Smoke fills the air of your minimalist one-bedroom apartment. You look up in immediate realization and horror as you remember the baked ziti cooking to a crisp in your outdated and definitely-against-safety-regulations oven.
As the piercing screech of the smoke alarm sounds, you frantically fan the smoke with an old Cosmopolitan magazine. No romance self-help article could have prepared you for this moment. Teary-eyed, you begin to panic. What food can you serve to your Tinder date now?
Luckily for you, if that scenario were to ever take place, a new local pizza shop has recently opened in Wilmore, Kentucky.
On Dec. 30, co-owners Tom Fogger, a retired Army Chief Warrant Officer and Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, and Chris Hale, formerly with Home Office Wal-Mart IT Operations, opened Main Street Pizzeria & Creamery’s doors to the public.
The little town of Wilmore has been starving for a stable pizza shop for years, and after a meticulous researching of Wilmore demographics, Main Street Pizzeria set up shop alongside other local business owners.
What makes Main Street Pizzeria differ from other pizzerias? That would be their fresh-made products and hand-crafted recipes. Every item on the shop’s menu is an original recipe, created by the owners and made from scratch every night for the next day’s upcoming customers. The menu consists of a wide array of pizza choices, cheese sticks, avant-garde portzas and salads, which are all available for take-out.
In the spring, the shop also plans to add ice cream to the offered products.
Not only have the owners devoted their shop to a “made-fresh” establishment foundation, Fogger and Hale also seek to tie community into Main Street Pizzeria’s vision.
“We’re making efforts to connect with our local business owners on Main Street … Everyone is super tight and involved with each other. They’re amazing. There’s no comparison to the people of Wilmore,” said Hale.
The owners desire to incorporate other local businesses into the inner workings of the restaurant and give back to the town of Wilmore by allowing the businesses to advertise their products and services on the pizzeria’s glass shelving units free-of-charge.
The pizzeria will also be involved in the town’s micro-school and will allow children to come and partake in “build your pizza day” as an elective. The children will make and shape their dough, as well as top it, and lastly, enjoy their self-made pizza.
Regardless of the town’s regulations and executive orders due to the coronavirus, the pizza shop opened, hoping not to have the current “shut down” state be a detriment. Following the coronavirus policies such as frequent sanitization, mask requirements and limited capacities and contiguous with the wake of another COVID-19 increase, the pizzeria’s opening suffered no consequences.
Due to a limited capacity for pizza dough and the popularity of the newfound shop, the products have been intermittently selling out.
“We’ve already gotten a lot of repeat business which is really what drives a restaurant. It’s validating our recipes and has us excited,” said Fogger.
Customers are encouraged to call ahead and reserve a time slot for their pizzas to secure their orders during the busy evenings, but walk-ins are also welcomed!
Aside from the ingredients, the net profit incomes and the 14-hour workdays, the founders of Main Street Pizzeria desire it to amount to much more than a mere business, having a purpose as well.
“At the end of the day, we’re not doing it for money. We’re here to build a home for ourselves,” said Hale.
“We’re excited to be here. We’re a fresh restaurant that’s doing everything we can to bring our community together. Business. People. Students. We want Wilmore to be a destination location,” said Fogger.
Wiping the sweat from your brow and taking a deep breath of carbon monoxide emitting from your oven, you let out a sigh of relief and dial the shop’s number.
Thank God for Main Street Pizzeria.
