Wood Capital Pizza bringing wood-fired deliciousness to the area
Jamie Jahn didn’t know what to think when her husband, Kyle, pulled up in the 1952 Chevy flatbed farm truck one Saturday afternoon.
It was a surprise. A month earlier, he had gone to check out a 1951 Chevy that also fit an idea the couple had for a new business. But it didn’t feel right. He wanted to wait for a few more months before committing to anything so he walked away without the truck. About a month later, he found out about the auction in Washington for a similar truck. He showed up that morning and by 1:30 in the afternoon was heading back to the couple’s Jasper business in it.
That was the turning point for the couple who had been talking about creating a new food truck in Jasper for about two years.
The wooden flatbed was rotten and there were rust spots on the body. Expected problems for a nearly 70-year-old farm truck, but Kyle had a vision for his new food truck business featuring woodfired Neopolitan-style pizzas.
Over a couple of months, Jamie watched as Kyle and his dad, Jerry Jahn, turned the old farm truck into the vehicle bringing their new business, Wood Capital Pizza, to life.
About seven years ago Kyle and Jamie discovered the difference — and there is a difference — between your standard oven-made pizza and one baked beside a wood fire. They were at a conference in Las Vegas and went to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant where they ordered their first wood-fired pizza. “I was just mesmerized,” Kyle said about watching them make the pizza. “I just thought it was so cool and the pizza was so good.”
It was so good they went back and got the same pizza for another meal the next day.
From that moment on, anytime the couple traveled, they sought out restaurants offering the crispy, soft, delicacy.
Plus, Kyle, who had been making homemade pizzas since he was younger, started searching for information on woodfired ovens for their home. He quickly found out how expensive the traditional brick ovens could be and didn’t really seek out installing one.
Then he found a portable woodfired oven that had a more palatable price. He bought one and the versatile oven has since been a companion on camping trips, evenings with friends, and even for special events at their fitness store on Mill Street.
With the new system, Kyle dove into pizza making. As he sought to make better and better pizzas, he struggled to balance the art of spinning and tossing the ingredient-laden discs next to a 900-degree wood fire with the science needed to make a consistently great pie. He was making good pizzas but sometimes, they were really good while other times they fell flat.
“I would make my dough and it would be fine,” he explained. “Then another time, I would make it and it wouldn’t be as good or it would be a failure.”
He bought a book on pizza making and learned that while the ingredients used in making pizza dough are important, so are things like air temperature, humidity, and even air pressure. Armed with new knowledge of all these factors, he also began to meticulously measure out each ingredient to ensure he could make a consistently excellent crust.
“I turned my kitchen into a science lab,” Kyle laughed.
While they enjoyed making their own pizzas in the little portable oven and visiting restaurants outside of the area that offered the same, Jamie and Kyle began to consider bringing a woodfired pizza place to Jasper. They started filing away ideas and doing research as they tossed around the idea until one day, Kyle found a company with an old truck being used as a woodfired pizza food truck. He pointed it out to Jamie. “I told her that I really wanted to do that,” he said.
This was about two years ago and while their dreams continued to proof, they tossed around different names for the imaginary business. Nothing seemed to fit until one day, Jamie called Kyle. Surprised because Jamie hates talking on the phone, he tentatively took the call. “She said, ‘I have to tell you before I forget, I found a name, Wood Capital Pizza,'” Kyle said adding that it was a mic drop moment for him. “That was it.”
Armed with a name that calls upon Jasper’s wood craftsmanship history and now, a truck, Jamie watched as Kyle and his dad turned the heap of a dream into a reality. “It wasn’t real until he pulled up with that thing,” Jamie said about that Saturday afternoon in 2019.
But she wasn’t convinced. “This old truck would be a money pit. It’s gonna break down. It’s not going to work,” Jamie said. “But his dad and he just kept working on it and I kept seeing improvements until all of a sudden, it was actually a thing.”
Using reclaimed wood from a building that was destroyed in high winds a couple of years ago. Kyle and his dad framed a new box with a large central area for the new wood-fired oven — big enough to cook four pizzas at a time but for now, Kyle is only proficient with two. And plenty of storage for the fresh ingredients he plans on using as well as the balls of dough waiting to become a delicious foundation for a pizza.
Kyle will have a variety of pizzas available but plans on specializing in the original pizza. Calling on the Neapolitan roots, he has perfected his pizza Margherita. A simple concoction with very few ingredients — Kyle’s dough, a tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and a few basil leaves — that comes out of the oven in 90 seconds ready to eat. Believe me, it isn’t like any other pizza in town.
He has also added a pistachio pizza that during a recent taste testing party became a crowd favorite.
Kyle is looking forward to seeing the reactions when customers try his pizza for the first time. The industrial technology teacher at Jasper Middle School doesn’t know where this new venture will take him but he’s enjoyed the journey of learning new things and perfecting his pizza so far.
Wood Capital Pizza will be showing up in the near future at the Downtown Chowdown and they have already been approached about providing the service at weddings and other events. You can follow them on Facebook here to find out when you can try one of their pizzas.
