Taking a perch in the parking lot of Hamilton Market on Avenue U in Seaside, Richard Pizzuti fields a long line of customers eager for slices of pizza, gyros sandwiches and Portuguese linguiça sausage.

He comes through an international mix of cuisine , pointing to his family’s Italian, Portuguese, Jewish and Greek roots. He grew up in Vancouver, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, where his stepfather played guitar in a jazz combo.

With a career in the painting and drywall business, Pizzuti retired at age 62 to his home on Route 202, about 15 miles from Astoria.

He pursued a hobby of pottery and ceramics, studying raku, a a Japanese style of pottery used in tea ceremonies

He was the raku artist at the artisan village of the Oregon State Fair for 12 years, he added.

“I didn’t make a lot of money doing it, but it was a lot of fun,” Pizzuti said.

His interest in food came from a heritage of chefs. “My aunts, my mom, my grandmother — all were phenomenal cooks.”

He set up his first food truck in Forest Grove. “That’s where I got started,” he said. “I used to hang out at a microbrewery. I had a lot of friends there and stuff and I thought you know, I think I’m going to give this a shot because I love wood-fired pizza. I bought this trailer from the owner of Walt’s brewery.”

Pizzuti bought it, extended the flatbed, built the housing, or frame of the oven, and even built the oven — twice, after the first shattered when dropped in transport from a backhoe to the trailer. “Everything was a pile of rubble.”

The second oven is made of refractory concrete of the kind used in furnaces for aluminum plants and steel foundries.

With ingredients, two sinks, fan, air conditioner and cooking tools, the total load is about 5,500 to 6,000 pounds.

He moved from Forest Grove to Astoria in 2019, where parked his food truck for three years and traveled to local events, including the Cannon Beach and Seaside farmers markets. This summer he received an invite from the owners of the Hamilton Market to set up in their lot, where he has been drawing customers since July.

Specialties include gyros spilling with tzatziki, tomatoes and onions from grilled pita, and shawarmas, seasoned meat with lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, tomatoes and more. He described his pizza as “authentic Calabrese style,” but that’s only a launching point.

“I’ll do the Greek pizza, which is basically a Turkish style hummus I made,” he said. “And I use that as a sauce instead of the red sauce. And then I put the regular pizza cheeses on it. And then I top it with regular feta cheese, real sheep feta cheese, lamb and beef. And then I put my lamb’s meat on it.”

For pizzas, he’s got a three-meat pie, prosciutto pizza with mushroom topped with pesto, and a Hawaiian Italiano with pineapple.

But don’t get hung up on any one thing. Pizzuti enjoys sharing his specials and there’s always something new.

Pizzuti’s is open Thursdays through Saturdays at 250 Avenue U and can be reached by phone at 503-407-1399.