Pizza Truck to Storefront
by T. Chad Montgomery
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While starting the business I worked at Georgia Southern University as a custodian. While servicing an event I was speaking with a Farmer’s market customer who I learned was the director of the wildlife center on campus. When the President of the University arrived I asked the director if he would introduce me. I simply asked her if she liked cupcakes. I asked what was her favorite flavor and that we did that flavor well and asked if I could set up a tasting for her office. The photo attached is Dr. Bartels and me in the President’s office at Georgia Southern University. Later that year I was called to cater cheesecake for a 180 plated dessert on campus. A week later I was called into a meeting with my boss, my boss’s boss, HR and the dining contractor to discuss what business I could do as a university employee. That’s when I knew I was on the right track with my talents.
Christmas brought a gift of dessert catering for several university departments and university staff at the President’s home.
T. Chad Montgomery, Sylvania GA a Marine has the need to feed and started a cupcake business 7 years ago with a tent at the farmer’s market. 2 years later a concession trailer, then a pizza truck, restaurant and now caters at a banquet facility.
After leaving my dream job as a Pastry Chef at a Hilton Hotel near Albany NY, I moved to SE Georgia. I worked as a custodian at a local college and would stay up all night baking following my love of baking. Within 2 years, the tent I started with morphed into a 12 foot concession trailer and that spawned dessert catering. A year later a staycation back to NY at Homestyle pizzeria (the place I cut my teeth at) taught me everything I know about pizza. I then had a custom built 22-foot concession trailer made with a back porch for an imported pizza oven from Italy.
There was only 1 wood fired pizza restaurant and 2 pizza food trucks in my area so I was looking to expand, my business mentor decided to partner for a restaurant. I was bartering for kitchen space and that turned into a catering opportunity which has led me to running a banquet facility while using my pizza oven to create the only banquet hall in my area that bakes its own pizzas. I am selling the restaurant to cater full time.
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T. Chad Montgomery, Sylvania GA a Marine has the need to feed and started a cupcake business 7 years ago with a tent at the farmer’s market. 2 years later a concession trailer, then a pizza truck, restaurant and now caters at a banquet facility.
