NINE - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Pizza shop creates a living legacy Heppner needs more buildable land,
-Continued fromPAGE ONE for Grandpa Bob’s service
Next came Breaking
Clean, a seasonal business
doing chores like washing
windows, cleaning gut-
ters and pressure-washing
buildings.
“I just wanted a hobby
to make a little extra on
weekends,” says Brannon.
But word spread. “That’s
Heppner. As long as you do
a good job, people will dis-
cuss it,” he adds. “I didn’t
really have a choice but to
make it a business.
“I fell right into the
rabbit hole.”
With the addition of
the pizza shop, they tried to
continue the trend in names,
but say it didn’t quite work.
“We were trying to
name it Breaking Pizza,
but that just didn’t roll off
the tongue,” says Brannon.
Similar attempts like Break-
ing Dough and Breaking
Crust didn’t catch their
ears, either. That was when
Tayllor Brannon suggest-
ed, “What about DeSpain
Pizza?”
“We looked at each oth-
er and said, ‘Yup, that’s it.’”
The name came from
Drew’s maternal grand-
parents, Bob and Aloha
DeSpain. He says the name
is a way to honor two peo-
ple who were influential in
his life.
“They built my foun-
dation for being a Chris-
tian,” he says. “During the
hard times of my life, they
helped me tremendous-
ly.” He adds that they also
helped Tayllor and he early
in their marriage, teaching
them to be respectful of
each other, always love, and
communicate everything.
Brannon adds that,
while Bob and Aloha De-
Spain’s legacy lives on,
there is no family left to
carry on the DeSpain name.
“We wanted to dedicate
something to remember
their name,” says Bran-
non. “Because they loved
so many, because they
were loved by so many, we
thought this was a really
great tribute to them.”
Not only is the name of
the restaurant a tribute, but
nearly every menu item is
dedicated to a grandparent
or other family member.
The 1946 pizza refers to the
year Bob and Aloha were
married. The Red refers
to uncle Bobby DeSpain,
who’s nickname was Red.
The Aloha, of course, was
named after Grandma Alo-
ha DeSpain. Navy Knots,
DeSpain Pizza’s answer
to bread sticks, are named
in the Navy Armed Guard,
and Shakeys are named
after one of the DeSpain
grandparents’ favorite pizza
places in The Dalles.
The Ron and Tami
is named after Tayllor’s
grandparents, Ron and
Tami Stutzman, who were
killed in a car accident Dec.
30 of last year.
“They moved down
because they were going
to babysit for us,” Brannon
says, adding that they lived
in Drew and Tayllor’s living
room for nine months, help-
ing with William, five, and
Wesley, age four. “Without
them, there’s no way we’d
have the successes we have
today.”
Aside from the legacy
of DeSpain Pizza, Drew
and Tayllor say they want it
to be special in other ways.
“I wanted pizza some-
one would crave when they
came back to Heppner,”
says Brannon.
He says the dough,
technically called neo-Neo-
politan, takes three days
to make using a cold bulk
fermentation. He had no
experience with pizza, so
to find the right method,
he spent hours and hours
doing research, sometimes
staying up till 2 a.m.
“When you go down
the rabbit hole, you get
stuck there,” he says.
Another thing that
makes the dough special is
hand-tossing.
“Hand tossing the
dough is the fun way to
do it, and it’s the best way
to stretch the dough,” says
Brannon. He says the result
is a thick crust that’s great
for tearing off and dipping.
“That’s always been my
favorite—a good, thick
crust.”
“Our crust is unlike any
other in this area,” he says
simply.
Future plans involve
a salad bar—a must-have
for Grandpa Ron—and an
arcade, though the second
will be a year or two down
the road.
“There’s not a lot of
places where kids can go
and just hang out,” Brannon
says. “Why not be that fun
hangout spot?”
Drew and Tayllor also
put thought into the kind
of environment they want
at DeSpain Pizza.
“Bob and Aloha were
the life of the party. They
were so much fun. Ev-
eryone loved talking to
them,” says Brannon. He
says that’s what inspired
the party-like atmosphere
at DeSpain Pizza.
“There’s a lot of danc-
ing. The music is loud.
This is where those chaotic
families can come and the
kids can run around,” he
says. “Our life is chaos, so
why not have a business
that thrives on chaos?”
So far, their methods
are working. In the first six
days, they recorded using
565 pounds of cheese and
315 pounds of red sauce,
serving more than 136 cus-
tomers at an average of 20
pizzas an hour, and throw-
ing 600 pounds of dough.
(In fact, Drew had to sit
down for an interview with
the G-T on his own because
Tayllor had to make yet an-
other run for groceries and
supplies.)
Brannon says a lot of
that is due to having a phe-
nomenal team. That’s an-
other thing he says makes
what they do so special—
the ability to hire employees
and watch them flourish.
