5 things to know before you try the new Dough Boys Pizza in Old Town Bluffton

The newest pizza sensation in Old Town Bluffton is a name many on Hilton Head Island will recognize.

Dough Boys Pizza, which is in its 11th year of business on the island, has opened a second location at 1230 May River Road in the historic building that once was home to Scotts Market. More recently, the space was Bluffton Trading Post, though that closed in late 2022.

Now, rows of booths and tables covered with red-and-white-checked tablecloths stretch from the front to the back of the space.

Here are five things to know about the new Bluffton restaurant:

It’s a much larger space than the Hilton Head location.

The brand new kitchen at the Bluffton restaurant, with a footprint of about 1,000 square feet, is the size of the entire restaurant on Hilton Head.

“The space when we took it over was just one big shoe box, so to speak,” said co-owner Chris Gregory. “We were able to transform it into what we hope is going to be a successful family pizza place.”

The larger kitchen and a dining area that seats up to 80 people — the whole restaurant is about 3,000 square feet — means a more pleasant experience for customers overall and the ability to serve larger parties.

“If you’re waiting for a pizza on the island and you’re waiting for a to-go pizza, you’re standing right next to somebody that is dining,” Gregory explained.

By contrast, the Bluffton restaurant has a small seating area and counter set up specifically for take-out customers.

“Hilton Head is 80% take out and delivery. We are hoping that will flip-flop here where it’s 80% dine in,” Gregory said.

Dough Boys eventually will deliver in Bluffton but not right now.

The restaurant on Hilton Head offers delivery, but that’s not currently an option in Bluffton while the staff works up to creating and serving the full menu and dealing with online orders.

“We have a very good reputation on the island,” Gregory said. “We don’t want to tarnish that here, so we’re working at a pace that the food is the same quality, that the timing is the same.”

Once the staff gets to the point where the needs of the dine-in and take-out customers are being met efficiently, only then will delivery be an option.

“And when we do, we’ll use our own drivers,” Gregory said. “We take great care with the recipes and the menus and preparing the food. And I want someone that works for me delivering it.”

The pizza is not New York-style. It’s Dough Boys style.

Mike Kelly, a longtime employee and now a partner in Dough Boys, is responsible for the restaurant’s pizza-making process.

He started making pizzas as a 16-year-old in New York, but that doesn’t mean the pies he turns out here are New York-style.

“We don’t try to replicate that. .... We make our own style of pizza,” Gregory said. “We have South Carolina pizza with the history of New York and Boston.”

“I kind of brought what I have to the table with different recipes and styles,” Kelly said.

The hand-tossed crust is soft and foldable, the sauce is made in-house with 12 different ingredients, and the toppings are fresh and generous. Dough Boys uses about 10 ounces of sauce and a pound of cheese on each large pizza.

“Pizza is one of those things that everybody has a different perspective about what pizza is,” Kelly said. “People love pizza so much that it automatically has high expectations. Hopefully, we can meet those expectations.”

Last year, Trip Advisor ranked Dough Boys as the best pizza on Hilton Head.

Gregory attributed that to Dough Boys’ consistency.

“Day one pizza and day 1,000 pizza should be the same,” he said. “If you like it once, you’re going to like it the next time you come in.”

A staff favorite is the Ben’s Banging Basil pizza. The hand-tossed crust is topped with pesto sauce, chicken, red onion, fresh basil, sliced tomato and cheese.

Ollie’s All the Way starts with a red sauce base and is topped with pepperoni, sausage, meatball, mushrooms, sweet onion, green pepper, black olives and cheese.

The pizza isn’t the only draw.

While pizza makes up the majority of orders, Dough Boys has an extensive menu otherwise.

“Pasta is one of the things that we get constantly asked for on the island,” Gregory said. With the extra kitchen space in Bluffton, Dough Boys eventually will be able to add more pasta options.

For now, the spaghetti and meatballs and the chicken parmesan are popular choices. The menu also includes a lineup of appetizers, calzones and subs, including a traditional Philly cheese steak.

“Everybody loves cheesy bread and garlic knots,” Gregory said.

There’s also a more unique section of the menu that offers unlimited customization: the chopped salads.

“We were visiting a friend of ours in New York City and went to a restaurant called Chopped, and it was sort of a Subway set up where you walked in the door, but it was all salad items, and you just went down the line and told them exactly what you wanted,” Gregory explained. “So we mimicked that here.”

At Dough Boys, there’s a list of salad ingredients on the table, and diners can choose exactly what they’d like their bowl to include.

“The salads are a home run. You can’t get a better salad,” Gregory said. “We joke around that if you don’t like it, it’s your fault because you chose the ingredients.”

Bonus tip for salads or as a dipping sauce: The ranch dressing, made in house, gets rave reviews.

Parking played a role in the hours.

Dough Boys in Bluffton has been open starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and will be closed on Monday, March 25.

Beginning March 26, though, Gregory expects the restaurant to be open seven days a week, from 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 3 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Happy hour will be from 3 to 5 p.m. daily at the bar only for $1 off beer, $2 off wine or a slice of cheese pizza for 99 cents. Early dining from 3 to 4:45 p.m. includes a “2 for $20” menu.

“Parking during the day is an issue here, so that’s why we’re only doing nights currently,” Gregory said. “We hope to really start doing the business lunches and catering during the day. ... We’ll bring it to them during lunch.”

He said one of the differences between the Bluffton and Hilton Head locations is the amount of foot traffic, people jogging or walking dogs or pushing strollers, in Bluffton.

“I didn’t realize how many people drove their golf carts in Bluffton,” Gregory said, explaining that there is dedicated golf cart parking behind Dough Boys.

So far, the response to the Bluffton location has been positive.

“The third night we were here, we did more (business) than what we did on Hilton Head, and that was without advertising, without a website,” Gregory said. “We’re trying to just pick up what we did on Hilton Head and drop it out here over the bridge in a bigger location, and it’s been successful so far.”