Last year when Gigi and Robinette were just getting started on some of their Pizza Farm marathons, our friend, Bea, casually said, “Why don’t you just come over to Powderhorn and we can have our own Pizza Night with my parents’ neighborhood wood-fired brick pizza oven.” In my head I could not believe that someone could present such mind-blowing information with such a casual tone of voice. But I guess that’s Bea for you. How were we just learning that her parents had a brick pizza oven in their alley!? Trying to schedule an evening or afternoon Pizza Farm trip has proven challenging at times, but planning this full day event took about one year! I really hope we can plan another one much sooner, because Pizza Farm in the Alley was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun!
Bea and I started preparations for Sunday’s pizza night early on in the week, brainstorming what kind of pizzas to construct and setting aside time for trips to the Farmer’s Markets. Sometimes it feels like I never have a full day off, so I made sure to set aside a few hours each day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so that I would be ready to go on Sunday afternoon. On Thursday I went to the downtown Minneapolis Farmer’s Market and bought some of the ingredients I would need for a few of the items I wanted to slow cook. On Friday, I 
made some tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes, caramelized a large batch of onions, and made a couple batches of Dad’s tried and true pizza dough to put in refrigerator for a couple days. On Saturday, Bea and I went to Midtown Farmer’s Market and Surdyk’s to load up on fresh produce and fun cheeses for our expected 15 to 20 pizzas. A few of the neighbors and Bea’s Mom also volunteered to make some dough, assemble some pizzas, and provide some toppings, many fresh from people’s own gardens.
Originally we had picked this date because I thought I had the whole day off – a very unusual treat for me on a Sunday. It turned out that I had merely read my schedule wrong and I did indeed have to work, so Bea took on the task of prepping the oven and chopping a billion vegetables starting early in the morning on Sunday. I showed up a couple hours before we were expecting any guests and helped with the finishing steps of getting everything ready for making pizzas, cooking pizzas, and eating pizzas.
So many friends and neighbors showed up and helped to cook and eat pizza in the alley! I can’t even keep track of what kinds we made. I know we had Reuben Pizza, Zucchini, Corn, and Chorizo Pizza, Broccolini, Mushroom, and Taleggio Pizza, Italian Sausage, Fennel, Potato, and Leek Pizza, Kale, Sardine, and Egg Pizza, Zucchini, Eggplant, and Ricotta Pizza… seriously, the list goes on and on. It was exactly the kind of community
pizza event I hoped it would be. I am thankful for everyone who came, everyone who assembled an original pizza, and everyone who enjoyed a few slices of the creations coming out of the oven. I am grateful that one of the neighbors, Asa, was interested and willing to do most of the cooking for the first several hours. He has even gone on to start his own Minneapolis bagel making business, Red Wheat Bakery, so we were truly lucky to have someone so skilled taking care of our pies. And of course, I am especially indebted to Bea, Bob, and Mala who shared their space and did most of the work to make last night such a success.
