Southern Fired Foods has expanded from a food truck into a Grovetown takeout restaurant built around fast-fired, Neapolitan-style pizza.
Here are five details readers should know about the new shop and the couple behind it.
1. A pizza truck has become a brick-and-mortar shop
Gil and Tracey Rowland opened Southern Fired Foods in July at 587 East Robinson Ave., Grovetown. The restaurant occupies a former animal clinic that the couple converted into a takeout-focused pizza shop, complete with a wood-burning oven.
2. The restaurant still operates its food truck
Southern Fired Foods began as a food truck about three years ago, and the Rowlands continue to run it alongside the new restaurant. Gil Rowland’s military connections also allow the truck to visit Fort Gordon; its schedule is posted
at southernfiredfoods.com.
3. The menu is all about Neapolitan pizza
The shop makes handmade, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, a style associated with thin, soft dough, puffed edges, mozzarella, Italian tomatoes, and carefully selected toppings. The dough is made daily, and every item on the menu is a Neapolitan pie.
4. The pizzas cook in about 2½ minutes
The high heat of the wood-fired oven lets Southern Fired Foods cook a pizza in roughly two minutes and 30 seconds, Rowland said. The quick bake produces a soft crust with a rich flavor rather than a crisp, cracker-like base.
5. An Italian honeymoon helped inspire the business
Rowland, a geologist turned pizza maker, said he and Tracey became hooked after trying pizza at Gusta Pizza in Florence, Italy, during their honeymoon travels. They returned to the restaurant despite normally avoiding repeat stops while traveling, and that experience helped motivate Rowland to pursue pizza professionally.
What to order
One standout menu combination is The Boss/The CEO, a large pizza topped with Italian sausage, bacon, pepperoni and hot honey. The sweet-and-spicy hot honey became a menu feature after a regular customer persuaded the team to try it on a pie.
Find them
Customers can follow Southern Fired Foods on Instagram and Facebook at @southernfiredfoods to track the food truck and restaurant updates.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information-gathering, review, editing, and publishing process. Learn more.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: 5 things to know about Grovetown’s new Neapolitan pizza shop
