The family that runs Peg's Pizza-Cantina has some serious wanderlust. Take Doug Dozark, the 25-year-old pizza-master: Last year he rode a bike from Nairobi to Capetown, and this summer he's going to be caretaker on a yacht being shipped from Hong Kong to Ft. Lauderdale.
His mother, Peg Wesselink, 49, and her husband, Tony Dodson, 48, are political science Ph.D.s from the Midwest who met while teaching at USF. They took jobs up north at SUNY Potsdam, then got fed up with the cold gray weather and decided to abandon the comfort of tenure and move to Gulfport. With only cursory experience in restaurants — Tony had picked up some of the fine points of Mexican cooking while his wife was doing research there, and Doug had worked at a venerable Iowa pizza joint — they opened Peg's in 2004.
The residents of Gulfport and environs have been thanking their culinary stars ever since.
And now Peg and company are moving again.
But not quite so far this time. In September they're leaving the tiny place they rent in a dreary strip mall opposite the Winn-Dixie on Gulfport Boulevard (aka 22nd Avenue S.) and re-opening in a bungalow (a former quilt-making shop) with a big front yard right on Gulfport's Beach Boulevard. The other restaurateurs on the "row" have been very welcoming, says Peg. "It's been a shock."
But then Peg's has always managed to generate good feeling. On any given night in the restaurant, it seems like everyone knows everyone else, with conversations happening across tables and the owners sitting down to chat. It was a regular customer, in fact, who connected Peg and Tony with the Gulfport businessmen who lent them the money to buy the bungalow. (Banks have proven to be less than enthusiastic about lending money to a new restaurant, says Peg, unless it's an Outback franchise.)
Gulfport's sense of community spirit attracted Peg and Tony to the town. "It's the place that felt most like home," says Peg. With their new location putting them right in the heart of things, they'll continue adding to that sense of community.
But if you want Doug's pizza, you better hurry; he sets off on his yachting adventure June 15, and after that, no pizza till he returns in August. (You can still get Mexican, though — don't miss Tony's fish tacos.)
Restaurant row: Gulfport
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.
