S & J's Woodfired Pizza

Don’t miss the 1st

Jonathan — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:37:42 +0000

Hello to all. It has been a while since I have written anything on this blog. Do to your many requests, I wanted to give something back to the fans of S & J's Woodfired Pizza and start back writing again. This is the first full week of farmer’s markets for us. I am so excited. I have been contacting farmers all week checking on produce, beef and cheese. All of which are scheduled to hit your plate on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday this week. The first East Atlanta Village Farmer’s Market is Thursday 4/18, our first Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market is Saturday 4/20 and the 1st Grant Park Farmer’s Market of the year is Sunday April 21.

We have a great menu set for this week. The chef special this week will be salty, sweet and delicious. With a combination of San Marzano tomato sauce, dry-cured Coppa and fresh asparagus from Fry Farm, this is the pizza you don’t want to miss. For those vegetarians out there our Veggie pizza this week is very exciting. Additionally, my hard work in the garden this past season will be noticed on the delicious Sau-Sage pizza, as it features homegrown sage in addition to Riverview Farms sausage. A full listing of our menu can be found on our market menu page. Come see us and all the farmers you missed this winter.

Lights, Camera, Action

Jonathan — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:21:09 +0000

What was once an idea is now a reality. The ability to see what S & J's Woodfired Pizza can offer your party before you actually book us. Below is an awesome video showcasing the many different foods we can prepare for your next event.

Not only does S & J's Woodfired Pizza have an awesome pizza cook and oven man, we have a pair of artists also. The music of the SJP catering video was written and produced by Brent Sandel, and the video was filmed and produced by Kristie Bledsoe. Thanks so much for your time and effort.

It’s ALIVE

Jonathan — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:05:13 +0000

As the people of Hotlanta are enduring the sweltering August heat, the vegetables of the Seyfred Family Farm are really enjoying the heat. Along with the recent rains comes great growth with my melons and tomatoes. I think that my soil has too much Nitrogen in it causing for more green growth than fruit production, but so far I am happy with our yields this year.

Some restaurants claim to serve farm fresh food. Well, here at S and J’s Woodfired Pizza sometimes our food comes straight from our garden to your plate. Our wood-fired pizza catering offers a variety of appetizers and salads. One of which is our caprese salad. With heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil traveling mere feet from farm to table you can’t get much better during the summer. Check out the updates.

Down to Earth

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:19:00 +0000

After two years of not so quiet observation of my lack of lawn, grass, beauty, and life in our backyard, SJ and I took to the dirt. Out went the scraggles of what some may call bermuda grass and in came a dump truck full of 22 year old Dekalb County compost. I lost count of how many times I wheeled compost, gravel and brick to our backyard. After 12 hours of labor and a few weeks of planning, our babies, organic vegetable and flower seeds, were in the ground. I purchased seeds from Botanical Interest including, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, melons, basil, cucumbers, corn, beans, marigolds and nasturtiums.

As human beings have become “more civilized” and “more efficient”, we have lost the will and ability to care for ourselves. We rely increasing more on the talents of others, mostly machines, to provide for our daily needs. As my interest in food has evolved over the years, it continues to come back to the Earth, to the roots, to the beginning. The ability to cultivate your family’s own food supply, while all the time controlling the quality and methods of which it is grown, is a talent that is incredibly under appreciated. People agonize over the side effects of drugs and the cost of healthcare but don’t stop the think about what goes into producing fruits and vegetables that cost less than $1/lb. What cost cutting methods are used and when does that cost catch back up with us?

With one of our first steps at going all natural, I present the Seyfred Family Farm

Fungi Farmer #2

Jonathan — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:10:49 +0000

Dare I say that I have embarked on part Deux of shitake log inoculation. With the recent find of a few down oak trees at our pool, I decided to take advantage. No reason for one of those trees to not continue to be useful. Doug Mims helped me saw them up into 3-4′ sections, and I hauled them home. The great thing about this is the timing. It is almost 6 months since I inoculated my first set of logs. It will be interesting to see if the warm weather strain does better on logs inoculated in winter or summer. Also, the newer logs looked a little fresher and cleaner in terms of other growth on the bark.

Check out these pics. On the left is the inoculation date and mushroom spore type. On the right, my stack.

As you can see…

no shitake growth yet. We are still early, but doesn’t this wood get you excited.

Gotta Love ‘em

Jonathan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:30:41 +0000

S and J’s Woodfired Pizza has a new team for 2012. Sarah and I have hired a full-time and part-time employee to help us sling the best pizza in Atlanta. We are so excited to roll out our new team. We know you will love them too. Here is a little info about our new members.

