right now that’s pizza. Next, who knows?

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I have a reputation of loving good food. I love things that couldn’t exist anywhere else. So much of food is about culture and people.

In my opinion Arnold’s Country Kitchen is Nashville’s food ambassador. I go there as often as I can. Kahlil Arnold has become a good friend, and I am proud to serve what he calls “The best pizza in Nashville”. So much of his food is the best I’ve ever had. He makes the best bread pudding I’ve ever had, the best banana pudding I’ve ever had, the best fried green tomatoes I’ve ever had, the best roast beef I’ve ever had, and the list goes on and on. My favorite things actually came from the late night menu which were his fried brisket tacos, smothered in chipotle sauce, and smoked prime rib. Ridiculous. Kahlil and I often trade food, and I’ve always thought I was getting the better deal.

Subculture Urban Cuisine And Cafe is the definition of a hidden gym. Pretty much everything Pablo makes is outstanding. He even has me ordering butternut squash tacos- which is something I would normally never order. The hot chicken tacos are one the best things I’ve ever ate period. Now that they’re doing breakfast, I’m obsessed with his steak breakfast burrito that is made ridiculously memorable by his chimichurri. Fun fact, but we actually currently mix our dough at Subculture, using their mixer.

I love to ask people from the New York New Jersey area which they miss more: the pizza or the bagels. While hopefully I’m helping fix Nashville’s pizza scene, Crieve Hall Bagel has bagels down. Their sourdough bagels are the best I’ve ever had. I could eat their everything bagel with lox every single day. Of course I’m not getting out of there without also ordering a chocolate chip bagel with Nutella cream cheese. Ben has also been very supportive and I love how he runs his business with his now iconic positive attitude.

Stay Golden is where we make our pizza, but I actually was a huge fan of theirs before we ever had any sort of partnership. That’s actually how that relationship came about. I’m a huge coffee guy, and their coffee program is exceptional. Not only are they one of the best coffee roasters in town, but they initially blew me away with the creativity of their drinks. All their food is great too. They make the best biscuits I’ve ever had and put a tremendous amount of work into everything they do. It’s probably the best place in town for a classic breakfast. It’s an inspiring restaurant and an honor to share a roof with them.

Last but certainly not least, Dino’s is absolutely my favorite at whatever they do. My order is almost always a burger and hot chicken tenders. Pro tip- always order the special sauce with whatever you’re getting. Dino’s is the oldest dive bar in East Nashville and couldn’t exist anywhere else and people would riot if they ever closed. Everything there is better than it has any right to be. The burger is the complete opposite of what I prefer, yet supernaturally seems to still be my favorite. Hugh Baby’s is my model burger, with the smashed patties, and Martin’s potato roll. Dino’s patty is the thick hockey puck style, and the bun is unexceptional. But for some reason in my opinion, Dino’s just can’t be beat by anything else in Nashville. Because of the late hours it’s probably the place on this list you’re most likely to catch me at (other than if I’m making pizza at Stay Golden).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I take any opportunity to give glory to God for what He’s done in my life. A pizza business isn’t what I expected to do, but He knows that like Him, I love to create. My ideal life would be to honor Him through what I do, and create something new every few years. Just because God knows what’s going to happen doesn’t mean everything that happens is His will. Still He is more intentional with what He creates than we can possibly imagine. Reflecting intentionality and excellence through what I create is an aspiration of mine.

The Lord has provided so many people in my life that have been supportive of me. In this business, no other person has been more supportive than one of my best friends and now business partner, Seth Massa. He hosted all the initial “pizza nights” in his home, and has literally been there since the beginning, and it probably wouldn’t exist without him. He works as an accountant, and has a very different skill set as me.

Website: https://gagasgrandmapies.square.site/

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Image Credits
Asher Paxton