If you have dined at the celebrated Stone Creek Wood Fired Pizza truck on Harrison Avenue in Olympia, then you know just how busy they are. It is not unusual to have long waits to enjoy one of their amazing charred pizzas or famed cinnamon rolls, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. This is just one of the reasons owner Randy Murray decided it was time for a brick-and-mortar location. Luckily, the permanent building is just a few hundred feet away, next to the Bark and Garden Center on Harrison Avenue.
“We’ve been out here for six years in the rain and wind. It’s just been crazy and we can’t keep up with the demand,” explains Murray. A true family operation, while Randy cooks, his wife makes their gooey cinnamon rolls from scratch, including using homemade vanilla flavoring, and his daughter, Jennie, helps run the business.
“And then there’s the catering,” Murray adds. “I love to do weddings because they are fun, but right now I turn down about eighty percent of them.” Just this past weekend, he had someone ask him to do a wedding in June, but they are typically booked out 12 to 18 months and have been catering since the beginning.
Community Focused
The overwhelming demand, however, is not the main reason Murray is so excited about the new building. For him, it is about community. The new location will include a restaurant with two wood-fired ovens designed and built by Murray and seating for approximately thirty customers. Behind the building will be a fifteen hundred square foot event center with another oven. This is what Murray is most looking forward to.
“We get a lot of people who want to take classes on what we do, with wood or dirt ovens,” says Murray. “Our new building’s focus will be on community. We will even have a class on how to make an oven when we install our third, so people can come and see how I make them.”
Murray, who has been building things since he was seven years old, plans to let other artists and community members hold classes on everything from sculpture to how to wire a fuse panel. “If someone wants to plumb a sink or show people how to do cupcake decorating, they can. We can make muffin ovens for the kids. It doesn’t matter – whatever the community wants.”
In addition, Murray plans to have music, stand-up comedy and, of course, catered events such as business meetings. Beyond the event center building is approximately five acres that Bark and Garden is currently landscaping so Stone Creek can have festivals and events outside as well. One of Murray’s first goals is to have a Mini Maker Faire during 2017. These events give people opportunities to learn how to do almost anything from artisans in every type of craft; from technology such as 3D printing to ancient arts like Murray’s ovens.
Most importantly, the event center will allow Stone Creek to hold fundraisers for Family and Friends for Children with Deaf-Blindness. The Murrays are very involved with the non-profit group with due to their youngest daughter, Emily’s, own conditions. They look forward to being able to offer the space to other non-profits, charities and schools as well.
“The bottom line is, I want people to leave here feeling better than when they came in,” Murray says. “We get a lot of people from the Capitol Medical Center when they are coming back from treatments. We want to help them feel better.”
New Offerings
Once the new building is open, the original truck can be used for catering and events at the same time that the restaurant is open. Murray says he has plans to have two trucks in the future, allowing them to participate in more events, including some of those he has had to turn down.
The restaurant will also give Murray the opportunity to increase his food offerings. Fountain drinks, hard cider, beer, salads and other items will hit the menu in the new space. Future plans include adding fire pits, since he grew up doing “pit pigs” with his dad.
Operating hours will also expand with the new restaurant. Murray plans to be open Monday through Saturday, with tentative hours set at 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
If everything goes according to plan, Murray hopes to open by September 2017. Of course, until then, you can continue to get delectable pizza from his truck at 4524 Harrison Avenue NW. To place an order ahead of time, call 360-888-9500. You can also get more information on their website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
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