Brent Sandel is our new full-time pizza cook/oven man. Many of you will recognize him as the front man for STD (Sailing to Denver), his band. Others of you may recognize him as an occasional member of our 2011 crew. Brent has been an awesome addition since day one, as we have gelled in both our work ethics and our concepts of food. We are hoping to further increase our partnership as Brent is starting his first year of organic farming on his family’s land north of Atlanta.

Kristi Bledsoe is our new part-time pizza cook. She will be joining us in April, and we are stoked. Sarah and I hired Kristi after a day full of interviews and pizza tossing. She is fast, energetic and most of all really likes our concept on food. Kristi is about to turn 25 years old and is photgraphy student at GSU. In her spare time, she likes to work on her photography skills and create short films.

We can’t wait to show off our new crew. Our weekly markets start in April. So get ready!!!

I Lament

Jonathan — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:19:45 +0000

Today is a great day of jubilation and triumph. Today is the day in which we bring another soul into SJP. To begin the day, I felt overjoyed at the fact that Sj and I had grown our business to the point at which we need to hire outside of family and friends. To have enough work to have 2 full-time employees and a part-time employee is a big deal. As the replies to our ad came into my email, I soon realized how many people in Atlanta needed work. Despite indications in the ad for reliable transportation. flexible schedule, and pizza making experience, people of all types of talents applied. Thinking back, I don’t think it was the number of replies but the number of replies from people who qualified or just made a great first impression. I wanted to say you are hired on the spot. Of course, I couldn’t do that and expect to pay everyone so we had to narrow our search to the most specific of criteria. I am really glad that we were able to find the person we did, but the fact that there is so many qualified Americans living without work or having to piece together 2 or 3 jobs really sucks. I’m glad we are always keeping it local. Good luck to all those who applied

Power to the People

Jonathan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:52:38 +0000

Great news. We learned this week that Chestnut Charter Elementary was awarded the state grant that they applied for earlier this year. Not only is Uncle Sam opening his pocket for a school but also a school with a good cause in mind. The grant focuses on teaching kids about where their food comes from, eating locally, and showing them all the steps from seed to plate. With a greater knowledge of food, hopefully children can make good food choices also. S and J’s Woodfired Pizza will be bringing our oven to the Chesnut Elementary Field Day in May serving up fresh hot pizza topped with veggies from local D & A Farms. Not only that but the ecology class will be donating herbs from their garden allowing them to teach their peers on the process.

In coming up with the idea for this grant application, S and J’s Woodfired Pizza was contacted about being a part of the event. I was very excited and thought it was a great idea. I am glad the government did also. It is nice to see the power of the people in action. Check out the grant in the attachment if you want anymore info. Chesnut Elementary Grant App

Officially Stoked

On the Lookout

Jonathan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:57:14 +0000

To all those who have said ” Where are you located?”, I want to give you an answer. Sarah and I have begun our search into finding a location that you can find us anyway of the week. The opening of a restaurant is in a word, daunting. Excitement, caution, stress and daydreaming are my current companions on the daily Merry Go Round of emotions. Even with our concept cemented making the right decision on a location is very big. We want all of our current customers to be able to access us and also branch out into new areas. We want something different and non-corporate. Our concept is different and interesting, and we want our restaurant space to mirror that. And last but not least on the wish list is a patio. We started our mobile business so we could be outside. Can’t stop that feeling now. If you see a place that screams S and J’s or if you just need us near you, please let us know if you see a potential spot for the future S and J’s Woodfired Pizza.

Fungi Farmer

Jonathan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:36:44 +0000

I have never thought of myself as a “Green Thumb”. I have done ok with small herbs and I have gotten a few tomatoes but my garden production has left something to be desired. Today, I have moved away from plants and onto fungi. My best friend, Ben Jeter, was in town this weekend, and we inoculated 8 oak logs with Shitake mushroom spores. Strain 512+ is a warm weather strain which is designed to fruit in warmer weather from 65-85 degrees. That sounds like Georgia weather to me.

This starts episode 1 of our daily picture and blog of “Fungi Farmer”. You have to look forward to 365 more posts and daily pictures of wood. Not just any wood but logs that have been cut and inoculated with Shitake mushrooms. The pictures will be boring and the posts monotonous. The daily life of the wood will become your reason for turning on the computer in the morning. You will ache and pain each day as you become more and more agitated at the lack of substance or growth but you will always come back for more. Just for that single hope that you will be able to watch a fungus grow. Not only will you be shocked and amazed at how every picture looks exactly the same but you will soon also appreciate the fungi you eat on a regular basis. And so starts “Fungi Farmer” only available at S & J's Woodfired Pizza.