http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_3380304
Article Last Updated: 01/07/2006 07:21:09 AM
You buy and they fly pizza in Alaska
By Katie Pesznecker, ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS
HARD to believe, but Nome has just gotten its first pizza delivery
business, a joint that brings gourmet pies to people's doors and even
flies special orders to Bush villages hundreds of miles away.
For free.
It may not arrive hot, but it's all the rage in this Northwest Alaska
region where Nome, with its 3,500 residents, had no food delivery
options until Airport Pizza launched.
"Before we were opened, Nome had to be the last town in America that
didn't have pizza delivery," said Matt Tomter, Airport Pizza manager.
"So we didn't come up with anything new. We just applied the same
concept to Nome."
Their motto: "You buy, we fly!" Delivery is free to villages by Frontier
Flying Service. And Nome and its surrounding villages are grateful.
"I have eaten there many times," said Kirsten Timbers, 23, director of
Nome's Children's Advocacy Center. "It's so good. I love it. All kinds
of sauces, good ingredients, like artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes,
really fresh, good garlic. It is the latest craze. Everyone's eating it
up."
Tomter said he and his wife first thought of opening the place about a
year and a half ago when the family moved back to Nome. One night,
daughter Katie, now 8, suggested ordering pizza.
"And we said, 'Well, there is no pizza delivery in Nome,'" Tomter said.
But what if there were?
"So we explored the idea, hemmed and hawed because it was a pretty
significant investment," Tomter said. "Then we kind of put it on hold."
Soon after, Tomter's carpet-cleaning business was helping soak up water
left by firefighters who put out a blaze in Nome. In the charred
interior, among the rubble, sat a bulky pizza oven, about 6 feet wide,
all rock on the inside, slate bottom, brick on top.
"I said, 'Hey, how much do you want for that?' And they said, 'If you
get it out of here, it's free,'" Tomter said. "And I thought, 'Let's see
if we can make some money with that thing.'"
It took eight buddies and a forklift to haul the 3,500-pound oven to
Frontier's lot at the Nome airport. Tomter's wife, JeriAnn, rented a
building there and came up with the money needed to open the restaurant.
They found a dough recipe, created a menu and opened for business Aug.
5.
"We just went for it," Tomter said. "None of us in here the day we
opened had ever made a pizza for a living. It was chaos, it was crazy —
our busiest night so far. We made a couple hundred pizzas."
In fact, patron Timbers gave Airport Pizza the ultimate Alaska
compliment: "It's comparable to the Moose's Tooth," she said, naming
Anchorage's revered pizzeria.
Anchorage resident Sye Larson agreed. The Nome native went home for the
holidays and ate his share of Airport pizza.
"It's a lot better than the rest of the stuff in town," Larson said.
"Basically, it is Moose's Tooth pizza. The crust tastes the same, and
the toppings — they have chicken and fresh produce. It's not like canned
stuff. You go to other places up here, and they just serve crap. Airport
Pizza is really fluffy and the texture is nice.
"I don't know how they pull it off. It's a good eatery," Larson said.
"We're not as busy as the Moose's Tooth," Tomter said. "We don't do 500
pizzas a night, but yeah, it's been good since day one."
Just before Christmas, 50 pizzas were flown to Savoonga, about 160 miles
west of Nome on the northern coast of St. Lawrence Island. Mayor Jane
Kava said the city ordered them as gifts for families.
The order: Twenty-five Hawaiians, with Canadian bacon, pineapple,
mozzarella and marinara; and 25 chicken ranch, with chicken, bacon, red
onion, tomato, mozzarella, cheddar and country ranch sauce.
Scott Crowe, station manager for Frontier's Nome office, said the
airline doesn't get anything out of the deal — except sometimes Tomter
will bring over free pizza for people kept grounded because of bad
weather.
"It was just one of those things that we decided we were going to do to
help people out," Crowe said. "There are some days we send 10 or 12
pizzas to villages. It's good for the people, it's good for a little
publicity, not to mention I get a free pizza every now and then."
/end
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Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
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