What is a Peel?
Welcome to The Pizza Peel! I’m sure you’re thinking, just what is a Peel? Basically, a peel functions as a safe way for us to remove your pizza from our hot oven! Historically, the tool has been known as a baker’s shovel, baker’s paddle or baker’s peel. A two-thousand-year-old sculpted tomb in Rome shows a baker using a peel to remove food (most likely bread) from a brick oven. This tool has been keeping burns to a minimum for over 2000 years! Peels can be made of wood or metal. The one we use has an aluminum peel and a wooden handle. They can vary from inches to feet in length!
What Are We Good At?
Pizza! If you crave a great pizza, you’ve found the place! We hand craft our dough daily, allowing it to cure in our cooler for three days before using it to make our fantastic hand tossed pizza. We also offer a delicious thin crust (as well as gluten free crust)! All our veggies are cut fresh daily and we always use the best toppings we can find. We make calzones to die for and a couple awesome salads too! We offer dine in (with banquet room available for groups up to 45), carry out, and limited delivery to Lacon & Sparland. Be sure to check out our SPOTM (Specialty Pizza Of The Month) for unique pizzas that may not be on our regular menu!
Our History:
We opened The Pizza Peel February 9th, 2009…and the rest, as they say, is history!
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Owners Travis & Wendy have been in the pizza industry for over 20 years. How did they end up in Lacon? They had an opportunity to move into Travis’ Great-grandparents’ 105-year-old farm. With 6 kids, a love of the Mid-West, and a knack for making great pizza…it makes perfect sense! The Pizza Peel is located in the old Legion Hall on 5th Street (St. Rt. 17). The entire lower level has been remodeled and renovated into a quaint, comfortable and inviting dining experience.
A Note From Travis:
I was born in Peoria and lived in Pekin as a child (I spent every summer on my Great-grandparent’s farm). We moved to Colorado when I was 13. For 20 years I lived in Colorado. There I met my wife, Wendy and we had four of our six children. In 2008, we moved 1000 miles to just outside Sparland, Il. and began building The Pizza Peel.
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My first experience in the pizza industry came in 1996 as I took on the job of Prep Manager (read: dough boy) at a local pizza place in Greeley, Colorado. From there I worked my way up: delivery driver, pizza maker, shift manager, Assistant manager, General Manager and my last position as Operations Director. At the end of my stint in Colorado I directly supervised two high volume franchise locations. I also worked for our corporate office in Denver assisting with new franchisee development and operations.
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The draw to move our family was the opportunity to live in the country on our family’s farm. Pizza is the only thing I know, so building The Pizza Peel was a chance to put together all that I had learned in Colorado. Now we are almost 9 years into owning The Peel and I’ve learned so much more! There are two reasons we are successful: our Team, and you, our guest. We would not be here without a talented Team that runs The Peel – and we are here because you, our guest, enjoys the experience – thank you for stopping by and we hope to develop a lasting relationship with you and your family!