“Serial entrepreneur” Mark “Pappy” Anderson loves his latest venture: A family-friendly pizza joint that happens to serve up a mean batch of chicken wings and healthy salads, too.
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I'm Eric Eicher, president
of Alpine Bank Durango.
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As we all live with the new
reality of the pandemic,
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innovative businesses
throughout Southwest Colorado
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are finding new ways to work
and serve our community.
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We invite you to learn
more about your neighbors
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in this edition of Business Matters.
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Mark "Pappy" Anderson
loves to make people happy
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and he also loves to make pizza.
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So why not combine the two
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in an affordable
family-friendly pizza joint
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that also serves up a mean
basket of chicken wings
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and a glass of perfectly chilled beer.
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That's just what Anderson
did when he opened
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the Happy Pappy's Pizza n Wings
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across from Durango High School last year.
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The circumstances weren't
the most auspicious
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for a new business.
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The pandemic had just shut down Durango
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and his venture was met
with a lot of skepticism,
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if not downright pessimism.
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He didn't listen to the critics.
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When I was building this place out
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there was a lot of
people that would stop by
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from the neighborhood and go,
"You're not going to make it."
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"You're not going to make it."
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"You can't sell alcohol.
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Nobody makes it in this place.
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Everybody goes out of business."
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And this was week, after week, after week.
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I'm like, "Okay. All right."
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And you know, we figured it out
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and busting at the scenes.
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We're not going to wall out now.
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Anderson moved to Durango
from Florida five years ago
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after making an overnight stop here
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on a cross country trip to California.
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A self-professed serial entrepreneur,
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Anderson had planned to slow down
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after selling a trucking business,
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he started 15 years before,
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but that didn't last long.
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Instead, he started up a chain
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of pizza parlors with
his cousins back East.
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But after traveling back
and forth from Durango
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for nine months, he
decided to sell his share
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in the family business and
start his own pizza joint
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in his new hometown.
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Anderson uses recipes that have been
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in the family for 30 years.
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In addition to traditional pizzas,
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he also offers a gluten-free pizza
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made with either a cauliflower
or broccoli cheese crust.
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He smokes his wings for three
hours before throwing them
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in the pizza oven to crisp up
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and serves them with a variety of toppings
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from barbecue to bourbon sauce,
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honey mustard to mango habanero.
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Want to beer?
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Serve yourself at
Durango's only beer wall,
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where you activate the spigot
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with a beer card linked to
your credit or debit account.
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Want just a half a glass to finish
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off that last bite of pizza?
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You pay by the ounce.
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So go ahead and just pull half a poor.
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Anderson met his struggled
during the pandemic,
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but he's confident that his old-fashioned
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family-friendly atmosphere
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and reasonably priced food
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will prove his initial critics wrong.
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Well, you know, I love food.
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I love our food.
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I love business.
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I love these kids.
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I love people.
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You know, I got a little
depressed to this COVID stuff.
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I want the customers' back on the patio
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and having a good time,
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and they're with their family.
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You know, the market,
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the pizza market in America changed.
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It changed when Pizza Hut
and Domino's took over
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in the '70s and the '80s.
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And you know, what used to
be the family pizza place
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where you used to go to with your kids,
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and the salad bar and pizza,
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and you just sit down and have
a beer under the red roof,
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it didn't exist anymore.
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There's a couple of places
in the country doing it.
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And I'm going to tell you,
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we're going to take this thing nationwide.
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I love that.
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I love the family can sit
down and have a good time,
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like to a place the kids want to eat,
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but a place you can afford.
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And the name Happy Pappy's,
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his twin daughters call him Pappy.
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Others, picked it up as a nickname.
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And Anderson says "He's
happiest when the people
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around him are happy
and having a good time."
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You know, the business is
about making people happy,
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making employees happy,
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having employees that are
happy to come somewhere to work
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and learn, me, mentor them,
give me something to do.
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You know, I'm getting a little older,
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I don't care to retire, and this is great.
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Happy Pappy's is open for
takeout or dining service.
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And if you short weeks of refurbished
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outdoor patio will be open as well.
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To order online or see a menu
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visit happy.pappys.pizza.
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Thanks for watching this edition
of the local news network.
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I'm Wendy Graham Settle.
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