Dough Roller’s Legacy Began, Continues With Family

OCEAN CITY – The Dough Roller founder Bill Gibbs said he always knew he would be a restauranteur.

“I love the restaurant business,” he said. “I love making pizza. I love feeding people. I like the challenge.”

As an Ocean City native, Gibbs spent his adolescent years as a beach boy for the Breakers Hotel. As he rented out umbrellas, chairs and surf mats, visitors would often approach him for dining recommendations.

“People were constantly asking me where to go eat,” he said. “So I’d send them down the Boardwalk.”

At the age of 14, Gibbs began his first restaurant gig serving pizza at a local establishment. By the age of 22, he had bought Jose’s, an old pizza shop on Wicomico Street.

“That was my first store,” he said. “I sold pizza, soda and beer for six or seven years. Then in 1980 I got the opportunity to buy the Breakers Hotel. Having been the beach boy and hearing so many people talk about where to go eat, I thought ‘well, I’ll put a pizza place out front.’”

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