Olive Branch is more than a restaurant
Tamie Wallake likes to think her new restaurant was divinely inspired.
Olive Branch Coffee and Pizza, which has opened at 5600 Gender Road near Canal Winchester, does more than feed people — it helps employ the homeless and recovering drug addicts.
“I just know God cares about people,” Wallake said. “And he wants us to care about people.”
Certainly, Wallake and her husband, Bryan, opened the 5,000-square-foot restaurant with food — and sales — in mind.
A year ago, without any experience in the pizza business, they attended the Goodfellas Pizza School of New York to learn how to make quality pie.
Their pizzas start with hand-tossed dough, now in 10-inch sizes only, with plans to offer larger ones in the future.
“You can tell the difference,” she said of the fresh dough. “It’s worth the work. We do it every day.”
Customers choose one from among five sauces, plus more than 30 ingredients. The pizza is cooked in 90 seconds in a brick oven with a rotating deck, emerging with a crispy crust.
Olive Tree’s coffee supplier is locally based One Line Coffee. The restaurant offers medium and dark roasts ($2 for 12 ounces and $2.50 for 16 ounces), plus an entire selection of coffee drinks — espresso, latte, mochas, iced coffee, pourovers and cold brews.
Wallake said it is no accident that they’ve made coffee a focal point of Olive Tree: The couple own two Heaven Sent Children’s Academy day cares, serving 200 kids total, in the same complex. She said parents dropping off or picking up their children often need a cup of joe.
Another key component of the business: gelato from Coppa Gelato in Westerville.
“It’s the best pizza,” Wallake said. “It’s the best gelato. It’s the best coffee. These are expensive products. We could have gone for cheap but we went for excellent.”
The interior is broken up into three different spaces: the large dining room, a coffee house with couches and a TV, and a smaller community room.
“It’s a place where you can eat in 10 minutes but you want to hang out for an hour,” Wallake said.
She said the couple has big plans for the space. They’re already planting vegetables and, soon, herbs in a garden out back.
The Wallakes will be donating 20 percent of Olive Branch’s proceeds to charity, including their own: Breaking the Chains Ranch, the couple’s nonprofit that occupies 30 acres on Route 674. When completed in a year or so, it will serve the needy with housing, farming and equine therapy.
Tim Reis, 23, is an employee at Olive Branch. He spent years on the street, where he met his wife, Shelby Harrison. They now have a son, Jaxson, and Reis wants to be responsible and set a good example.
“I love it,” he said of his job. “It’s a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”
Olive Branch is open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Craft cavalcade
Apparently, it’s too difficult to cram Columbus Craft Beer Week into seven days.
The third annual craftbeer cavalcade will be held May 12-20, with opening day coinciding with the Columbus Ale Trail.
May 12 also marks the launch of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association’s new mobile-passport app — called Ohio On Tap — that will offer rewards to those who visit the multitude of the state’s craft breweries (135 have signed up so far), said Mary MacDonald, executive director of the association.
More than 250 events are planned throughout Columbus Craft Beer Week, including food-and-beer pairings, beer dinners, limited-edition or specialtybeer releases, tap takeovers and meet-the-brewer opportunities, MacDonald said.
Another highlight: Central Ohio breweries have banded together to create a special beer, DysfunctionALE, a hoppy pale ale, that was brewed at the Columbus Brewing Co. It will be available at the kickoff event at 6 p.m. May 12 at the Giant Eagle Market District in Grandview Yard, 840 W. Third Ave.