Subscribe
to the E-Star!

One family's dream is more than just pizza

Tiffany Tuell

(Updated: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:49 PM)

A local family is realizing their dream since they opened the only take-and-bake pizza shop in Oakhurst -- Sugar Pine Take & Bake Gourmet Pizza.

The restaurant recently opened to a steady stream of business, according to Robby Fleener, assistant manger of Sugar Pine.

The restaurant is located across Highway 41 from Crab Cakes Restaurant at 40359 Highway 41.

Fleener said even with the slow economy, his family felt compelled to open their new business.

"I am a Bible-believing Christian and if God's nudging me to do something, I'm going to listen to him," said Fleener.

Fleener family discussed their business idea with financial advisors they trusted and were told that if they could answer positively to three questions, there was no reason not to open their dream business.

Those questions were:

Is anybody else in the town running the same kind of business?

Is it cost effective?

Will you have a grade of excellence?

Fleener said Oakhurst did have other pizza places but the town did not have a take-and-bake pizza restaurant.

They also made sure they had a good grade of excellence -- Fleener, his wife Cinnamon Fleener, mother-in-law Dorothy Dein and daughter Kassie Zheng all went to Washington to be trained by a private take-and-bake business owner. There they learned gourmet recipes.

The two most popular pizzas are spicy hot Italian and garlic chicken-artichoke, according to Zheng, Sugar Pine Gourmet Pizza manager.

Another aspect to keeping their grade of excellence, according to Fleener, is the quality of the ingredients that are used. They chop their own vegetable toppings, grate their own cheese and make pizza dough from stone-ground whole-wheat flour, making sure their ingredients are always fresh.

"Being a new business person, we're trying to be creative," said Fleener.

Sugar Pine is open to all comments, good and bad, about their products so that they will be able to please their customers and make improvements as needed.

Fleener said he treats customers with the attitude of "the customer is always right."

If they have a complaint, he invites them to come back so he can fix it the way they like it.

Because of this treatment, Fleener says they already have regulars.

"Our goal is to please my neighbors, the community. If tourists find me it's the icing on the cake. We've been visited by people from around the world from South America to Europe," said Fleener.

He said an Italian newlywed couple even wrote out an Italian pizza recipe for him.