Monday afternoon, Randy Smith, a boyish-looking blonde with bright blue eyes, strode into the pizza shop on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

He looked like a delivery guy, with a backwards baseball cap atop a youthful crop of hair and red T-shirt, but he wasn't -- he was the owner. He was on his way back from the bank when he checked in with the kitchen before strolling right back out to run more errands.

When he returned 20 minutes later, one of his staffers asked if he wanted something from Burger King for a late lunch.

"I've got so much stuff to do I don't really want to think about food right now," he answered.

That was ironic, since Smith had hours of pizza-making ahead of him -- including an order of 13 pies due at Duke University in 45 minutes, and similar orders due every half hour or so until 6:30 that evening.

This is life for Smith, owner of Randy's Pizza, which was recently rated best pizzeria in Durham by readers of a local newspaper, outdoing popular chains -- not too shabby for someone who started out as a delivery guy.

The 37-year-old got into the business not due to some affinity for cheese and tomato sauce, nor due to any Italian roots (he's Irish). He simply started out delivering pizzas while trying to make it as a rock musician, and trained his way up as a hard worker interested in the business.

He has opened five Randy's Pizza shops since 1995, including the branch that recently came to the Northgate Mall. Originally on Broad Street, Smith agreed in March to take over the business he initially sold as a franchise when the mall offered a nice deal on the new space. Inadequate parking, poor visibility, and a broken air conditioner eventually doomed the Broad Street location that opened in 2004.

Though he is from Florida, he advertises New York-style pizza and subs. His training by three brothers born in Italy gives his pies a credibility that most pizza shops south of New Jersey lack.

"Unlike national chain pizza places, we work on stone, we work on brick ovens," Smith said. "Everything is made fresh daily."

That includes shredding pounds and pounds of mozzarella, chopping vegetables and working dough into that traditionally thin New York-style crust.

He also serves up famously large slices of pizza.

"I made that slice [of] pie the biggest you can get in town so I could say I had the biggest slice in North Carolina," Smith said, unlike other places that charge $2.99 for a piece half that size. His plain cheese slice costs $2.15.

Smith got his start in Florida working for John Steel. When Steel moved to North Carolina, Smith followed. "[Steel] told me that if I learned everything I could learn in this business, then I could make a fortune."

When Steel needed someone to fill in for him during vacation, one of the Franzese brothers (who hail from Mola di Bari, Italy) came to help out. Tonino, Frank and Giacomo Franzese then offered Smith a job.

Smith worked seven days a week, from opening to closing. He was single at the time and had no other friends in North Carolina. He's been married now for 17 years and has two teenagers.

"It was easier to be at the shop than sitting at home," said Smith, who enjoys meeting new people. "I'm a very open person ... people knew me by my first name."

The Franzeses had a couple of pizzerias in North Carolina and Virginia where Smith learned how to work beach crowds, military bases and college campuses -- key pizza markets. Before long, he knew the particulars of the industry.

In 1992, he came to the Triangle to run a shop for the Franzeses in Chapel Hill. He opened his own business in Durham in 1995 -- the Randy's Pizza on Martin Luther King Boulevard -- and it's been a success ever since.

"He is what he is right now because he is a good kid," said Frank Franzese.

Smith has used the same pizza recipe for 11 years -- a combination derived from all his training. "John taught me how to make pizza, the Franzese brothers made me better," he said.

Ray Rose attests to that quality. For the past 11 years, he has eaten the pizza a few times a week. And as a Long Island native, he knows what good pizza tastes like.

"It is New York-style pizza," Rose stresses. He sticks to the pizza, and says any pie is good, though he typically keeps it simple. "Usually just cheese though, 'cause it's just so good I don't want to taint it."

It's not just the pie that draws him in, though. "He's a real kind of community-minded guy," Rose said of the owner, who regularly hires high school students as sophomores who, in turn, often end up working there through their senior year and then during college breaks.

Smith likes feeling he's a part of the Triangle community, and he doesn't plan on leaving any time soon. He is opening a shop in Morrisville later this year, and has two restaurants planned for Raleigh in 2007.

"He's a great guy," Rose said. "The way they treat their customers is a bonus because their pizza is so good."