Welcome to another installment of Tour Collierville’s 2-Minute Tuesday! This week, Hannah sits down with Tim Gaines of Lost Pizza Company to talk about his new restaurant, opening in Collierville.

Watch the video here, or read the transcript below.

Lost Pizza Company’s Tim Gaines Video Transcript

Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah with Tour Collierville’s 2-Minute Tuesdays, and I am here with Tim Gaines, the owner of Lost Pizza Company.  Tim, thanks so much for being here.

Tim: Sure. It’s my pleasure.

HC: So, Tim, what is it about Lost Pizza Company that… Where did that even originate? Where did that start?

TG: Well, it originated in Indianola, Mississippi.  It was two friends that had come together and decided that they wanted to open a restaurant.  Their families had been in the restaurant business for years.  And basically, their parents gave them about a year to go out and find recipes and kind of put their concept together.  They went out and did that and started… opened the first one in Indianola.  And so it’s kind of branched out from there.

HC: Okay, so, Lost Pizza Company: Where’d that name come from?

TG: One of the guys actually lived in St. Croix.  He was a diving instructor there.  One of his favorite bars was called The Lost Dog Bar.  And so when they decided to do this, he came back over here and they opened it up.   Unfortunately, there was a copyright infringement with Lost Dog.  There was a Lost Dog Café in Virginia.  And so we had to kind of lose the “dog.”  And so that’s how it became Lost Pizza Company.

HC: So if it started all the way there, what is it about Collierville that made you decide to come here?

TG: Well, I opened my first on in Southaven, Mississippi, and it’s been going great.  I actually lived in Collierville for about 15 years, and I’ve always wanted to come back here.  It’s just… I had to find the right place.  And so I’ve been interested in coming here for years, and about a year ago, we just… we actually hooked up with John Green Realty.  They had purchased some property and gotten in touch with me.  And we just kind of came together and decided to go ahead.

HC: Okay.  So what is it about your pizza that makes you so unique?  There’s lots of pizza places around, but what is it… What makes you think that yours is so different and so special?

TG: Yeah, um… I mean, everything we do is homemade.  From our dough to our sauces—even our chips, our dips, even some of our salad dressings—everything we do is homemade.  We get in at 8:30 in the morning and start prepping for the day.  And I mean, if we run out of something, we run out of it.  I mean, everything is fresh.  We bring in produce, our meats.  Everything is brought in twice a week to make sure that we have the freshest quality food possible.  We’re, like I say, we’re in there at 8:30 every morning, cutting produce every morning.  Our meats don’t have any fillers—it’s all meat.  Our cheese that we use is actually the most expensive cheese on the market.  It’s very time-sensitive, there’s no preservatives, chemicals in it.  So we just try to put out the best quality product that we can.

TG: And it’s been successful.  I mean, we’ve been voted Best Pizza in Mississippi by Mississippi Magazine four years in a row.  And so we’re hoping to bring that to Collierville and, you know, continue our success with it.

HC: Okay, so, for your menus and dips and… Is it just pizza?  Is there more than that?  What all is there?

TG: No, we’ve got, of course, appetizers, our pizzas… We’ve got specialty pizzas.  You can build your own pizza.  We’ve got subs, pastas, desserts… So we’ve got a pretty diverse menu.

HC: So, what’s your favorite pizza?

TG: Probably our Cujo, which is basically a supreme.  It’s definitely our best seller.  I mean, we sell a ton of all of them, but that’s probably our number one.  It’s just a great pizza.

HC: So if there’s build-your-own pizzas, what’s the craziest pizza toppings you ever put together?

TG: Well, actually, I have had somebody order a pizza with every single topping that we’ve got before.  And they’ve done that a couple of times.  It’s quite the pizza.

HC: So is it like a deep dish kind of thing?  Or how does your customer…

TG: We actually have two types of crust.  We’ve got thin crust—I mean, it’s not a cracker-thin crust; it’s more like a hand-tossed.  And then we do have just a thick crust, that we call it, and it is kind of a pan.  So, you know, depending on what people want, they can decide on, you know, either one.

HC: Is there… Is there a bar or anything like that?

TG: No, we don’t have a bar.  We do offer beer.  We don’t do liquor or anything, but we do offer… In Southaven, I’ve got about 60 different types of beer.  And so, we’ve got a good selection, but no bar.

HC: Okay, so do you stick to, like, craft beers?  Or do you do domestics?

TG: We do.  I mean, we do… I mean, of course we have the domestics, but I’m real big into craft beer, and so we try to… We try to bring in as much local as we can, and then we just kind of branch out from there.  As far as… We’re always trying something different.  I’m not afraid to bring in just about anything and try it.  So, you know, we do pretty well in that area.

HC: So when are you set to open?

TG: We don’t have an actual date yet.  We’re hoping by the end of the year, possibly the end of January.  It really just depends on how things go.  But somewhere in that area.

HC: Where is Lost Pizza Company going to be located?

TG: We are going to be in the building right next door to Mencie’s on Washington Street.  The actual address is 170 Washington Street.  The building is actually getting a big facelift.  The Greens are coming in and putting a lot into it.   It’s going to be a great-looking store.

HC: Well, Tim, thanks so much for being here.  This has been another 2-Minute Tuesday for Tour Collierville, with Tim Gaines’s Lost Pizza Company.