Food+Drink

Donkey-Sized Ambition

pizza fans launch frozen food venture from Banbury

Amanda Fay, photos by Andrea Paulseth |

Leah and John Shenk’s handmade ‘Big Donkey’ frozen pizzas can be found at area stores and taverns. Flavors include Boring Cheese, Vegetable Haters, Soccer Mom Delight, & more.
 
Leah and John Shenk’s handmade ‘Big Donkey’ frozen pizzas can be found at area stores and taverns. Flavors include Boring Cheese, Vegetable Haters, Soccer Mom Delight, & more.

Who doesn’t enjoy the convenience of a frozen pizza? Most people keep one waiting in the freezer. Well Eau Claire’s frozen pizza selection just got better and more local. Big Donkey Pizza is a micro-batch pizza made by hand right here in Eau Claire’s Banbury Place. It is sold frozen through retailers and pubs.

Why Big Donkey? Well according to John Shenk, his wife Leah grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and one of her earliest memories is of a rather large donkey. The big donkey was a memorable part of Leah’s Wisconsin history, and they both hope it will be a very memorable part of their first business venture as well.

Leah and John Shenk moved here from Rockford, IL about five years ago. After trying out the Eau Claire pizza selection, they felt they had been spoiled in Rockford. None of the pizza in Eau Claire really impressed John and Leah, and they started to make their own pizza at home. With years of restaurant experience between them, John and Leah were making pretty great pizzas and decided that they should share their gift with everyone else in Eau Claire. John and Leah took the leap and turned the pizza they were making at home into a frozen, wholesale product.

Awesomesauce.
 
Awesomesauce.

Founded last year, Big Donkey Pizza’s goal is “to put better pizza in the mouths of fellow Eau Clairians (and Wisconsinites in general).” During this year, Big Donkey Pizza plans to increase their production, expanding regionally, by attaining new equipment and putting some additional Eau Clarians to work.

 You can currently pick up your own Big Donkey Pizza at Gordy’s County Market (on Birch Street), Just Local Food, Festival Foods, Hahn’s Market, The Mousetrap, The VFW (on Starr), Hoots Hilltop Tavern, Mondovi Super Valu, and Menomonie Farmers Market. Big Donkey currently produces six varieties of pizza, the last two of which are their own specialty: Legendary Classic Pepperoni, Good Ol’ Sausage, Boring Cheese, Vegetable Haters (sausage and pepperoni), Soccer Mom Delight (sundried tomato & basil), and Buffalo-Chicken-Donkey, What?. Big Donkey is always looking for new ideas and new topping choices, but they want to make sure they’re perfect before rolling them out.

Savoring my first piece of Vegetable Haters pizza, I learned very quickly that what appeared to be an ordinary pepperoni and sausage pizza was really much more. With sausage perfectly spiced and flavorful, red sauce just sweet enough, and a perfectly crunchy and thin crust, I had to double check that I had just made this pizza in my own oven. “Toppings are and always will be a matter of preference, but the crust and the sauce will,” as John Shenk put it, “make or break a pizza.” In this case, the crust and the sauce definitely make the pizza.

Typically, frozen pizza means pizza with convenience for the general masses. But now when I think of frozen pizza, I think of Big Donkey, and I not only think of convenience, but I also think of a tasty explosion of sweet sauce and thin, crispy crust made from raw ingredients without preservatives. This cheese isn’t from any California cow; we’re talking Wisconsin dairy cheese here. Only the best.

Winners of the 2010 Prestigious “Sexiest Pizza” Award at the International Pizza Bonanza, Big Donkey Pizza challenges you to try one.