Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake & Holly Johnson.
Hi Jake & Holly, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We have both been in the restaurant business most of our adult lives, but a series of AMAZING events led me to get a sous chef position at a country club in Florida that she was the food and beverage director at. A friendship formed and eventually blossomed into something more, that was just over 15 years ago now and I love that women more now than I could have ever imagined! She is my rock, always the one to say let’s go for it even when I’m not sure how we would even make it happen. So when we moved to East Tennessee in 2017 on a whim simply because we love the mountains here, the jobs I had been accustomed to the past decade (in country clubs in FL) just didn’t exist where we are now.
After about 6 months of working a kitchen job I absolutely hated, I literally picked up my phone while cutting peppers and called my wife to tell her we needed to talk about something when I got home. (Im sure you can guess how that went). I got home from work that day and said, “I have an idea, just don’t say no right away” in that moment I told her I had this crazy idea about putting a brick oven on the back of a food truck and sell pizzas… I didn’t have a ton of experience in pizza other than cooking them on our big green egg but I knew that I could learn. She said “OK LETS DO IT!” And less than 6 months later Patriot Wood Fired Pizza was born. for 6 years we hauled that monstrosity all over East Tennessee to some pretty scary places in these mountains with zero ambition to ever have a restaurant. About 2 years ago we decided it was time to grow and a second food truck just didn’t make sense, so we searched for months in our town and finally we were put in touch with 2 amazing ladies who had a wild dream to take our dilapidated old city hall building and turn it into the cornerstone of our in almost even worse condition old downtown. Well yet again my amazing wife said “LETS DO IT!” And we went all in with these ladies and ended up turning the old firehouse portion of the building the beautiful open kitchen concept restaurant with 2 wood burning ovens being our only source of cooking. We are thriving with the restaurant and still somehow love each other more than most couples who don’t work together LOL.
Anyway… that is our little story, I hope you enjoyed reading.
Sincerely,
Jake & Holly Johnson
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The beginning days of the food truck were probably some of the toughest, we have both been in the restaurant business for quite a while but just imagine putting your kitchen on wheels. From getting a flat tire on your way to the event or forgetting to get gas for your generator and you lose power in the middle of service, it’s a whole nother world that we don’t necessarily miss
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Holly and I have both been in the hospitality industry for over 20 years which has been a big help in starting our own business
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Patriotwoodfiredpizza
- Facebook: Patriotwoodfiredpizza
