Established in 2013. The name “Green Mountain” Pizza comes from the name of the town where the restaurant first started, Montverde, translated into two Spanish words – monte (mountain) and verde (green). In 2019, the business moved to Clermont keeping the name “Green Mountain” describing the Gem of the Hills: Clermont. 

Owner Roberto Del Vermi learned his cooking talents from family who moved from Italy in the 70s and began opening Italian restaurants throughout Lake County. His parents emigrated to Lake County from Italy in the 80s. Speaking little English his parents opened Capri, in the location where Green Mountian Pizza is today! 

Green Mountain Pizza is a favorite of many foodies in South Lake. Chuck Seaver, a lifelong resident of Clermont, chose Green Mountain Pizza for his recent “birthday” lunch.  He says it’s his favorite restaurant; “Great food, friendly service”.

Green Mountain is open five days a week, closed on Sundays and Mondays. For further information, visit: GMPizza.com.  The telephone# is (352) 432-3380, and delivery is done via doordash.com.

The post Business Spotlight Shines On Green Mountain Pizza appeared first on South Lake Tablet.

Co-owner and chief chef Roberto Del Verme is excited to announce the opening of Green Mountain Pizza, located in Sunnyside Plaza at 303 State Road 50, Clermont.  A couple of weeks ago, management started allowing customers into the new dining room, either to dine in or to wait for their take-out. And on Tuesday, May 4, it became official: The big inside-seating coming-soon banner was changed to Open.

Alex Guzman is one repeat customer who has noticed. Having come with his daughter for take-out, he gestured to the dining room. “Now that they’re open here we’re going to come back and dine in,” he said.  Even though the restaurant is Italian by design, daughter Alexa’s favorite item is very much American. “I like the Buffalo wings a lot,” she says.

For the older Guzman, his focus is on the Italian. “I love the lasagna and the pizza is really great. I’m from New York and this is the closest to New York pizza I’ve tasted in Florida,” he says.

The restaurant’s expansion project started last year, mid-pandemic, when the adjacent unit at 301 became available. It was a full-circle move for Del Verme, for 301 was the location of his parents’ Capri Pizza & Subs restaurant. Capri operated from the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s, and members of Del Verme’s family still own and operate Italian restaurants in other parts of the county.

The restaurant now has a capacity of 49 total, including staff.  “We knew if we did this we’d have to have about 40 (customer seats), or else this wouldn’t be a destination,” Del Verme commented.

Green Mountain started out in Montverde in 2013, relocating to Clermont in 2019. The restaurant had a few tables in its Montverde location but was mainly a takeout business. Del Verme recalls customers telling him that “we’d come to the restaurant but we knew we wouldn’t get a seat.”

Now, in the Clermont restaurant, that is not an issue. Dining in is the big change at Green Mountain, but there are some small changes as well. The make-your-own pizza kits are relatively new. The Green Mountain t-shirts have been in for about a week and a half now. And Soups by Mama Concetta are a new addition to the menu. Concetta is Del Verme’s mother.

Learn more about the history of Green Mountain Pizza, its owners, and life-long residents of the south Lake community by visiting GREENMOUNTAIN

Green Mountain is open five days a week, closed on Sundays and Mondays. Their Web site is GMPizza.com.  The telephone# is (352) 432-3380, and delivery is done via doordash.com.

The post Business Spotlight Shines On Green Mountain Pizza (Now Dine In or Take Out) appeared first on South Lake Tablet.

Green Mountain Pizza was established in 2013 by best friends and South Lake County natives Roberto Del Verme and Miranda Straugh as a way to provide an honest, simple living for their families while also serving the community they love and grew up in. Roberto and Miranda have over 30 years of experience cooking and serving their local community and are proud to continue the family-style tradition in Clermont.

I recently dropped by Green Mountain Pizza and was able to discover a unique blend of friendship, love, talent, and good cooking.  

Tablet: Tell me a little about the history of Green Mountain Pizza

Roberto and Niki Del Verme /Miranda and Mike Straugh

We are life-long friends that met at Clermont Middle School and South Lake High School. All of us graduated between 1998 – 2002. Hard to believe it was 20 years ago! We really consider ourselves family at this point.

This restaurant was an experiment to see if the four of us could combine forces to run the place together, in an effort to have more time with our families as we raised them. We believe in the importance of a tight family unit, and nothing gets prioritized above the needs of our children. It’s a team effort, and it’s not easy, but we see it as making a sacrifice for putting our family first (hence, why we’re closed Sundays!)

