Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanner Purdum.
Hi Tanner, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started The Wild Garlic about 4 1/2 years ago, I had spent many years cooking in different cities like Dallas, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. My wife received an opportunity to work in College Station, Texas and my son had just been born. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to the craziness of working full time in award-winning restaurants. I say craziness as if what I’m doing now doesn’t feel absolutely crazy! My wife Carlee and I really began thinking of what would be next. We came up with the idea of a wood-fired pizza pop-up/catering concept. After doing a lot of research, working with health departments and finding a company that would outfit a mobile wood fire oven, The Wild Garlic was Born.
Food-wise I knew I wanted to be unique and very community-minded. Something I am very passionate about is from scratch cooking with a local seasonal element. “Local” is the very place we started. Once a week we would pop-up at the community farmer’s market. Something that I think really set us apart was the fact that each week we would change the menu. This allowed us to each source all new ingredients from our farms. It allowed us to do all kinds of wild inventive pizzas. We really began cultivating this awesome following. People were really enjoying the uniqueness of what we were doing. We put so much into what we do. Each week everything that goes on our pizzas is made from scratch by us. To this day, we still source as much as we can locally.
After a time of saying yes to everything and only working by myself once a week selling a handful of pizzas, we’re now open at an awesome location four days a week, catering large weddings and special events with a full staff. Things that from the beginning, we hoped to achieve have come to reality. Not to mention constantly working in the elements and dealing with COVID-19. To see where we started to where we are now is kind of wild. What I love most is many people who were there from our once a week days at the local farmer’s market are still coming out to where we are now. Who we are and the quality we stand for hasn’t changed and never will. We still change our menu every week. Everything is still made from scratch. No matter how big we get, we never want to lose that community feeling because it’s this community that has welcomed us and helped us get to where we are today.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think when I first started, I thought it was going to be such a huge hit right off the bat. We knew we had this amazing concept and no one else around had a wood oven on wheels, right!?!? I thought, as soon as people see us its going to be an overnight success. But it’s rarely that way!! We had all kinds of hardships. From the get go just getting started with permits. What we wanted to do and how we wanted to set it up really hadn’t been done before. We did a lot of hands on work with the local health department to just get it permittable. Another challenge was being a dad for the first time. My wife was starting a new job so I stayed at home and took care of our kiddo for the first year. It was a lot for us both. Thankfully, I have such an amazing partner in my wife. We made it work. Then you have just the challenge of the elements. I’m a guy working with pizza in Texas where it’s hot 80% of the year. We had to come up with systems to keep our ingredients cold and at the right temp. The way our trailer works, I can’t just have a giant fridge on site with us. Not to mention the giant ice storm! Then of course, the big one, COVID-19, which was a personal one. Our kiddo had complications when we all got COVID and had to be hospitalized for over a week followed by a long recovery. It was really hard to bounce back into real life after that, but COVID was still there and we had a company and staff to take care of. It was crazy because during lock down all our big events we had booked were cancelled. So, for a short period of time we were a wood fired bread company. We literally made wood fired bread in the oven, sold it online, and did contactless door delivery. Struggles happened all along the way but with the help of my wife and my team we were dammed if we were gonna ever gonna give up. From all of that we only grew stronger and more determined.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been a chef for twelve years and came up as a prep cook cooking in James Beard award-winning restaurants. From all of that I gained a real love for the local community-driven atmosphere. I love working with farmers and local artisans. Being so passionate about what I do, working alongside others who are just as passionate is the reason why we have done so well. I would say I specialize in using what’s around me to create something really enjoyable. With The Wild Garlic, be it our pizza, our catering or the supper clubs we put on. I know we are doing so many unique and amazing things because of the amazing people we get to partner with. The community’s response has been just awesome! The best part is this isn’t at all just a “me” thing. My Wife and our kiddo are so heavily involved. My wife works a very demanding full time job but is also on the ground and in the trenches with me and my crew. Even my kid is at events making friends. Often times I meet new people who have met my kid even before they met me! We still have so much in store with The Wild Garlic.
What are your plans for the future?
The Future of The Wild Garlic is always changing. Where we are now was the future we imagined so many years ago. Now we partner with amazing people like Dr. Laura and Jason of Kinderhill brew lab. A partnership that I know has the potential to be something even bigger than it is now. Ultimately we want a brick and mortar. Getting to that point doesn’t necessarily have an exact time line. I just opened a Bakery and Cafe in downtown Bryan “The Wild grain.” That opens up more opportunities with The Wild Garlic. Not to mention all the awesome ideas we talk about with Kinderhill from farm to table course dinners to pizzas classes. Doing what we’re doing allows for so much flexibility that we’re really enjoying the fun of now while keeping in mind the ultimate goal of something big and amazing. My wife and I always talk about how we love what we have cultivated so far in the community around us. We believe it’s because we really patiently let our growth be as organic as it needs to be. So far, that has really worked in our favor.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thewildgarlicpizza.com
- Instagram: thewildgarlicpizza
- Facebook: The Wild Garlic Tx
Image Credits
Destination Bryan
