Tin Whistle Brewing Co., the once sleepy brewery in the Cannery Trade Centre that just two years ago grabbed a new lease on life and a blast of excitement under fresh ownership, now has a pizzeria parked directly beside its loading zone patio.
It's called "Woodwood Pizzeria" and it is in fact a food truck. A relatively new food truck that spent its first couple years in business jumping about from weddings to wineries to private events. But it now has a permanent home -- at least 'til the fall and the slow season.
Last week, Tin Whistle put together a mid-day, mid-week shindig to announce and show off the truck and introduce the town to its owner, a dude originally from Sweden and these days from Okanagan Falls named Daniel Johansson.
And yes, it was fun. Beer tasters and pizza at the Tin Whistle patio while most folks are working turned out to be an awesome idea. Until this reporter spilled his second taster after drinking a mere couple ounces from his first.
Note to other breweries: Don’t serve beer to the PentictonNow reporter.
Still, it was a nifty event in a tremendously unique setting. A parking lot patio with an adjacent food truck makes for a great place to quaff beerskis. Especially when it's at the Cannery Trade Centre, with its historical/industrial past, its seemingly bohemian, Granville Island-ish future (more on that in an upcoming article), and its distinctly non-downtown vibe.
And Johansson, a guy who spent "years" toiling in "kitchens all over" before working for himself and, rather impressively, building from scratch the wood-fired pizza oven inside his Woodwood truck, is psyched.
"This is my third season," he said. "Last year I thought I was going to get some help so I took more events, but the help didn’t happen. So this year I decided no private events or weddings because it was a bit too much, and then this (opportunity) came along.
"I really like the idea of being permanent somewhere where people can actually find me instead of seeing me one day and trying to find me again."
Born and raised in Sweden, which he says is quite similar to BC weather-wise but without the temperature extremes, Johansson moved to Vancouver in 2009 and met his future wife, who happened to hail from OK Falls. The two live together there now, where she runs a busy self-storage facility.
With Woodwood Pizzeria, Johansson keeps it simple. He currently serves four varieties of pizza, all in Neapolitan style -- Margherita, Margherita Special, Pepperoni and Chimi (the latter featuring chimichurri). All pies are 11 inches in size and baked fresh when ordered.
"I like Neapolitan-style pizza," said Johannson. "And I use organic Canadian whole grains on it and try to make it not so much Italian because I like to be more Canadian. I like to use products from here."
Woodwood Pizzeria will open at 11 am and close at 5 pm five days a week (every day but Monday and Tuesday) through to the fall. Daily hours will be extended if business is good and if Johannson can finally find a helper.
But whatever the hours, he's liking the opportunity. And the location.
"It's not downtown," he said. "And it's nice to be a part of this, to create something new."
It's a sentiment shared by Tin Whistle co-owner Alexis Esseltine, who put together the weekday event and is currently promoting not only all that great pizza but also the seasonal opening of her patio.
"We like being off the beaten track," she said. "It's an incredible space here. When people discover us and find us, it's really special for them."
As for that patio, which was one of Tin Whistle's two loading docks before Esseltine and co-owner/hubby Tim Scoon turned it into a lively parking lot social space, Esseltine says it was a COVID thing.
"In the middle of the pandemic," she said, "we had to open up and create a space. And Jill Bateman, who runs the building, is so supportive. So she okayed it.
"And when we asked if we could have a couple more spaces because I'd love to host Daniel for the season, she gave us an okay again."
Indeed, Tin Whistle and its new food truck are a big part of a seeming renaissance at the Cannery Trade Centre -- an artsy renaissance that includes new and not-yet-opened businesses run by enthusiastic folks who want to bring the old canning facility back to the forefront.
As we said, more on that in a future article. For now, check out Tin Whistle Brewing and the Woodwood Pizzeria food truck at 1475 Fairview Rd.
