Who’s hungry for our season finale of Goodtaste? This weekend, we make our way out to Montgomery and grab a slice of the award-winning Mega Pizza at Pizza Shack that’s nearly the size of a Ford F-150 tire! Next, we visit the Noble Sandwich Co. in Austin to take a bite of a serious Reuben sandwich stacked with mountains of tangy sauerkraut, corned beef and melty provolone. Last, we stop in at the historic Woolworth building in Dallas, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about The Woolworth’s dishes like the killer Crab Nachos. To tease your palate a little more, here are 3 must-not-miss moments in this week’s new episode of Goodtaste with Tanji Season 4.
1. From Trucker to Pizza Maker
John Simmons, co-owner of Pizza Shack, had a career as a long-haul trucker from the Northeast for more than 40 years. He moved to Texas for a new line of work, and with him, he only had his wife, two dollars in his pocket and a suitcase. They soon found themselves craving the mom and pop pizzerias they had back home. So, John took a leap of faith and decided to make his own pizza. They started in a little house with just two KitchenAid mixers, a residential stove, a very small pizza oven, and a couple of tables and chairs. It was such a success, they’ve since grown out of that space and have opened two new locations!
2. Handy Men
The friendship between owners of the Sandwich Co., John Bates and Brandon Martinez, began in 1998 in culinary school in their native Corpus Christi. For a while, the two went off and did their own things and cooked in different places; Brandon went to San Francisco and John was in Portland. They met back up in Austin, and John had the great idea for their sandwich shop. At first, it wasn’t easy. Strapped for cash, they did most of the handy work themselves to save a dollar. They built their own tabletops, bench seating, cabinetry, flooring, painting and they even did their own electrical work.
3. In the History Books
Before the historic F.W. Woolworth building ever housed the modern restaurant, The Woolworth, it had many other lives. It was built in 1913 and was originally designed to have 10 stories but was only built with three floors. It was designed in the Chicago commercial style of the period by Wiley G. Clarkson, who led one of the largest Fort Worth architectural firms of the 1920s to 1940s. In the space below the current bar was a Woolworth five-and-dime store, and from 1926 to 1990, a department store occupied this building. In 1994, the Woolworth building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Tune in this weekend for delicious food and MORE during an ALL NEW episode of Goodtaste with Tanji.
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