Slice, slice, baby

Pizza aficiona-doughs cheese the day with mobile, wood-fired oven

By Sabine Wilson

For the TODAY

Pizza lovers along the coast will be delighted to know that Danelle Lochrie and Ethan Granberg of Olde Line Lanes, the retro bowling alley that serves high-quality, delicious food, are now able to spread the joy even further.

The couple have not only bought a mobile wood-fired pizza oven but have launched, “Hearth & Table Events,” a catering business that spotlights the new roasting chamber.

This beautiful and unyielding rustic brick oven can reach up to a staggering 800 degrees in order to deliver you that characteristic smoky flavor of pizza that can only be achieved with a wood fired oven — crisp on the outside as you bite down, but perfectly tender and chewy on the inside.

And the best part is, since the oven is on wheels, the business now has the mobility it needs to fill as many tummies with delicious pizza as possible.

“We’ve been setting it up in our driveway and just practicing outside and giving pizza to all of our neighbors,” Danelle said. “I usually end up doing a bunch of different dishes after the pizzas are done because the oven will stay hot for days.”

Don’t you wish you lived on their street?

Brick ovens have stood the test of time, being used consistently for centuries throughout Roman, Turkish, Peruvian and Spanish cultures, usually to make bread. But luckily, the uses of the oven began to evolve to include pizza making.

After doing several catering events and farmers markets, Danelle and Ethan began manifesting their pizza dream.

“We’ve always had this idea of having a wood-fired oven,” Danelle said, “and because of the COVID-19 situation where people began to focus on eating outside, we thought it would be a great time to act on it.”

As they closed in on making the dream a reality, Ethan spent some time working at Minto Island Growers, a farm in Salem with a farm stand that offered wood-fired pizza.

“He was making pizza in the oven and getting used to it,” Danelle said. “He just really loved it. And that experience really pushed us into knowing that this was something we really wanted to pursue. We did a ton of research into what kind of oven we wanted to buy, especially because we’d be pulling it with us so we needed it to be sturdy. We just went for it.”

Both Danelle and Ethan have extensive cooking experience, with Ethan cooking since he got out of high school and enrolled in culinary school.

“I’m a little bit more self-trained,” Danelle said. “When I moved to Oregon, I worked at the bakery that we ended up purchasing and then we’ve just been growing from there.”

Combine an experienced baker with a trained chef and give them a mobile wood-fired brick oven and they are bound to produce the best pizza around.

After an uncertain time of quarantine, the couple began receiving a lot of community support and decided to launch a “Go Fund Me” campaign to raise money for the brick oven. 

“A lot of people were asking us how they could help, so this was an outlet for them to do so. It was something that we hoped to use in the community a lot and also a great way to get the community involved.”

The couple have been business owners in Lincoln City for more than a decade, including the bowling alley for the past four years. And it became clear they had the community on their side when the fundraiser received almost $15,000 from enthusiastic supporters.

“It was nice to receive so much support,” Danelle said. “We’ve been a part of the community for 12 years now but it’s just nice to be involved. It is a small town so it’s nice to know so many people and see them help everybody.”

Already well-known for making delicious pizzas, a coveted item for locals during quarantine, the couple found cooking them in a brick oven requires a brand new skill set.

“I like the new challenge of it,” Danelle said. “It’s not something that we’ve done before and it expands our knowledge on things we have already done for years.”

The couple has not limited themselves to just pizza.

“We’ve been doing roasts and cooking bread as well,” Danelle said. “It’s so much fun to do that side of it, too. We have even done ribs, chicken wings and a ton of roasted vegetables. It really does add a lot of flavor.”

If you are looking for a unique and unforgettable catering experience, book Hearth & Table Events and they will surely leave you and your guests satisfied.

For more information about Hearth & Table Events, go to www.hearthandtableevents.com.

Olde Line Lanes and Kitchen, located at 316 SE Hwy. 101, Lincoln City, is open for takeout from Tuesday through Saturday, 4 to 8 pm. For more information, go to www.oldelinelanes.com.