Woodfired pizza, Italian accents and history lessons – what could be better?

BY GINNA YOUNG

COURIER SENTINEL

“You can’t get more Cadott than me.”

Any local will agree, Bruce Kyes and the family name have reached legend status in the Cadott area. Now, more so than ever, with Kyes Guys Pizza, his mobile woodfired catering business, which Bruce operates as a night, weekend and holiday gig.

Bruce started the venture about nine years ago, after he came up with the idea of building a pizza oven, out of the blue.

“I wanted to do something different – something I’d never done before, something no one else has been doing around here,” he said. “My wife says, ‘Why do you want to build a pizza oven, you’ve never made a pizza in your life?’ And that’s where you start, the adventure, the journey, I guess I would have to call it.”

Once he made up his mind, Bruce researched the history and construction of a Pompeii-style oven, then had the brainstorm of making the oven portable. So, he found an old military trailer.

“The next thing you know, I’m engineering as I go,” said Bruce.

He then poured a cast refractory oven, instead of using fire brick, and poured a large dome and wrapped it in insulation, making the exterior cover stainless steel, with a Ben Franklin woodfired stove for the front.

“Which gives it a lot of character and functionality, as well,” said Bruce, although, he admits many mistake it for a bulk tank pulled behind his truck.

After all the engineering was settled, Bruce realized he would need insurance, so he had to get an LLC, but he really struggled with what name to put on his new catering venture. Enter his twin nephews, Adam and Isaiah Kyes, also known to Bruce as Mario and Luigi. The twins helped Bruce early on with the pizzas, so they became the “Kyes Guys.”

“The pizza thing became a family thing, as well,” said Bruce.