Shawn and Peggy Brokaw were scouting for business opportunities three years ago when a friend suggested they consider purchasing a local pizza place and selling a keto‑friendly pizza.
They didn’t really want to own a restaurant, but liked the idea of making a pizza that allowed them to sit down as a family and eat the same thing. Shawn and Peggy both have dietary sensitivities.
Shawn researched some ideas and discovered recipes for chicken crust pizzas. He says the problem with most “healthier” pizzas is that they don’t taste like pizza.
“We wanted it to taste good,” he says.
That led to a period of trial and error at home that resulted in the family eating pizza almost every night for two months. Shawn developed a sauce that has since won recognition at the Wisconsin State Fair, and they decided to try and sell some pizzas.
“I thought it was going to be a hobby,” says Peggy, who has continued her teaching career even as they build the business.
They rented commercial kitchen space, but soon found it was unworkable. The recipe they had developed also was gluten free, meaning kitchen prep in a shared space was limiting. They took a plunge and purchased a pizza restaurant in Chilton, converting it from a retail location into commercial food production.
They started with sales through farmers markets, which Shawn describes as “a grind” that also provides valuable customer feedback and helps them fine‑tune their products and offerings. It took them more than a year to break through in grocery stores, and there has been a learning curve with wholesaling the product. Creative Crusts is now in 70 outlets, including all Woodman’s grocery stores.
Shawn says the company is now aiming for bigger markets, including Chicago, and would love to have its pizzas offered at bars. That means increasing production. He says Creative Crusts can produce 1,200 crusts per day in Chilton and recently purchased additional space on Claremont Drive in Appleton. That has allowed for space where people can pick up pizzas; more importantly, Creative Crusts has room to build production space for up to 20,000 pizzas a day.
Increasing production to meet growing demand is just one goal. Creative Crusts continues to develop new products, including a tofu crust pizza and vegan options, and rotate through specialty pizzas while testing products and markets.
“We want pizzas everyone can have,” Shawn says.
The pizzas are produced with Wisconsin ingredients including chicken from Brakebush, cheese from Grande and spices from Smoke ‘n Sanity.
The staff has grown from Shawn and Peggy and also include their two children and eight employees, with help for events. Shawn’s sister Melisa VandeCastle is in charge of production. They have had nutritional consultation from Kimberly Baehman of Nutritional Healing and advice from Shawn Pollack of Poco Pizza in Van Dyne. They’ve also worked with Maverick Group Advisors and Catapult Consulting.
“We’ve worked with some really great businesspeople,” Shawn says.
