For some residents, the introduction of another pizza restaurant to Niverville might seem like overkill, but Tyler and Mellissa Schroeder believe there’s room for at least one more. In the spring of 2019, they plan to launch their own homespun business: Niverville’s Pizzeria.

Entering a market already saturated with pizza options requires ingenuity and a whole new angle. The couple’s goal is to create pizza made from scratch—fresh, hand-rolled dough and in-house sauce, all topped with locally sourced fresh ingredients. 

“We know from past experience that other pizza restaurants use frozen, already rolled dough that they thaw overnight, where our dough is freshly made,” says Tyler Schroeder. “The sauce is homemade as well. It’s a New York-style sauce, and that’s why we’re going for the New York-style slice.”

Schroeder describes the New York-style slice as the biggest single slice of pizza around. The kind, he says, that you have to fold to eat. The idea was inspired by his stay at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Now he’s bringing it to Niverville with the belief that it will be a really big hit with high school students in the near future—or anyone, for that matter, with an appetite that goes beyond the traditional single slice of pizza.

Along that theme, the Schroeders will also create a mega-sized full pizza, 21 inches in diameter, that will feed four to six adults and beat any other large pizza option by three to four inches in size. You can only do that when you roll your own dough, he says, since premade crusts come in a limited number of sizes.

“It’s a heavy pizza,” Schroeder says. “You use almost a pound and a half of dough alone and then over a pound of cheese.”

Along with fresh ingredients and mega-sized pizza offerings, Schroeder says another unique angle they plan to provide is late-night service. They will be the only pizza restaurant in town open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Free delivery means you don’t even need to leave the house when you feel that late-night pizza craving coming on.

“This pizza is so good fresh that I want to get it to you fast, so we’re hoping to offer quick delivery around town.”

Their brand, Niverville’s Pizzeria, was chosen for it’s hometown sound and reflects a Mom and Pop-type feel. The couple made an intentional decision not to carry a franchise name because eliminating franchise fees means lower overhead, allowing them to pass on the savings to the customer.

“Our pizza will be cheaper and also bigger,” says Schroeder. “When you make your own dough, you can make it for 50 to 80 cents per dough ball. When you buy it [ready made], you pay $2 plus per dough ball. That’s why we’re making our own sauce and dough.”

He acknowledges that this means more work for them, but they’ll get to work together as a couple—which is a bonus.

Niverville’s Pizzeria will open in the new development on the west end of town, connected to the upcoming Great Canadian Dollar Store. With just under 1,000 square feet of space, the couple anticipate offering takeout and delivery service only, allowing for a little bit of a waiting area for those picking up a meal, but no formal dine-in.

They both have previous restaurant experience, each of them graduating with a degree in culinary arts. They met at Earl’s Kitchen & Bar in Winnipeg where Mellissa worked as a waitress. Since then they built up their pizza experience and restaurant management skills working together at Niakwa Pizza in Niverville.

Parental maternity leave to raise their young daughter, Peyton, has given them the time they need to experiment with pizza doughs and sauces, as well as to create a gourmet pizza menu that will rival all of the others out there.

On the menu you’ll find the Hole-in-One pizza, inspired by the golf course surrounding them. Other specialty options will include the Steak Bite Special, Main Street Special, Meat Lovers, and Vegetarian. Schroeder already has plans for a custom-painted golf cart, allowing him to serve up hot pizza slices to golfers on the course.

Other menu items will include chicken wings in a variety of flavors, lasagna, chicken fettuccine alfredo, house and chicken Caesar salads, and cheese toast—all made fresh and in-house. Students of the nearby high school will be able to complement their noon pizza slice with chips and a pop, priced affordably as combo meals.

 “We’re going to be Niverville’s favorite pizza place,” Schroeder says with a confident smile.