Nov. 14, 2024

The owner of Big Poppa’s Food Truck is opening a pizzeria on Minnesota Avenue.

Big Poppa’s Pizza will fill the former Bella Cucina space at 2300 S. Minnesota Ave. Owner Anthony Axtell plans to open in December.

“Everything will be made from scratch. That’s our motif,” Axtell said. “We’ve got the crust dialed in and the sauce. … We’ll focus on hand-tossed pizza, Chicago-style pizza, garlic knots and calzones.”

Offering deep-dish pizza will help Big Poppa’s “stick out” in the market, he said. Those will be available in 12- and 14-inch crusts. The hand-tossed pizzas will come in 12-, 14- and 16-inch crusts. A 10-inch gluten-free option will be available too.

Pizza also will be available by the slice, said Axtell, whose restaurant experience includes owning the former Blue 42 Sports Grill in Hartford from 2017 to 2020. He bought On the Spot Catering in 2019 and opened Big Poppa’s Food Truck a year ago.

“We’ve been doing pizza for years, and that’s always been my personal passion,” he said.

Axtell has fond memories of Little Caesars’ BigFoot offering, so next year, he plans to introduce a signature item for Big Poppa’s Pizza: a 3-foot pizza slice. It will come in a custom box with a custom pizza-cutter.

In addition to typical toppings and customized options, Big Poppa’s Pizza will offer about a dozen specialty pizzas like Philly cheesesteak, taco, buffalo chicken and chicken bacon ranch.

“We intend to provide high-quality pizza at affordable prices,” Axtell said. “We don’t want to break the bank for families.”

Like the food truck, Big Poppa’s Pizza also will offer a free lunch to on-duty law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics.

Axtell is planning to offer a lunch special with a couple of slices and soda, and a daily rotating lunch offer with options like an Italian beef sandwich or pasta. Other menu items to start will include garden salads, cheese bread, dessert pizzas and cheesecake.

Customers will order at the counter and have both Coke and Pepsi bottled drinks to choose from but no beer or wine. The restaurant, which is being remodeled, will seat about 50 diners.

Online ordering, carryout, delivery and catering will be available.

Axtell envisions hours of 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

He’s planning for soft-opening events in early December with a grand-opening Dec. 20.

Big Poppa’s Pizza is hiring and “will be a good opportunity for high school and college students,” Axtell said, pointing out how close it is to the Augustana University and University of Sioux Falls campuses.

Full- and part-time positions are available and will pay “above the market rate to get the best of the best,” he said.

Axtell said he had been toying with the idea of expanding with a pizza shop next year, but that got fast-tracked when a broker approached him.

“It was one of those strange things that happen,” said Steve Herman, a broker associate at Nelson Commercial Real Estate. “We went to the food truck for lunch one day, and their truck was very nice, clean, and the food was great. When we were finished, I went up and gave them a card and said, ‘Have you ever considered a brick-and-mortar location?’ They were too busy to talk but called back and asked what we had. I said we have a former pizza restaurant, and they said that’s ironic because we were thinking of opening one. The timing was really good. Sometimes, there’s serendipity involved.”

Herman said he’s hoping to be the first customer when Big Poppa’s Pizza opens.

Axtell’s goal is to add two more locations for the pizzeria in the next two years, likely on the northwest and southeast sides of the city.

He’s also planning to expand the food truck fleet with Big Poppa’s Pizza and a new concept called Cheat Day with ice cream, edible cookie dough and mini-doughnuts.

Changes also are coming for On Spot Catering, which will be rebranded as Big Poppa’s Kitchen at the end of the year. That business has been operating out of a commercial kitchen in Tea but will be moving soon into a larger kitchen and shop in Tea that will house the catering service and the food trucks.