“We didn’t say a word to anybody. We just quietly lit the oven and started baking pizzas.”
Veteran chef Jeff Condit, owner of Kerrytown Market & Shops’ newest business, believes that’s better than trying to make a big splash. “Opening many, many restaurants over my career, I know that’s not the way to do it,” he says. “Quietly open the door, get your staff trained, get the culture in place, and get the people what they need to be successful.”
PizzaPazza launched shortly before Christmas in the ground-floor space that most recently hosted Sparrow Kitchen. It offers ten-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas—along with herb cheese bread, focaccia, and salads—for takeout or fast-casual dine-in. The alliterative name contains the Italian word for crazy, and the tagline is “wood fired and crazy good.”
After opening “many, many restaurants in my career,” veteran chef Jeff Condit had no interest in making a big splash when his food truck business moved indoors—he wanted to get everyone trained and ready first. | Photo: J. Adrian Wylie
A combination of slower-burning oak and hotter-burning ash fuels the oven to 900 degrees, compared to 400 to 500 for a conventional pizza oven. Condit explains that this gives the crust a caramelized char, with a more complex flavor resulting from the Maillard chemical reaction between amino acids and the reducing sugars in the dough. It’s also faster, requiring only two and a half minutes to bake. “You place your order, and five or six minutes later we’re handing you your pizza,” he says.
The kitchen is open, so customers have a hearthside view of the oven. “A lot of kids really like to come and sit at the counter, and they can watch everything and feel like they’re part of the action, I guess,” Condit says. “Everybody loves a fire.”
Condit was previously a corporate chef setting up operational systems for Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina, whose four restaurants include a location at Arbor Hills on Washtenaw Ave. Like so many others, that job ended in 2020, and “you’re not gonna find a multiunit restaurant that’s in the hiring mode in the middle of a pandemic.” He recalls thinking, “Well, why don’t I just get a truck on my own? And I know the demand, because I would book for those trucks and I would operate those trucks [for Bigalora]. So it just kind of made sense to segue into my own.”
He found himself busy immediately and now turns down two-thirds of requests for the PizzaPazza food truck, which remains in operation. It’s been active locally at the HOMES Campus, Ann Arbor Distilling Company, and the Murray Avenue and Glacier Highlands neighborhoods.
Rather than offering a variety of sizes, styles, and toppings, customers choose from a set list based on the food truck’s bestsellers. “We want to have a tight, smaller menu, so we can focus on quality and speed,” Condit explains. The $12 to $14 pizzas cut into four pieces are roughly equal in size to two New York–style slices.
The pepperoni (from Columbus-based Ezzo) and sausage-and-peppers options are the only two choices that vegetarians would eschew. Stanislaus tomatoes from California and King Arthur flour are standard; a gluten-free crust is offered for two dollars more. A vegan substitute is available for the Grande Cheese he otherwise favors.
Raised on Pizza Hut and Little Caesars, Condit admits he was nonplussed when he first went to a Naples pizzeria while in the Navy in 1987. Though by now American consumers are more attuned to the Neapolitan style, “I’m not trying to find everything to be hyper-authentic, because I don’t like that word ‘authentic,’” he says. “But we’re trying to be the best.” That focus on quality is reflected in his choice to forgo third-party delivery, though he’s considering getting an electric cargo bike for use within a one-mile radius.
Condit says he’s been welcomed warmly by fellow Kerrytown businesses and found a strong reception from nearby Community High School students, who can get a pizza and drink as a $10 student special. “They take over the dining room for about a half-hour every day, but that’s fine,” he says, “That’s part of the community!”
PizzaPazza, 407 N. Fifth Ave. (Kerrytown Market & Shops). (734) 968–9166. Tues.–Sat. 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Mon. pizzapazzaa2.com
