If at first you don’t succeed, head to international waters where no one can stop you. That’s the approach Nimrods’ of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island are taking, or at least the next best thing, after their plans to open a beer garden alongside their downtown food truck came to a halt. Now they’re campaigning to open a one-of-a-kind outdoor pizza bar at the Charlottetown Marina instead.
Mikey Wasnidge and his business partner, Jesse Clausheide, launched into the idea of opening an food truck in downtown Charlottetown back in January. With their passion for food, good times, and entrepreneurialism, Nimrods’ showed a lot of promise and public support. They recruited Nigel Haan as Master of Things, adapted their truck to handle the extra load, and planned to take their of converting an empty lot into a beer garden to city hall.
The hype manifested with a wildly successful PEI Burger Love event, with Nimrods’ selling 4400 burgers. Their temporary location on St. Peters Road saw supporters arriving by the truckload.
But then they hit a speedbump. The city rejected their proposal over the hurtles of re-zoning and plumbing. For a while their dreams seemed adrift.
“After the city rejected us though, we had no idea where we were going. A food truck on St. Peters Road was never what we had imagined for this brand. It was always meant to be something bigger, but then all of a sudden we were like, ‘what now?’,” explains Wasnidge.
They potential of a food truck/beer garden combo began butting up against zoning issues wherever they looked, and even their location on St. Peters Road began to show signs that it might be less than ideal.
Then a series of phone calls sparked a moment of brilliance resulting in one of most exciting possible solutions.
“We started to become pretty hopeless, but we kept making phone calls and put out calls for the public to help us find a spot,” says Wasnidge “Our calls were answered when the Charlottetown Marina people called to ask if we would be interested in doing something down on the docks.”
The semi-aquatic property of the Charlottetown Marina provided several solutions: it’s licensed, it includes an enclosed area, a hub of activity and comes with washroom accommodations.
The trio relocated their food truck to North River Road for some high traffic prospects, and rented out the curling club’s kitchen to create a prep kitchen to serve both locations.
Nimrods’ say there are just a few minor details left to take care of: namely the construction of a floating pizza bar that can accommodate a 5000 lbs pizza oven in the span of the next four weeks.
“The pizza oven on the water has been the biggest challenge, but all of the things added together with such a tight timeline is the biggest challenge we’ve ever undertaken.”
The proposed floating pizza bar would serve wood-fired gourmet pizzas, fresh handmade pastas, tropical cocktails, and local craft beer.
They’ve launched a fundraising campaign for $10,000, most of which will go to pay for construction materials for a 12’x20′ beach-hut inspired bar, plus the necessary equipment for a second location, including a high capacity pizza oven (not to mention hiring a crane to load said pizza oven onto a floating dock).
So far the fundraiser has garnered over $2,000 worth of support in just a matter of hours, and features a lot of exciting rewards that make the investment worth it.
“There’s no better place to be in Charlottetown than on the water. I think when people see what we create though, it’s going to be pretty impressive for a small footprint.”
Wasnidge says they hope to have everything ready for business as soon as the first week of June.
To contribute to the Nimrods’ Floating Pizza Bar fundraiser, or just watch this exciting business venture unfold, click here.
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