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Cochrane man turns lemons into pizza

Fourth-generation Cochranite Tim Hall couldn’t have launched his business venture at a better time.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Three weeks ago, I was literally sitting on my couch with my head in my hands, saying, ‘What the hell am I going to do?' One week later, I was standing in front of a semi-trailer, delivering my cheese.”

No stranger to the kitchen, the 48-year-old has years of experience in the food industry – and he managed to put an idea into action in just a couple of weeks.

Inspired by a popular 1980s-era Cochrane pizza place, and a head full of memories, Hall has resurrected the name Lucky Penny Pizza. His success so far has been remarkable, especially since the coronavirus outbreak has sent small business owners into a tailspin all over the world. 

“Two weeks after I started this pizza thing, the coronavirus exploded and became quite serious,” he said. 

With residents hunkered down in their homes, Hall has been working around the clock delivering vacuum-packed frozen pizzas to doorsteps. In the few weeks since his business started, he has already sold 300 pizzas. According to Hall, he’s now at the point where he’s not sure how he will be able to keep up.

He’s been working out of three Alberta-Health-Services-approved kitchens, two in Cochrane and one in northeast Calgary. For the volume of pizzas he’s preparing, he said, he requires a lot of space. 

All of his 9” handmade pizzas are named for Cochrane nostalgia and, as Hall hopes, will inspire warm conversations around the fire pit or dinner table. The Dam Day Teriyaki Chicken Pizza features grilled chicken, apple and cherrywood smoked bacon, spring onions, pineapple, mozzarella, cheddar and provolone.

The name Dam Day is inspired by the last day of Grade 12, when a handful of students would skip school and jump off Ghost Dam into Ghost Lake, noted Hall. His A1 cheeseburger pizza is named after a diner that Hall and his Cochrane High School friends used to frequent on lunch breaks.

“We’ve seen all the changes,” Hall said about Cochrane’s transformation since his childhood. “There are so many of us that have grown up here and with all these new franchises coming in and these conglomerates, the ma-and-pa businesses are disappearing. It’s sad to see that.”

Hall worked with his parents for more than 20 years at North Forty Feed and Farm Supply on Railway Street in Cochrane. When his parents sold the business and retired about six years ago, Hall picked up his camera and made a name for himself as a photographer. Some of his images have even graced the pages of Canadian Geographic.

Hall is working on getting his website up and running. For now, all inquiries can be made on his Facebook page Lucky Penny Pizza or by calling 587-890-6905.

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