Introducing this week’s Campus Celebrity, Justin Petrovitsis. Not only is he a native of Durham and a UNH Wildcat, but he and his family are the lucky owners of our favorite late night food stop, DHOP. Keep reading to find out more!
Name: Justin Petrovitsis
School/Year: College of Liberal Arts/Junior
Major: Communications
Hometown: Durham, NH
So you and your family are the lucky ones who own Durham House of Pizza right here on campus. Tell us about it!
The Durham House of Pizza has been in my family for almost 38 years. My dad started it right out of high school when he was only 19 years old. I pretty much grew up hanging out in the kitchen so DHOP was a huge part of my childhood.
What is the most challenging part about the job?
I’d say the most challenging part about working at DHOP would be the long hours. Most of you probably know that we stay open until 2AM on the weekends so it gets pretty exhausting dealing with crazy drunks when all you want to do is go to bed.
What is your favorite part about the job?
My favorite part about working at DHOP is probably having the ability to be as creative as I want with the food. It can be pretty fun inventing new pizza creations!
A question I’m sure we all want to know the answer to, are you sick of pizza yet?
Surprisingly, I am not sick of pizza. You’d think after 20 years of being around pizza I would want nothing to do with it but I still eat it all the time.
We’ve heard you work a lot of late nights. I am sure you have seen/heard some crazy things. Tell us one or two of your favorite/most memorable late night stories!
Yeah you definitely go home with some pretty crazy stories when you work the late nights. I would say one of my favorites wasn’t actually when I was working. I was just hanging out in the dining room with some friends when I saw some random guy walking down the street with our dining room chairs. When I went to confront him he told me he was a “share holder” of DHOP so he was entitled to the furniture. We ended up getting the chairs back but it’s definitely a funny story to look back on.
Give us one fun fact about you!
I have a dog named Dexter. He loves the attention so if you ever see us walking around town feel free to show him some love!
Lastly, if you could pick next week’s campus celebrity, who would it be and why?
I would probably pick Conner Kolter. She is abroad in London right now and shes got some pretty cool stories from over there!