TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Believed to be Hawaii's first bicycle-riding pizza-delivery people, Papa John's pedalers co-exist with vehicular traffic downtown, and don't have their horsepowered counterparts' woes in hunting for parking space. Pedaling pizza peddlers
The company has received "some great feedback," said President and operating partner Jeff Jervik. They work out of Papa John's Nuuanu Avenue store.
"I can't take credit for it," Jervik said, placing that credit squarely on the shoulders of Papa John's Area Manager Mark Giles.
Giles imported the idea from his Papa John's job in Wichita, Kan., his hometown. It had a similar downtown situation, he said, "a lot of one-way streets and no parking." He noticed child-carrier type bicycle trailers made by an Oregon company.
"From there I basically took a shot and ordered one, and it works out terrifically for the bicyclists, it has a low center of gravity and the pizza doesn't get shaken up."
Giles said the pizza boxes and hot-bags used for deliveries fit nicely inside. "It's almost like they were designed to carry pizzas," Giles said.
Unlike Jervik, Giles did not start his pizza career with Pizza Hut. Jervik was the national vice president of operations for Tricon Global Restaurants, parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.
Jervik met his local-girl wife in Seattle while he was working for his previous employer, and she was finishing her master's degree at the University of Washington.
Lorene Stewart Jervik, born and raised in Hawaii, is the daughter of retired Queens Medical Center Chief of Staff Dr. Jim Stewart and retired nurse Rose Stewart.
The couple came to Hawaii in November 1998 and since then Mrs. Jervik has been raising the couple's two children, a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old, in Kailua -- where she grew up.
They're also expecting new arrivals -- store No.14 in Kaimuki next month, another in Kapolei in July, and others for a total of 17 by year's end.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com