VISIT THE BELLISSIMO FOODS BOOTH AT PIZZA EXPO

Birds Of A Feather

By their second date, Kerrel and Nkem Thompson started making pizza dinners a tradition, checking out a different pizzeria in Chicago every Sunday. When they married, they served pizza at the wedding. Before long, the self-taught Kerrel landed a job slinging pies at a popular Italian restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, despite having no professional experience. By October 2020, he and his wife were running popups around Charlotte, serving gorgeously blistered pies from an Ooni oven. Now Kerrel’s pizza dream has come true with Bird Pizzeria, a brick-and-mortar operation that opened in late December in Charlotte’s Optimist Park neighborhood. “I don’t know what came over me, man, but I’m making pizza like I’ve been doing it for 25 years or something,” Kerrel told the Charlotte Observer. Black-owned pizzerias don’t exactly abound in Charlotte, and Kerrel often finds himself answering some pretty dumb questions. “Because we’re a black family, [people ask,] ‘Do you make your own dough?’” he said. Of course he does. “The pizza we make is the pizza I like the most, which is sort of this hybrid New York/East Coast-style pizza,” he said. Although the Thompsons are both entrepreneurs—they previously owned an apparel company called In Our Nature—Bird Pizzeria is more of a calling than a livelihood for them. “Pizza, man,” Kerrel said. “That’s one of my love languages.”

WHAT BOAT ARE YOU IN?

For pizzeria customers in the COVID-19 economy, some are riding in leaky boats, financially speaking, while others keep sailing briskly along. Pan’s Pizza, a family-owned shop in South Hero, Vermont, has developed a “pay-what-you-can” plan for all of them. The restaurant’s pricing model features color-coded “boats” based on the patron’s ability to pay. Green signifies that the customer can pay full price. White means they’re too strapped to pay anything at all, which qualifies them for one free large pizza per family or a free medium pizza for an individual. Guests in the blue boat pay 75% of the check, while yellow pays 50% and orange pays 25% (limited to one 14” pizza per family or one 12” pizza for an individual). The “What Boat Are You In?” approach lets customers describe their financial situation without fear of stigma, co-owner Justine Zolotas told VTDigger.com. Zolatas’ mother and father opened Pan’s Pizza in 1998 and sold it to Justine, her brother Alexander and Sani Pasagic in 2021. “I really wanted to be able to have [the pricing model] implemented in a way that people didn’t have to feel they were losing any dignity,” Justine said. “The community has been patronizing Pan’s Pizza for, what, 25 years almost? We were like, this is something we can do.”

YOU DON’T NEED A BIG BREWERY TO MAKE A BIG IMPACT. Old Town Pizza’s brewery component Slice Beer Company knows a few things about making big beers in a small space. Slice and BrewBilt teamed up to customize a system that perfectly fits both their brewing style and 1,100-SF production area.

Pizza That Packs A Punch

Alexa Sponcia might not float like a butterfly or sting like a bee, but the two pizzerias she co-owns in Knoxville, Tennessee, will get you in the mood to fight. Hard Knox features a boxing theme, including an Instagram-friendly mural portraying some of the sport’s greatest legends, and signature pies with names like the Rocky Balboa, the La Motta and the Iron Mike. Sponcia and her husband took over ownership of the original Hard Knox location in 2014 from its founders, Dean and Jill Bastian. They opened a second store a few years later, strengthened by Sponcia’s commitment to supporting the community. Under a program called the School of Hard Knox, the pizzeria focuses on supporting Knoxville’s youth and under-resourced schools. In 2021, Hard Knox donated 100% of its store profits for nearly a week—from Tuesday, April 20, through Sunday, April 25—to Austin East Magnet High School. Sponcia continues to look for ways to connect to local kids, including those interested in a career path that doesn’t necessarily start with a college degree. Some of them, she hopes, just might be future restaurateurs. “How do we educate them in a different way?” Sponcia said in an interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel, which named her to its 40-under-40 list earlier this year. “Most restaurant owners are super-creative, all over the place, and most of the time entrepreneurs aren’t A students. I love the idea of giving hope, [showing] that we care who they are—how can we connect?”

CHILLIN’ WITH A COLD CHEESE SLICE

Some food writers compare the cold cheese slice to a barely edible Lunchables meal. But customers at shops like Tino’s Pizza and Restaurant in Oneanta, New York, and Beto’s Pizza in Pittsburgh say, hey, bro, it’s chill. The Daily Meal credits Tino’s for inventing the style, which is a fully baked pizza piled with extra shredded cheese—usually but not always mozzarella—straight from the fridge. Some aficionados like it with cold pepperoni slices, too. The cold cheese adds an extra layer of flavor and lets you quickly bite into a slice without waiting for it to cool. Younger guests at Little Vincent’s Pizza, a no-frills pizza shop in Huntington, New York, say it’s the perfect drunk food. Agotino Garufi Jr. says his dad invented the cold cheese pizza in response to a customer’s special request when he opened Tino’s in 1985. “This guy came up to the counter and asked for a slice,” Garufi told the Daily Meal. “But it was too hot, so he [asked for] some cold mozzarella cheese on top so he could eat it right away.” At first, Tino’s tossed on the extra mozz for free, but as the style caught on, they began charging extra for it. Beto’s has taken the style one step further, topping all of its pies with freshly shredded cold provolone, plus tomato slices, jalapeños and other cold toppings upon request.