Pizza Today - October 2023 - 55

By Drew Butler
I
opened up a pretzel vending
business in 2017 after finding a
gourmet pretzel from San Diego
Pretzel company. I acquired an old
school pretzel cart from the guy who
used to sell pretzels at the Pasadena
Rose Parade. Not 100 percent sure
what or where was next, my wife
suggested, " Why don't you sell pretzels
at the Breweries? " Genius!
We sold pretzels from San Diego
to Sacramento and many breweries
in between. As a big craft beer fan, it
was a great gig. Beer and Pretzels are
a perfect match. I also specialized in
homemade mustard, flavored mustard
blends and eventually several
cheese sauces. It was going great,
then Covid hit. The brewery business
in California was closed for on-site
consumption and events. I was out
of business.
After re opening, I knew my
model had to shift and grow. Selling
" snacks " for $4-$6 dollars was fun,
but not very lucrative or even profitable
some days. I decided making
pizzas was next to get that average
price up to $16-$20. Beer and Pizza
are also a natural pairing, plus it's a
meal!
I went all in on learning the pizza
profession. I attended Pizza Expo in
Las Vegas and nerded out, learning
so much from the stars of the
pizza world. I listened to almost 100
podcast episodes. I learned about
different doughs, oven types, tomato
manufacturers, cheese and so many
stories about people rising in the
pizza world. I already had a great
game making home pizza, but I
knew so little about the logistics of
going pro for the public. In preparation
to going back to the breweries,
I followed a suggestion to donate
pizzas to a local cause. I did a dozen
pop-up events in front of my house
to fundraise for my son's high school
football team.
I raised almost $2,500 for the
program, got some great experience
and received extremely good feedback
on my pizza. Several neighbors
suggested a local market had a pizza
oven that no one was baking in.
After talking to the owner of Jackson
Market I started making pizza
in their wood fired oven.
Some good deeds do go unpunished!
For
the last several months now,
I have operated Market Pizza by
Drew Butler and it has been life
changing. As a longtime excellent
home cook, I never wanted to make
my passion into a profession for fear
of it turning into " work. " And I'm
sure you all know the saying, " if you
love what you do, you'll never work
a day in your life. " It's absolutely
true. I'm doing what I love, and my
customers are loving my pizza. The
plethora of positive feedback has
filled my tank abundantly; more
than anything else I've ever done. I
now live for it, and it has made me
very happy.
Of course, any business owner
knows it is hard work with long
hours that you wouldn't trade for
anything. I trained my son and he
improved rapidly. To work beside
him was a highlight of parenting.
Truly. The pizza world has amazing
people, community and consumers.
It's a fantastic industry that I'm
blessed to part of.
In closing, may I suggest starting
your dream, your passion today. It
took me way too long to start while
doing " homework " and investigating,
etc. All of that is fine but can lead to
analysis paralysis. In reality, dreams
don't start tomorrow; dreams begin
right NOW! Go for it. Today.
DREW BUTLER is owner-operator of
Market Pizza.
OCTOBER 2023 / PIZZATODAY.COM / 55
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - October 2023

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