Next week is National Pizza Week. Americans love pizza, but it’s nice to celebrate with flat crust, sauce, cheese, and whatever else you like on your pie.
Although the concept originated in Italy, it was the Americans who created it as we know it today. There were countless styles, traditions, methods, ingredients, textures and toppings, loosely regional, and strongly held opinions by all lovers of this food category.
One thing is undisputed: Ippa Pizza started as a food truck in Erie by Jason Spohr and is now housed in a food truck parked in the old George’s Diner on Glenwood Park Avenue, where its most distinctive That means there are some pies. In the city.
“When I went to college, I called my mom and asked her how to make pizza,” Spore said, recalling her early days at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “She just laughed and said, ‘This is not something you can explain over the phone. She can come over and I’ll tell her.'”
He fell in love not only with the food he had inherited, but also with the process of making it.
“First of all, it was about the love and appreciation for food and…the fact that what my mother (Kathy Spohr of Conneaut, Ohio) did at home didn’t exist everywhere,” he said. Ta. “I have fond memories of coming home to the smell of pizza dough and sauce on Friday nights. It cemented my sense of gratitude.”
He devoted his adult life to the study of food, first through nutrition and then through his love of home-cooking. When he opened his first food truck, he experimented with fermented doughs, flours, sauces and flavor combinations, such as Hot Louie, named after a spicy cheese made in St. Louis, and homemade burrata bombs. This led to the famous dish. Wrap the cheese in another homemade cheese, form into a loose ball, and place in the middle of the pizza. When sliced open, it becomes an easy-to-spread cheese similar to fresh ricotta or mozzarella. Other specialties include the Napoletana His Pizza and the Garlic His Smasher (dusted with roasted garlic).
It all starts with the base
Their menu is structured starting with four basic pizzas that only foodies will understand. The base pizzas are “Mary (milled tomatoes, minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil, oregano)”, “Rita (milled tomatoes, homemade mozzarella, basil, olive oil, pecorino (cheese))”, “Bianca (panna, Homemade Mozzarella, Basil, Black Pepper, Ricotta) and Ippa (Milled Tomato, House Mozzarella, Basil, Panna, Basil Pesto, Pecorino).
Then choose from a wide variety of toppings, including four types of pepperoni.
Ippa Pizza, named after Spohr’s son who pronounced it “pizza” when he was 18 months old (now 6 years old), is unique in the pizza world, but there are many restaurants in Erie. Considering the fact that this is difficult to pull off.
“I learned how to make Napoletana pizza in New York City,” Spore said. “(Ippa’s) concept is a fusion of Napoletana from Naples, Italy, and her mother’s style.”
Uses locally sourced ingredients that are not found in chain stores
“There are a few things we do that make us unique, and that is we use two sourdough starters, both of which have been around since 2016,” Spore said. All talked about pizza dough that has been fermented to some degree. “I make and feed them bread and pizza dough and all kinds of baked goods, keeping the dough vibrant and bubbly and aromatic. That’s what makes us different. We uses it to ferment the dough.”
He also takes other materials quite seriously.
“We mill some of our own flour, so we get fresh flour,” Spore said. “We also use traditional ’00’ (double zero) flour, which is well known for pizza. We also use high protein flour. That’s why we use three different types of flour. It took a while to perfect the flour. We use Italian plums. ”
He said this is not the type of pizza you would find at a chain restaurant.
“We do these things differently and get different end products,” he said.
Unfortunately, I can’t go to Ippa Pizza and order a Hot Louie after I finish this story. The company will be closed until the end of January to prepare its trucks for the winter and work on the customer experience.
“We’re very interested in fermentation, sausage making, vertical gardening and composting,” he says. “We are always looking to grow, preserve, compost and start over again. We are passionate about supporting local farmers and using local, seasonal ingredients. It’s important to our concept because it appeals to all the senses: when you walk in, you hear the music, you smell the pizza, you experience the different textures, the different flavors. I want you to do that. That’s very important to me.”
Spore’s other dreams include hosting events, paying a living wage, training enough employees to grow the business, and leveraging economies of scale. And Spore is preparing to make a big announcement that he is “90 percent” ready to share. In the meantime, we must celebrate pizza in a different way.
ippa pizza
where: 2614 Glenwood Park Avenue
information: ipapizza.com/ippahome, facebook.com/IPPAPizza/, 814-844-2746
Contact Jenny Geisler. jgeisler@timenews.comor 814-870-1885.