Papa Murphy's Behind the Counter Tour

 

Last Thursday was the most fun day! I was invited to the Edmond Papa Murphy's for their "Behind the Counter Tour". Although we used to eat there quite a bit (the Thai Chicken Delite is a favorite), we honestly hasn't been there since my Celiac diagnosis last fall. I inquired if they possibly had a gluten-free menu  planned for the future, and was excited to find out that a GF addition to the menu will be rolled out later this year! I decided I definitely needed to accept the invitation to find out more info!



 



 

The owner, Eric Walter, was amazing! He and his wife were so nice, patient (read: willing to answer any question we had, no matter how silly!) and full of information. They own the two Edmond locations (one on Danforth and one on Broadway) as well as the Midwest City location.

 

The first thing I of course asked about was the upcoming GF pizza.... and he said he understood it would be rolled out sometime before the end of 2014. They will be using a pre-prepared crust made by Udi's, which I thought was great news. "Pre-prepared", along with the Udi's name, means safe and GF! He also said he was sure their prep areas would change in some way to accommodate keeping separate ingredients for the GF pizzas.

 

After that, we were on to the discussion and demos for their current, regular pizzas. I was already familiar with Papa Murphy's "take and bake" pizza concept, which is pretty cool. Each pizza is assembled fresh right in front of you, and you take it home to bake in your own oven.

 

It was neat to see the dough made- and we even got to make a batch and roll out the dough balls. The accountant in me loved hearing about their supply projection formulas! Dough can be used either the day made or the day after, so they use a labeling system and a FIFO approach and are able to adjust their dough making each day based on prior day's sales. I love to see things in action like that.

 

They also chop all their vegetables fresh, as well as grate their own cheese. They have a huge walk in cooler where everything is stored and we got to take a trip in there (since I am so hot-blooded, it felt FABULOUS!).

 

We even got to make our own pizzas to take home! I decided to make mine for the kiddos. I chose their Delite crust, which is a thinner and healthier crust, and topped it with their white creamy garlic sauce. For Will's half I just topped it with cheese, but Reese got pepperonis and bacon on her half. After we were done assembling the pizza. they showed us how to wrap it securely in cling wrap to safely take home and store in the refrigerator until reading to bake.

That evening, I took the pizza out and baked it according to the directions and served it to two hungry kids. The crust got wonderfully crispy, just the way they like it.

 

 

Both kids absolutely loved their pizza! The Walters even sent me home with several slices of their Smores Pizza for the kids to enjoy for dessert. They were quite impressed and I am sure will be asking for some more soon.

 

Much thanks to the Walters for sharing their information (and yummy pizza) with me! If you are local and see me, ask about a coupon for a free pizza, I've got some in my purse ready to hand out!