“When we told friends our idea, they would say, ‘Oh, like The Willy-T!’” Sasha said. The Willy-T is a popular floating bar/restaurant/boat anchored in the British Virgin Islands. The boat is named for Dr. William Thornton, the architect born in the British Virgin Islands who designed the U.S. Capitol building. But it is renowned for serving body shots and the customers who jump from the deck without the accompaniment of clothing. Essentially, a floating Girls Gone Wild video stuck on repeat.
“No,” he told them firmly. “Not like the Willy-T!”
For now, the life of Pi is a quiet one. The couple heads out to the boat each morning to get the ovens warmed up. “Then we might go wake boarding or swimming and just try to enjoy the water,” Tara said. Then they work from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. and watch the set set at night. Sasha, unsurprisingly, does not miss his cubicle.
“On an average day, we make about 25 pies for 20 different customers. On a busy day, we’ll have 30 or 40 boats stop by,” he said. The couple also caters to private events. When Drink, a popular St. John beach bar, hosted a movie night featuring Jaws, Pi anchored offshore and dinghy delivered the pizzas to the moviegoers on shore. The floating pizzeria also hosted an event on International Pi Day on March 14th (3.14.15—see what they did there?), which was a sales record. “We sold 90 pizzas that day—It was a crazy, amazing day.”
When asked about expanding, the couple says they’d have to finish their current project first. They recently bought a condo in St. Thomas that they’re gutting and renovating themselves. They’re also expecting a delivery of the non-pizza variety: a daughter due this December. “I have a new delivery girl!” Tara laughed.
For now they’re simply enjoying the ride. Currently, Pi is ranked as the best restaurant in St. Thomas on Trip Advisor. It has 59 five-star reviews and one four-star review. The four-star reviewer conceded that the pizza is “delicious” but docked points because Pi doesn’t deliver to her house.
One ambitious customer was jonesing so hard he swam over from shore. “We asked him, ‘Wait, how were you going to carry this back. What was your plan?’” Tara laughed. She let him hop in the delivery dinghy and eat his pizza there. “But I made him hang out for an extra half hour so he wouldn’t get a cramp swimming back.”