01-05-2025
A "timeless" pairing: Breweries cook up partnerships with pizza trucks
Another Twin Cities brewery is leaning into the classic combo of pizza and beer.
What's happening: Indeed Brewing rolls out a new partnership Thursday with Pizzeria Lola, with an on-site trailer dishing up pies from award-winning chef Ann Kim's popular south Minneapolis restaurant all summer.
The big picture: The collaboration is the latest example of a local brewery featuring a mobile restaurant "residency" instead of relying on rotating food trucks to feed hungry patrons.
State of the ovens: Wrecktangle Pizza is parked daily at Falling Knife, Headflyer teamed with OG Zaza last year, Fair State offers pies from neighboring Farina Rossa, and Maple Grove's Omni Brewing has an on-site mobile kitchen called Bear Paw Pizza.
What they're saying: "Pizza and beer is timeless," Indeed chief business officer Ryan Bandy said of the popularity of the partnerships. "There's no market saturation with pizza and beer."
Driving the trend: Partnering with a single vendor allows breweries to offer consistent and quality food, without having to manage the logistics of booking — and confirming — various trucks.
"We can turn our brain off and focus on our beer and our service and the vibe," Bandy said. "That combination makes sense for a lot of places."
Plus: Hosting a buzzy truck or trailer on a regular basis can also help a brewery attract — and keep — customers in a competitive market by making the taproom a dinner destination.
"When you're banking on a variety of food trucks, I don't think as many people plan to go there to eat," Bob Galligan, government and industry relations director for the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, told Axios. "It's more of a gamble."
Case in point: A previous summer partnership between Indeed and the Southern restaurant Revival led to less of a dip in business during the 6pm and 7pm hours, a time when customers tended to head elsewhere for dinner, Bandy said.
Between the lines: Many taprooms prefer food trucks or trailers to an in-house kitchen because running their own operation adds costs and licensing and logistical headaches.
"There's a bunch of breweries that I think would really love to have a kitchen, but a lot of the industrial zoning means you may not have the ability to actually have a restaurant," Galligan said.
Zoom in: The new Pizzeria Lola residency was years in the making. The two teams started talking about the idea pre-pandemic, but COVID put the plans on pause.
The idea was revived recently, after Lola's team emailed to say their chef bought a trailer at auction and didn't know where to put it.
That note came right around the time Revival called it quits, meaning Indeed had the space — and desire — to make it happen. "It was kismet," Bandy said.
If you go: The truck, led by Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza executive chef Chris White, will launch with a menu of four to five of 10-inch pizzas, salad, and garlic bread knots.
