Pizza, cheesesteaks, fast cars and Hollywood. What do they have in common?

Answer: New York Richie’s, a combo platter of high-definition television, food and an owner literally out of the movies.

“In my La Grande store, the people who were coming from Enterprise and Joseph told me I should come up to this area,” said Richie “B.” (That’s how he introduces himself; his last name is Brose). “The only way I would come up here is if I found a pizza place that was defunct.”

The good news for Enterprise pizza lovers is that Brose did indeed find a defunct pizza joint on Main Street next to Warde Park. He only needed to make minor changes before opening Sept. 15. Among the alterations: two plasma high-definition television sets and the racecar body that’s hanging on the front of the building.

His love for racing and boxing was his inspiration to install the television sets in both his restaurants, offering patrons entertainment while they dine.

Brose attributes his success to the most important element of his restaurant: the food.

“My products are superior. I’m not trying to knock anybody else’s stuff. They’ve been in business for a lot of years out here. But I’m bringing something new and exciting that’s been around for over a 100 years in New York.

“I don’t cut corners,” he said. “I use whole-milk mozzarella, which nobody else does because it’s very expensive these days. Ours is a signature sauce; it’s all fresh ingredients. I use Romano cheese, expensive French garlic, a good wine.”

Along the way, Brose developed his “Viper Sauce,” soon to be broadly distributed and available in grocery stores, he said. It’s a hot sauce he says goes with anything.

Born in Harrison, N.Y. in 1956, Richie credits his grandmother for his cooking skills. “My grandmother started it with a bakery. My grandmother taught my mother, my mother taught me. We had to fend for ourselves. She’d cook for the outlying boroughs and we had to cook for ourselves, which was fine with me. That’s how I learned. “

“People who have been around food, especially pizza or Philly cheesesteaks, say, ‘I’m from Philly, I know Philly cheesesteaks,’ they say it’s some of the best stuff they’ve ever had,” he said. “Not one day has gone by where I haven’t heard somebody say it’s the best they’ve ever had and thanking me for being in this community. I’m flattered.

“People don’t have to tell me that, though. It would be kind of foolish for me – as charismatic as I am, or cocky – to have food that sucks,” he said.

His journey to Enterprise involved a few pit stops along the way. While working as a bodyguard in Las Vegas he learned of an audition in Los Angeles for Conan the Barbarian Live, a stage show produced for Universal Studio’s theme park.

“When I auditioned for the part, there were 2,000 just as big as me on this sound stage. Gary Goddard, the producer, says to me, ‘Richie, do something to intimidate me to prove you can portray Conan the Barbarian.’ Everybody was looking at me. So I turned around, stuck my head back in the streets of New York, and turned whatever he gave me as a prop – from a shield and an axe to a garbage can cover and a switchblade – and literally ran after him through the sound stage. I made noises that hopefully resembled a barbarian, and he’s running for his life, basically.

“He turns around, throws two big guys in front of me and says, ‘Get this a–hole away from me. But hire him.'”

So, for the next 10 years, Brose played Conan, which led to parts on such television series as “Married With Children,” “Charles In Charge,” “Night Court,” “The A-Team,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Simon and Simon” and ESPN’s “Body Shaping,” as well as in the movie “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” wherein he played Tarzan.

After two marriages, Brose is “single and unavailable,” he said.

Fed up with what he called “that vain city,” Brose left Los Angeles for the Pacific Northwest. After opening one restaurant in Vancouver, Wash., and two others in Portland, Brose headed for La Grande, opening yet another in 2004.

Not only did Brose open his newest eatery in Wallowa County, he now lives here as well. What was the attraction?

“It’s not something you see with your eyes,” he said. “It’s something that comes from your heart. It’s a passion for life, a simpler life with real people.”