Patrons of Pizza Scene in Miami Lakes have watched the Rodriguez kids – Gabriella, Samantha and Patrick -- grow up.
They are a team of three who are keeping the business running.
PMQ Pizza magazine profiled Gabriella, 27, called Gabby, as one of “Ten Women to Watch.”
“Honestly, it just makes me very proud to come from a family business and to be in this magazine,” Gabby Rodriguez said. “It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.”
The Rodriguez family and their restaurant on Main Street have been a presence in Miami Lakes for two decades.
For many people who grew up in the area, getting a slice and hanging at the fountain with friends was a routine part of their childhoods.
That goes for Hector and Gloria Rodriguez’s youngest daughter too, who like many kids in restaurant-owning families spent a lot of time there.
“I started in the industry when I was 15,” she said. “In the beginning it was just a job.”
After graduating from Mater Lakes Academy, she lived in Orlando and worked at a church as an assistant teacher to pre-kindergarten kids.
“What made me grow to love [the pizza business] was leaving and getting a different perspective on life and the family in general,” Rodriguez said. “Me leaving was something I needed to do, in order to come back and genuinely and truly love it.”
Her passion for pizza took her to Las Vegas in March, when she cooked pies for the Slice Out Hunger program. It was a promotional event to inform the industry about its hunger relief efforts, and happened during the week of the International Pizza Expo.
Back home, she has focused on expanding the restaurant’s pizza menu and is trying different toppings on Sicilian-style and regular pies. Inspiration comes from trends on social media.
“Seeing new places, trying new combinations, people adding blueberries and meats, different concoctions,” she said. “I think catering toward the younger crowd that is interested in those things keeps me going and trying to find cool but weird concoctions.”
That includes a breakfast pizza with French toast sticks on top.
“We do those only on the weekends, mainly,” she said. “And the breakfast pies, we do those on Sundays and they were really popular. [We have] one with scrambled eggs and home fries or hash browns, and we’re doing a chicken and waffle one soon. We’re doing anything and everything.”
Hector Rodriguez let the non-profit group Women in Pizza know about his daughter’s role in Pizza Scene, and they featured her on Instagram in December.
PMQ Pizza picked up the story and wrote their profile in March, he said.
His daughter’s biggest influences are her parents.
“Someone who inspired me would be my dad, because he’s done it his whole life and I grew to love it through him,” she said. “My mom was his supporter and married into it. But don’t get me twisted, my mom can throw down in the pizza oven, trust me!”
Rodriguez said she really enjoys seeing “the regulars.”
“You grow and love not only what you do, but the community you are serving as well,” she said. “Especially in Miami Lakes, because it’s so small and very close knit.
“I love it,” she said. “I really do.”
Pizza Scene, at 6725 Main St., is open 7 days: Monday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Friday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - midnight; Sunday 12 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Find them online at pizzascene.com.