UNITY – For Areti “Rita” Menoudarakos, co-owner of the Unity House of Pizza Cafi and Bar, it was love at first sight when she saw the town and countryside three years ago.

She and her family would drive to Unity from their home in Waterville to watch the cars compete at the Unity Raceway.

“We started driving around to look at the area,” she said. “I fell in love with the town.”

Shortly afterward, Vee and Rita Menoudarakos started their kitchen and restaurant in the center unit of the three-unit brick building on Main Street. As each of the two flanking businesses vacated, the Menoudarakoses expanded the pizza shop with a dining area on one side and a bar and lounge area on the other.

The Unity House of Pizza Cafi and Bar now consists of the three connected units at 118 Main St. across the road from the Unity Telephone Co.

First- and second-generation Greek-American immigrants, respectively, Vee and Rita Menoudarakos also have operated the Madison House of Pizza, Fairfield House of Pizza and Winslow House of Pizza, which they ran for 12 years.

“We sold those to come here,” Rita Menoudarakos said in an interview Friday.

If the couple seems committed to the town, it appears they may have caught the spirit of Unity’s friendliness and community they observed here.

Since December, the Menoudarakoses have hosted three pancake breakfasts to benefit the Unity Volunteer Fire Department for its proposed new station.

The couple also has given free pizzas to the local elementary school children, various fundraisers and athletic teams from Mount View High School in nearby Thorndike.

The Menoudarakoses continue to live in Waterville and make the 20-minute trek daily because they do not want to uproot their children from the schools there. But when the time comes, they would like to relocate to Unity, she said.

Rita Menoudarakos praised the friendliness and openness of the residents. “It’s like family,” she said of the community of 1,700 people.

“People here are very respectful to others,” she said.

That civility often extends to local “coffee can fundraisers” placed in public businesses around town to help people in need, she added.

“I grew up outside of Boston, and I’m not used to this friendliness. If somebody here has an emergency, they put out a collection can and it’s filled up two or three times with coins and bills,” she said.

“Two years ago, cans were put out for victims of three fires, and every week each can had to be emptied,” she said.

A member of the Unity Area Rotary Club, she said that a lot of businesses and organizations are dedicated to preserving the village area’s downtown. Unity is a shopping destination for surrounding towns, including Freedom, Knox, Troy, Thorndike, Burnham and Benton, she said.

“The Unity Barn Raisers do a lot of work,” she said of a local community betterment organization. Last February, the Barn Raisers hosted a community meal at the Community House for the Friends of Unity Wetlands. The meal included pizzas from the House of Pizza made with toppings and cheese from local farmers.

A native of Lowell, Mass., Rita, 36, and her husband, Vrasidas Menoudarakos, 39, known locally as Rita and Vee, moved to Waterville in 1987 with her mother, who started a House of Pizza business in Farmington, which she still runs.

“I’ve helped with that one, too,” Rita Menoudarakos said.

Inside the pizza shop, paintings of Greek coastal villages and one of a Greek Orthodox Church are mounted against light gray and blue walls. A sign over the doorway depicts snowmen in a line with a caption reading, “Snowmen will melt your heart.”

On the menu, pizza accounts for more than half of the eatery’s sales. Rounding out the menu is a variety of hot and cold grinders, pasta dishes, salads, burgers, seafood dinners and gyros, a special Greek sub.

Three of the pizzas are named for family members: Vrasidas, Stavroula (the couple’s 16-year-old daughter), and Zaharias (their 11-year-old son).

Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

The bar is open 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 5 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

The eatery seats 65, except in the summer, when another 15 may eat on the outside deck.

The restaurant employs between eight and 12 people, including students from Unity College.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

236-4598