Ray Swaiti, the former owner of the Mr. G's gas station on Wakefield Street, plans to change that. He's scheduled to open Italia Express -- an eatery specializing in pasta, pizza and subs -- sometime this week.

Why Italian? It's in Swaiti's blood.

"Part of me is Italian and the other part from the Holy Land," he said. "Both sides, they can cook real good. If I don't catch it from the mother side, I catch it from the father side."

Swaiti has a deep history in the business of food. He owned the original Teddy's Pizza on Poole Road in Raleigh; he managed a Pizza Hut for three years and worked with Wake County Public School System Child Nutrition Services for five years.

After 10 years he got into the gas station business at several locations in Raleigh before becoming the owner of Mr. G's in 2000.

Cooking is his passion, and that was something he grew to miss at Mr. G's.

"Over there when I used to cook the customers would ask (if) I (could) sell them a plate and I had to say I wasn't qualified to sell a plate," Swaiti said. "I could give them a free plate just to test it, but that's it."

He wanted to add a food element at Mr. G's, but said it would have cost him too much. That's when the idea of Italia Express was born.

Swaiti has a simple policy on food. He uses creativity and a guess-and-check process until he comes up with a product not he, but his customers think is quality. He's also a stickler for sanitation ."There's an old saying that the eyes eat before the mouth," Swaiti said. "I like everything to be clean. The place has to be spotless. If I cannot eat out of this plate, I cannot and will not give it to my customers."

Italia will mark the fourth restaurant at the location in the last five years, but a lack of business didn't put an end to the past eateries. Hound Dog Cafe owner Ed Ardizzone was simply ready to get out of the business and Hannah Whitley, who ran Corner Grill after Hound Dog Cafe, decided to close up shop for health reasons. The Brown family, which most recently operated Jake's Place, decided to focus all their attention on their original location in Middlesex.

The property owner over that time, Brian Bullock, who is working out an ownership agreement with Swaiti, said he sees no warning signs of a short tenure for Italia Express.

"Ray's got a lot of energy and wants to make this work," Bullock said. "I support him in that and hope the town will, as well. He's all about having a quality product and is a very pleasant guy." In addition Italian cuisine, Italia will retain the hot dog and hamburger element past businesses have sold at the location. It will not serve alcohol, because Swaiti says he wants to create a family environment.

"I just want people to be able to come and enjoy dinner with their kids, sit down, watch TV, get good service and leave happy," he said.

The restaurant will open at 10:30 a.m. seven days a week. It will stay open until 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 11 on Friday and Saturday. Swaiti expected his first food order to arrive today.