Banks aren’t just for cashing a check or getting a loan– for Nick Godas, owner of 850 Wood Fire Pizza, standing in line at the bank was the start of a new business venture.
Growing up working at his dad’s restaurant, George’s Pizza & Steak, Godas might have had pizza sauce running through his veins and an eternal lingering scent of pepperoni. But he wanted more. He thought,“ Man, I really feel like I can do more than this.”
During this time, he was told that the owner of a mobile wood-fired pizza business was looking to sell, as he was mov-ing out of state.“I thought, well, that sounds cool; it’d be something I could do,” he says. “I kind of know the business side of it, I know the pizza side of it, I could just run with that.”
For a while, Godas let the thought sit in the back of his mind. He never called, never texted. Until a twist of fate was standing next to him at the bank, closing some accounts.“ When I walked out, I looked in the back of a truck and he had the pizza peels. I realized this was the guy who was selling 850, so I went back to the restaurant and called him,” Godas says. “I said, ‘Hey,I think I was just standing next to you at the bank … Hi, I’m Nick, I don’t know if anyone’s told you before, but this is what I’m looking at.’”
From there, Godas learned more about the mobile pizza oven business and how to operate everything. His fiancé eat the time, now wife, encouraged Godas to take the step and do something for himself. After tasting the pizza, the deal was done.“
A few weeks later, I got married, and so I just had to put everything on the back burner,” he says. “But then getting back into it now, we’ve had a couple of private events and just had a lot of success and enjoyment with it.” Before doing any marketing for the new ownership, Godas already had a call requesting pizza for an event.“ The foundation that he left for me and everything else has just been awesome,” he says. “I just have to keep building on it and keep it going.”
In building the business, Godas’ primary goal over the next couple of years is to continue growing and avoid becoming stagnant.“
People are always going to want to eat,” he says. “So I’m working on distinguishing myself from restaurants and also food trucks. Oftentimes you think of food trucks and think it’s going to be tacos or burgers or barbecue. So showing people that there’s something different is really important.”In being familiar with the restaurant business, Godas understands that differentiation can be difficult. Additionally, the number of Greek family-owned restaurants is well-saturated in Columbia.“
Being able to break away from that mold and just always keep growing and having people excited about your food is the goal,” he says. “You can’t make everyone happy, but we’re trying our best to do just that and always going the extra mile to make sure that people are taken care of. I’d like to make money, but I would also like to just have that good name out there in my home-town, so people to know that this is who I am, this is whatI do.”
Pizza runs deep inColumbia, from Shakespeare’s to Pizza Tree and more. But 850 Wood Fire Pizza offers anew look at the pizza scene beyond brick-and-mortars or sit-down restaurants.“
If you can get an event or you’re at an event andI’m there, it gives you that freedom to be doing what you want to do, without being confined to one space at onetime,” Godas says. “With the wood fire, it can be faster, so sometimes the longest part of your process is waiting in line to order your pizza.”
Godas says the pizza tastes different when it comes from a wood fire as opposed to a regular oven. “I just don’t think you can compare the taste; it’s just so good and you get kind of that oaky wood taste,” he says. “The crust is also different from what a lot of people around here are used to. It just give sit that almost wood taste that you can smell while you’re around it and then taste when you eat it. It’s unbeatable.”The first step when planning an event with 850 WoodFire Pizza is to determine roughly how many people will be attending. Then, Godas will prepare the dough.“
I make the dough either the day before or two days before, then leave it in the cooler,” he says. “You don’t want to let it go too long because you really only have a week from the time you make it to the time you need to have it used up.”
While a fryer or grill can be ready in about half an hour, the wood fire oven takes much longer to get hot enough.“
You get heat from three different directions as far as the actual heat from the fire itself, the heat from the air above it and then the heat from the deck,” Godas says. “We’ve found out through trial and error that if you try an hour before, you’re not going to be where you want to be as far as the heat of the oven. NowI know I need at least an hour and a half to two hours, so you can get that kind of 600-to-650-degree deck temperature.”
Two of the most popular pizzas are the Meatza – which includes pepperoni, sausage, ham and bacon – and the Hot Honey – which is a pepperoni pizza with a drizzle of Mike’s hot honey. When people order, Godas says he enjoys getting the chance to talk to them too.“
I love that I get to go out and interact with people,” he says. “If I’m making your pizza, we can be a few feet apart and have a full conversation. I’m building relationships with people in the community and that’s really fun.
”Godas says the most rewarding part of running this pizza business is knowing that it is something he truly enjoys doing. “Knowing that it’s all I knew about growing up and being able to use those skills todo something I’m passionate about is very rewarding,”Godas says. “There’s never a time where I feel like, ‘Oh man, I have to work.’ Instead, it’s ‘Oh, I get to do this.’ And I think at the end of the day that is very special.”
To book with Godas for all of your pizza needs at your next event, send a direct message to @850woodfirepizza onInstagram, send an email to850woodfirepizza@gmail.com or call 573-268-2350
