Cedar River Pizza Co. to deliver goodness ‘round the corner

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com

With less than a month to go before the opening of Cedar River Pizza Co., the anticipation just keeps building for owner Joel Biggerstaff.

“I’ve worked in a lot of pizza places, and our dream was to always have one. But it was always on the backburner,” Biggerstaff said. “It finally got to the point, I want to teach (my kids) –– you know what, it’s never too late. Go after what you want, and do it.”

His take-out, soon-to-be delivery restaurant is just about how Biggerstaff pictured it: a bright, family owned corner of the town, tucked around the sidewalk from Main Street. It’s a dream he and his wife have harbored since about the time they were working together in high school at a pizza joint where they met. Since that time, he’s worked at several more pizza places, chains and family-owned, and has been a stay-at-home dad for about six years. Pizza restaurants have stories attached to them, he said.

“I’ve heard more stories about pizza. People are like, ‘you’ve got to drive here and get pizza, you want to drive there.’ I want them to say, ‘hey, we’ve got this great pizza spot right here in Charles City,’” Biggerstaff said. “I’d like it to be just a hometown, family-run spot that people come from all around to get pizza here.”

There will be the traditional pies available, Biggerstaff said, as well as monthly specialties he cooks up in his kitchen –– ”I’ve got a lot of crazy ideas,” he jokes. He enjoys working with mediterranean-style ingredients the most, and focuses on homemade dough and detail work like grinding the cheese himself for the right consistency. It’s a bit of a devotion.

“I love pizza. It is, what is pizza?” Biggerstaff pauses. “It is the simplest –– when you break it down, it’s bread, cheese, sauce, and a few simple ingredients.”

Even though he’s always had a passion for cooking and dinner parties, there’s really only one dish that comes close to pizza for him.

“It’s the most simply beautiful food –– besides the taco, maybe. Tacos are good too. It’s just the simplicity of it, but when it’s done right, it’s really good and you can eat it for every meal,” Biggerstaff said.

Renovation work on the former coffee shop building started back in August. Just about every surface has been painted or spruced up, leaving a bright white, clean and spacious kitchen that customers can peer into from the order counter. A giant pizza deck takes up the back wall, right on the other side of what will be the restaurant’s future seating area –– about a year or so down the road, depending on renovation timelines, Biggerstaff estimates.

In the countdown to opening day, Biggerstaff has done more than one test run in his kitchen, serving pizzas right and left to select friends and his kids.

“I’m planning on a pretty high volume business, so I wanted to set it up to where it’s very functional. We’ve been practicing, doing test runs…My kids are like, ‘are you serious, are we having pizzas again?’” In the long-term, it’ll be a small sacrifice to make on the road to cheesy goodness.