A pizza is ready for customers.[/caption]

Updated March 17 at 12:10 p.m. to reflect Yelp award was a national honor

 

In three years, Scarlett and Izak Rock went from making pizza for friends’ parties to running one of Yelp’s 2017 top 100 places to eat in the U.S. BackDraft Pizzeria—a food truck located in the Southside 620 Park and Eatery at RR 620 and Ladera Boulevard—is a labor of love for the couple who own the business with Scarlett’s sister Nicole Berry.

Offering five specialty pizzas, BackDraft lived up to its name and quickly exploded in popularity within the Lakeway community, Scarlett said.

“We love to cook and bring people together,” she said. “We first started doing parties in people’s homes.”

In July 2015, the Rocks moved their operation from catering into the trailer, which Izak built and designed. Customers order at a window above a large moustache painted on the trailer, and several windows allow people to see their Neapolitan-style pizza in a brick oven that reaches up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Customers are able to see what’s going on,” Scarlett said of the open design. “We are able to eat with them, know their names and their stories.”

Backdraft’s pizza base is dough, mozzarella cheese, sauce and sausage made on-site with no preservatives or additives, Scarlett said. Much of the flavor comes from using quality ingredients, such as Caputo 00 flour, Wisconsin cheese curds and San Marzano tomatoes, she said.

Much trial and error went into the final recipes, Scarlett said.

Scarlett and Izak Rock create pizzas for customers.[/caption]

“If you would have seen my kitchen [with] all the flour, dough and cheese everywhere,” she said. “It absolutely took three years and making hundreds of different [recipes]. We’ve had every pizza combination under the sun.”

One of those specialty pizzas is the Sweet Sow, a take on a Hawaiian pizza that is topped with pear, Canadian bacon and basil. BackDraft offers gluten-free crusts from Lakeway-based Blackbird Bakery.

As a local resident, Scarlett said she is happy to spread love and joy in her own community through pizza.

“I truly feel this community has embraced us,” she said. “I meet the most amazing individuals I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

“This is the service industry, and I feel I want to be a helping hand and a shoulder to cry on.”