MIDDLETON, Idaho — What started as a family joke nearly two decades ago has grown into a longtime Middleton business serving up pizza, subs and other homemade favorites.
Poppi’s Pizza is approaching its 19th anniversary in Middleton, with the business continuing to evolve while keeping its connection to the community at the center of what it does.
WATCH: Nearly 19 years of pizza and community at Poppi’s Pizza in Middleton
The idea for Poppi's started when the owners came to Middleton for a baseball tournament.
“It started out as a family joke,” Tina Long, who has worked at Poppi’s for nine years, said. “‘Oh, we eat so much pizza, we should own a pizza place.’”
The family decided to give the idea a shot, buying used equipment and learning the pizza business through plenty of trial and error.
Over the years, Poppi’s has evolved from using frozen dough to making its own dough, sauces and other recipes in-house.
For most of its history, Poppi’s was known primarily for its take-and-bake pizzas.
That changed last October, when the business began offering freshly baked pizzas.
Long said the change came as more customers began looking for something they could eat right away, including people working in the surrounding fields who wanted a lunch option.
“We were having more people coming in wanting pizza for lunch, or people working out in the fields,” Long said. “They wanted, you know, something to eat.”
The new option gives customers another way to enjoy Poppi’s, but the original take-and-bake model remains available.
Customers can take a pizza home and bake it when they’re ready — whether that’s for a family dinner, after sports or activities, or even in their own pizza oven or on a grill.
Poppi’s also offers the option to bake the pizza fresh for customers.
The menu has expanded beyond pizza as well, with subs, salads, mozzarella sticks and cookie dough, all made in-house.
Because the pizzas are made to order, customers can also customize them to their liking.
For Long, one of the most important parts of Poppi's is the people who work there.
Many of the employees are young people from the Middleton area, including some who are working their first job.
Long said she enjoys watching those employees gain experience, graduate high school and move on to their next chapters.
“We are very close knit,” Long said. “I love my kids dearly. It’s like having seven kids of my own.”
That sense of community extends to Poppi’s customers, too.
Long said the business has customers who come in regularly — some every week and even on the same day each week.
“Our wonderful customers,” Long said. “I mean, I cannot imagine doing this without our customers.”
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