Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Staff making pizzas at Red Wagon Pizza Co. in Minneapolis
You might be getting tired of hearing the phrase: we're all in this together. Perhaps especially when it comes from weary celebrities on their yachts, "suffering" along with us. Maybe I need to recalibrate the phrase for you with a good story.
If you didn't know, Red Wagon Pizza in the South Minny 54th/Penn neighborhood, has been featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in the past. Guess what, they've kind of become pals. Yeah, they hang out in #flavortown. Enough at least, that chef Peter Campbell is one of only 12 chefs to be featured on Fieri's new special: DDD: Takeout.
The new Food Network show debuts this Friday and will feature a virtual reunion of 12 alums from the shows run. In each episode, Fieri will dial up some restaurant pals via web chat, and cook the food that they are using to keep their restaurants alive via takeout. Red Wagon will be part of the episode airing next week, May 1st.
Campbell knows what kind of exposure this brings for his business, he's seen bumps in the past when his old episodes would be re-run. At a time when every bit of help counts, Campbell fired up his creative restaurant brain. "Most of our business happens when guests pull open our door. But that can't happen for a while. Our neighborhood is supporting us greatly, and we are so appreciative, but what can I do with this when the guy in Indiana watching the show wants it, but can't get on a plane to come try it." So, with the help of some friends, he's improvising.
On May 1st, in conjunction with the show, Campbell is launching an e-commerce app for his pizza. The goal is to be able to send his pizzas to anyone in the country who's hungry for one. "I didn't even have a freezer on site, but I started reaching out. I knew I had to move mountains, and that I had no cash to invest, but if I could figure this out I could send pizza nationally," Campbell told me.
So he put out a call for a blast freezer on Facebook. A friend knew a friend and it lead him to Brian Cepek, who had a $15,000 blast freezer Campbell could use, "No questions asked, he just loaned it to me. He said let's see how this works out for you, if it does we'll square it later. In 12 hours I had a freezer. Then Luke from Craft & Crew connected me with Mark Palm from Chameleon Concessions and all of sudden I had more freezers I could use." The actions of his food people were overwhelming to him.
"Steven Brown gave me his vacuum sealer, Eliesa Johnson and Annie D'Souza of The Restaurant Project dropped everything to help us build a website, David Sundberg and Seamus Culligan jumped in to work on the packaging, and you know the whole world is falling apart with despair and sadness and all I kept seeing was love and generosity. This community blows me away. Some of these folks have tightened up timelines or deferred payment or provided services gratis. Ultimately it's them who've made it possible for me to pivot without risking total financial collapse."
It's so much more than just pizza. The whole point of Fieri's show is to highlight the small neighborhood spots who are not getting million dollar bail outs, but are still paying their vendors and working hard to earn the trust of their guests. Campbell confided in me that at first he felt weird about celebrating this, when so many of his friends are struggling. But he came to think of it differently, "We can do this, on a national level, small restaurants can do this. There are no more secrets, no hidden tricks, if I can help another restaurant figure out how to stay alive, I will tell them everything." All in this together.
The e-commerce feature is still being worked on furiously by many, and will launch on May 1 with the episode. At 11am that app will go live LOCALLY with a takeout deal for that night, DDD Favorites: 2 par-baked pizzas (Carl the Cuban and RWP) and a bottle of Red Car Rosé for $55, so that everyone can have a virtual watch party from their own couches. Then at 8pm, the site will be live for mail order pizzas.
Maybe if you're missing someone in another state, you should send them a hometown pizza. Because, you can.
