Lily’s Pizza to Celebrate 5-Year Anniversary With Special Deals on Friday

SAN ANGELO, TX — Opening a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic would be a challenge for any business owner.

Yet more than five years later, the doors at Lily’s Pizza are still open.

Owner Fernando Fuentez is celebrating the restaurant’s five-year anniversary on Friday, Feb. 20, and he’s hoping its toughest days are in the past.

Lily’s Pizza, which sits across the street from Angelo State University at 2424 Vanderventer Ave., will be marking its anniversary with $5 medium pizzas and nanjos (similar to the rojos from Shakey’s) for dine-in customers.

KIXY 94-7-FM will be doing a live feed at the restaurant from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., so there will also be a promotion for $9.47 combo meals.

There will be live entertainment from Nathan Vinson and a free arcade.

Fuentez, a 1991 graduate of San Angelo Central High School, was the longtime owner of the Chadbourne Tavern, which closed in 2024.

He said he initially purchased Lily’s Pizza to try and help keep his bar open, but he now believes it was God’s plan to send him on a new path, even if it was a rocky one at first.

“It was a hard struggle the first five years, because for two years there was no college or anything at all, and I didn’t know anything about the restaurant business,” Fuentez said. “Now I’m hoping I’ve kind of hit every brick wall I can hit.

“I ran the bar for 23 years, and that was kind of my thing. But I think this was God’s way of telling me it was too much of the bar business, and the man upstairs said it was time to take a different path. So it’s been a learning experience. … It’s night and day from running a bar, but I think I have a good idea where we’re at now. At least we’ve made it this far.”

Fuentez said people who are nostalgic about the old Shakey’s Pizza in San Angelo will get a sense of it at his place with his pizza and nanjos.

He said the pizza dough is made fresh daily and baked in a stone oven. The nanjos are thick-cut, round slices of seasoned potatoes. 

Lily’s Pizza has also added hot dogs to the menu after Fuentez purchased a hot dog stand.

“The bacon-wrapped hot dogs are really taking off,” he said. “We’ve been setting up location at different places … and it’s been a really big kicker we’ve added to the menu.”

Fuentez hopes to begin offering beer at the restaurant soon, but for now it’s a BYOB establishment where you can bring your own beer.

Lily’s Pizza is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can check out what's going on at the restaurant each day on its Facebook page here.