By Anna Skinner
In August, Jan’s Pizza celebrated 18 years at its Sheridan location, opened in 1997. The Westfield location opened a mere two years after that.
Jan, always a big cook, was a local food service director at a camp for inner city kids. Every Friday night, she would make pizzas as big as the table for the poverty-stricken children.
“That’s really how she got into making pizza in bulk,” Jan’s daughter, Michelle Thomas, said.
Jan’s Pizza has been a big family business, and Thomas has helped her mom with it since the stores opened.
“It was my mom’s dream,” Thomas said. She works six days as the general manager at Jan’s. “It’s family. It’s what you do for family.”
Thomas said she believes the crust for the pizza is the most unique part. It is made each day at the Sheridan location.
Thomas said they always use fresh ingredients, and recently, switched to a gluten-free kitchen.
“We have a gluten-free crust, but I changed the flour we toss the dough in to rice flour, so there’s not a lot of gluten flying through the air,” Thomas said. She attended a seminar in Las Vegas to learn how important it is to have gluten-free options in a restaurant.
That seminar wasn’t the only reason Thomas was in Vegas, though.
After winning the 2013 employee bake-off that sent her to a competition in Belterra, Thomas and her Mediterranean pizza creation advanced to Las Vegas to compete for the World Champion Pizzaola in March of 2014.
“It was huge. There were at least 60 other pizza places representing,” Thomas said. “We had to go up against 10 other pizza places that were in our region. You make two pizzas and pick which one you put in front of the judge.”
Unfortunately, Thomas’s pizza didn’t win the division. She said that almost nobody wins their first year though.
Jan’s Pizza attends approximately two or three competitions a year, some in Indianapolis and some in Columbus, Ohio. They even host their own local one, a friendly competition between the two Jan’s locations.
The winner of the 2015 employee bake-off goes to Kayla Curl, who works at the Sheridan location. She won with her chicken cordon bleu pizza.
Thomas created the Mediterranean pizza for the 2013 bake-off, and it is still a best seller on the menu, with house dressing for sauce, fresh spinach and basil, chicken, bacon, banana peppers and feta cheese. Another popular pizza that won a bake-off in the past was the Mexican Meltdown.
Although Jan’s has been busy since they opened, Thomas said the opening of Grand Park has increased business substantially.
“It’s nice to see a lot of teams,” Thomas said, as Jan’s is the official pizza of Grand Park. “We tell a team to check out Hoffa’s or other local places also instead of just restaurant chains, because that’s what they’re looking for is something locally owned and operated.”
The Ind. 32 construction may have weakened some of the usual dinner business for the pizza restaurant, but Thomas said they see so many construction workers in for lunch that it makes up for the lost business at night. After the construction is complete, Jan’s Pizza will be at the same location.
There’re a lot of unique things about Jan’s Pizza, such as Jan giving back to the community with her participation in fundraisers with local sports teams or other events. Thomas also has another favorite about working in the family business.
“I like the fact that we don’t have a ‘no we can’t do that’ attitude,” she said. “We will make it happen, such as any special instructions someone wants. You’ll have someone with kids who wants just two slices of cheese and everything else on the pizza something different. We can do that.”
Kayla Curl – Winner of the 2015 Employee Bake-off
Kayla Curl, 27, Sheridan, has worked for Jan’s Village Pizza on and off for more than three years. Of those years, she’s participated in the contest twice, winning this year with her recipe for chicken cordon bleu. Ingredients for the pizza include chicken, ham, cheeses and honey Dijon sauce.
Curl said the key to the pizza’s success in this year’s bake off is her nearly two-year tweaking of the honey Dijon sauce.
The chicken cordon bleu pizza will be a menu item at both locations until the next employee bake-off.
Pick up a pizza
Location: 108 S. Union St., Westfield; 200 S. Main St., Sheridan.
Phone: Westfield, 896-5050; Sheridan: 758-6660.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 9 p.m.
