Erie's Ippa Pizza on Glenwood brings creativity to the standard Italian pie

Next week is National Pizza Week, and as much as Americans love pizza, it is well and good that flat dough, sauce, cheese and whatever else you like on your pie, is something we celebrate.

While the concept originated in Italy, it was Americans who made it as we know it today: with countless styles, traditions, methods, ingredients, textures and toppings, loosely regionalized, and with strongly held opinions by all lovers of the food category.

One thing that is not in dispute is that Ippa Pizza, which started as a food truck in Erie by Jason Spore, and is now housed in a food truck parked at the old George's diner on Glenwood Park Avenue, has some of the most distinctive pies in the city.

"When I went to college, I called my mother and asked her how to make pizza," Spore said, remembering his early days at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "She just laughed and said 'This is not something I can explain over the phone. You'll have to come home and I'll show you.'"

That was how he fell in love with not only the food of his heritage, but the process of making it.

"It was first of all, love and appreciation of food and ... that what Mom (Kathie Spore of Conneaut, Ohio) did at home doesn't exist everywhere," he said. "I have fond memories of coming home to the smell of pizza dough and sauce on Friday nights. The appreciation took hold."

He would devote his adult life to the study of food, first in dietetics, and then through the love of homemade food. When he opened his first food truck, he would experiment with fermented doughs and flours and sauces and flavor combinations that led to specialties such as the Hot Louie, named after a spicy cheese made in St. Louis, and the Burrata Bomb, which is homemade cheese wrapped around another homemade cheese, formed into a loose ball and served in the middle of any pizza that, once sliced open, becomes spreadable cheese resembling fresh ricotta or mozzarella. Other specialties include Napoletana pizza and the Garlic Smasher (covered in roasted garlic).

It all starts with the base

Their menu is structured starting with four base pizzas that might only be fully appreciated by food snobs. The base pizzas are 'Mary (milled tomato, slivered garlic, extra virgin olive oil and oregano), 'Rita (milled tomato, house mozzarella, basil, olive oil and pecorino (cheese), 'Bianca (panna, house mozzarella, basil, black pepper, ricotta) and Ippa (milled tomato, house mozzarella, basil, panna, basil pesto and pecorino).

Then you choose your toppings, which are many and varied, including four kinds of pepperoni.

"Ippa Pizza," named for the way Spore's son pronounced "pizza" when he was 18 months old — he's 6 now — is unique in the world of pizza, which is tough to pull off, considering how many shops there are in Erie.

"I learned how to make Napoletana pizza in New York City," Spore said. "(Ippa's) concept is a fusion between the Napoletana from Naples, Italy, and my mom's style."

Unique, local ingredients not found at chain locations

"A couple of things we do that make us unique are that we use two sourdough starters, both of which have been alive since 2016," Spore said about his pizza dough, which is all fermented to some extent. "I've been feeding them making bread and pizza dough and all kinds of baked goods, keeping it alive and bubbly and fragrant; that makes us different. We ferment dough with that."

He also takes his other ingredients pretty seriously.

"There's a portion that we mill in house, so we have fresh flour," Spore said. "We also use traditional '00' (double zero) flour that pizza is well known for, and we also use a higher protein flour. So we use three different flours. It took me a while to perfect the flours. We use Italian plum tomatoes as well as local heirloom tomatoes ― we have farmers specifically grow for me and then that and Sicilian sea salt. We also hand-stretch our cheese, and we make own fresh mozzarella."

He said this isn't the kind of pizza you're going to find at a chain store.

"Those are the things that we do differently that results in a different end product," he said.

Unfortunately, you can't finish this story and then run to Ippa Pizza and order a Hot Louie. They are closed until the end of January, retooling the truck for winter and working on the customer experience.

"We're very interested in fermentation, how our sausage is made, vertical gardening and composting," he said. "We want to be always growing, preserving and composting, and starting it all again. We're passionate about supporting local farmers and using local, seasonal ingredients. It is important to our concept, as it is appealing to all the senses. I want you to hear music when you come in, smell the pizza and experience the different textures and different flavors. That's very important to me."

Other dreams for Spore include working events, paying a living wage, training employees well enough to grow the business and taking advantage of economies of scale. And, Spore is holding back a major announcement that he is "90 percent" ready to share. In the meantime, we'll have to celebrate pizza a different way.

Ippa Pizza

Where: 2614 Glenwood Park Ave.

Info: ippapizza.com/ippahome , facebook.com/IPPAPizza/, 814-844-2746

Contact Jennie Geisler at jgeisler@timesnews.com, or at 814-870-1885. 

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA's Ippa Pizza on Glenwood goes beyond standard Italian pies