“It’s one of the most
rewarding things we’ve
ever found we could help
with. We don’t want cook-
ie-cutter employees,” he
says, adding that they have
19 employees among their
five businesses. “We love
teaching and helping other
people grow, just being a
small business where we
can help 19 different fam-
ilies.
“We have the best team.
They’re phenomenal.”
Even so, their work
hours have gone from an
average of 60 per week to
82-84 hours per week. It
doesn’t seem to be sapping
either their energy or their
purpose. In fact, the couple
seems to thrive on it.
“When we open the
doors, it starts the day over.
It’s like a reset,” says Bran-
non. “We’re just excited to
serve pizza.”
DeSpain Pizza is
open seven days a week,
12-4 p.m. on Sunday and
Wednesday and 4-8 p.m.
the other five days.
FEEL THE SPEED,
EVEN AT PEAK TIMES.
-Continued from PAGE SEVEN
that same direction, but
it also hasn’t been going
down dramatically. It kind
of waves from year to year,”
said Points. “That is saying
something, for a town of
this size to sustain. A lot of
times, towns of this size,
you tend to have a really
negative economic shock
such as the mill closure,
and then it never really
recovers.”
He finished by saying
that Heppner has an esti-
mated 90 gross acres of
commercial land, 150 gross
acres of industrial land, and
40 gross acres of public
land within the UGB.
“A small portion of that
is vacant. There’s not a lot
of vacant land according to
the process we’ve worked
on so far,” he said.
“We can’t get away
from the fact that we need
the planning and zoning
process to be an ally in this.
I think when you get into
smaller communities, it’s
not necessarily always seen
that way. But you can’t just
do whatever you want on
your land. You need to be
aware of the constraints, the
restrictions, the competition
for land within a certain
urban growth area. It takes
forethought to determine
what is the best use,” he
added. “That said, on the
other side of the coin, this
is America and we have
property rights.”
On a positive note,
though, Points said there
are positive changes ahead
at the South Morrow Coun-
ty Industrial Park. Known
to most as the site of the old
Kinzua mill, the industrial
park is technically outside
Heppner’s UGB, so doesn’t
affect the city’s buildable
lands, but would have an
impact on Heppner if de-
veloped.
Kim Cutsforth told the
crowd that the Kinzua mill
site is in the flood plain, and
in some places is at the base
flood elevation. Where Eric
Chick is, the base flood ele-
vation is eight feet in some
spots in his building.
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Sweeney pointed out that
there are currently people
wanting to move to Hep-
pner who can’t because
there isn’t enough housing.
“It would be great for
the future to have more
industry,” said Sweeney,
“but right now we need to
have the people who would
move, move here.”
“If you can’t grow your
population, it’s hard for the
employment to get tugged
along with that,” Points
agreed. “So somewhere in
this forecast we do need to
say how many houses will
be built here in the next 20
years.”
Willow Creek Valley
Economic Development
Group (WCVEDG) is cur-
rently working to develop
22 acres for housing in
Heppner, but is having trou-
ble getting enough water
pressure to the site.
Kim Cutsforth raised
the issue of childcare. Hep-
pner has two preschools but
only one day care, and it is
“operating fairly full,” she
said. Both preschools are
at capacity. Heppner has no
infant care.
“It’s an expensive en-
deavor, but we need it des-
perately,” said Cutsforth. “I
just don’t know how we’re
going to get it.”
Kraig Cutsforth ad-
dressed the issue of down-
town businesses. He said
there were storefronts not
in use because interested
businesses wanted more
parking and there was no
room to build it. Heppner
councilor Sharon Inskeep
added that she had received
complaints about parking
downtown, especially at
noon time.
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“You can’t put any util-
ities or anything below. You
can’t have light switches,
plug-ins, anything for a
foot above the base flood
elevation. He can’t improve
his building legally, and he
can’t add on,” Cutsforth
said. “In the mill site, in
many places, it is like that.”
The mill site is about 84
acres. Most of that is in the
flood plain. A current flood
abatement project will give
the mill site about a 60-acre
gain, bringing usable acres
from 25 to 70.
Anderson & Perry En-
gineering is developing a
plan to dig swale, or deep
ditches, along the creek.
That will allow floodwater
to flow outside of the creek
but not infringe on the bulk
of the mill site. That brings
about 60 acres, including
Eric Chick’s property, out
of the flood plain, making
it completely open to de-
velopment.
Cutsforth said she has
been working to find a
way to use the mill site for
about three years, but no
one wanted to take the risk.
About a month ago, Melissa
Lindsay directed Cutsforth
to Business Oregon, and
Cutsforth wrote a grant with
the Port of Morrow. Early in
February, they were advised
they would receive two
million for the project. The
Port has already started the
process.
“We’re going to start
seeing things happen down
there, too,” said Cutsforth.
“It’s exciting, and it will
change. We have people all
the time looking for places
to put stuff. And industrial
land, you can pretty much
do anything. It’s huge.”
Heppner Mayor Corey
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238 N. Main Street Heppner, OR 97836 541-676-9614