We are part of the “old” Clermont”. Watching the growth of our tiny town over time has been phenomenal. We’ve met so many new great families that have moved here and have reconnected with so many families from our past since we’re now in Clermont. It’s been awesome.

TABLET: How did they come up with the name Green Mountain Pizza (GMP).

Roberto, Niki, Miranda & Mike – The previous owner was an old friend of ours (also from South Lake High School) and was running Green Mountain Deli. The name “Montverde” means “Mountain Green” in Spanish, so we kept the name because that’s the town we were operating in, and just added the word “pizza” because….that’s what we wanted to primarily make and sell! We definitely like to keep things as uncomplicated and as simple as we can, so it just seemed like a good fit.

We talked over possibly changing the name when we came to Clermont (Gem of the Hills Pizza or Clermont Pizza), but the move was already hard enough emotionally, and we’d rather spend the extra time focused on raising our families and not on reinventing the wheel (also went with our motto of keeping life simple!) so we kept the name because it just felt like part of who we were. It’s also a daily reminder of our roots of where we started back in Montverde.

South Lake Tablet – Roberto, Where did you train and develop your culinary skills?

Roberto – My cooking roots and pizza-making skills run deep. My aunts and uncles started moving to Lake County from Italy in the 70s, and began to open up pizza shops throughout the county. My parents, close behind, emigrated to Lake County from Italy in the 80s. Speaking little English, they somehow ended up in the once-small community of Clermont. A few years later they opened the popular Italian eatery Capri, sharing the same location as Green Mountian Pizza today in Clermont’s Sunnyside Plaza. I worked in several of my uncle’s restaurants throughout Lake County including Mount Dora Pizza, Luigi’s (where Miranda & Roberto worked together), Vincent’s of Mount Dora, and Gi Gi’s Italian Restaurant.  I honed my craft and management skills in the food industry across Manhattan before returning to open my very first restaurant, Green Mountain Pizza.

TABLET – You moved your business from Montverde to Clermont. Why? When?

Roberto, Niki, Miranda & Mike – We officially opened Clermont at the end of April 2019, so we’ve been open a little over a year in our new take-out spot. We were originally looking for a second location to expand our business, but the universe doesn’t really care what your plans are. Our lease was ending in Montverde, the building was old and falling into shambles, the build-out was more expensive and took more time than we expected, and we just felt like it was right for our families during that process to completely relocate. The decision was incredibly difficult, because we absolutely love the people we met out in Montverde, but the good news is our most loyal customers still come to us today, and for that, we’re incredibly grateful!

South Lake Tablet: Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business?

Roberto, Niki, Miranda & Mike –  It’s so crazy for all businesses during this time. 2020 has not been an easy year so far (and we’re already not in an easy business). We moved to Clermont with a take-out business in mind and were considered essential, so in the name of keeping good positive mental health, we tried to focus on “business as usual” as much as we could. We felt like our customers were now leaving their homes searching for community and comfort, spending their hard-earned dollars on food for their family. It’s a big responsibility for us to be a positive force in their lives.  Sometimes when a customer comes to the restaurant, it’s their only time out of the house that week, and we don’t take that for granted.

Consistency and kindness are so important to instill faith and trust with your customers. We are grateful that our customers have been kind and patient while we all try to navigate through this together. Supporting local businesses has never been more important than right now!

South Lake Tablet: Is there anything else you’d like to share with the reader?

Roberto, Niki, Miranda & Mike – We just want to say that our mission here is to just spread love in our community. We try to do that with our food. The world feels like it’s so bleak right now, and instead of feeding into that energy, we’re just going to continue to promote love and kindness and hope that others do the same. Food really does bring people together, and over 90% of the population eats pizza, at least one time a month – so we can at least all agree that we love pizza! Our customers are some of the greatest people you’ll ever want to meet, and we hope that we’re able to keep meeting new people and new customers.  We want to serve our community for years to come.

South Lake Tablet: Support our local businesses. Green Mountain Pizza is a great family-owned business.  Drop by and congratulate Roberto, Niki, Miranda, and Mike on their 7 year business anniversary!

The post Green Mountain Pizza Opened 7 Years Ago On July 1, 2013- Congratulations To Roberto and Niki Del Verme /Miranda and Mike Straugh appeared first on South Lake Tablet.