B'nai B'rith Michigan Regional Council Invites members & guest for an evening with... PHOTO: BY DANIEL LIP TOM GREENWOOD Columnist & Reporter for the Detroit News Recipient of the "Ernie Pyle" reporting award 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, 1997 Social Hall — Adat Shalom Synagogue Middlebelt Road - Farmington Hills No Charge A brief business meeting will precede speaker Reception to follow... Studio in Harvard Row Mall The Aryeh Sharon slices a pizza that is to be sent to Virginia. Traveling Pizza SPOT Jerusalem Pizza goes national with two-day delivery of its pies. JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER 50°/0-70/o OFF ALL NAME BRANDS j • Vertical Blinds • Pleated Shades • Levolor Blinds • Wood Blinds 21728 W. Eleven Mile Rd. Harvard Row Mall Southfield, MI 48076 Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10-5 352-8622 New Rochester Hills 651-5009 Casua Dining Choose From A Large Selection of Chairs, Tables and Bar Stools. FURNITURE DIRECT Always The Right Price! MON.-FRI.: 10-9 • SAT.: 10-6 • SUN.: 12-5 114 WATERFORD/WEST BLOOMFIELD • 7570 COOLEY LAKE RD. • 810-363-2806 ust a little over six months after they opened Jerusalem Pizza, Aryeh and Soril Sharon stood in the back of their Southfield Road store and marveled at the success of their business venture. "I can't believe it," Mr. Sharon said. "This is doing much better than I ever imagined." That their kosher pizza has now taken on a national — even international— reputation for ex- cellence should not surprise him. New products such as a kishke pizza as well as the ever-popular potato pizza continue to earn fans, Jewish and gentile, nonkosher and kosher observant. But he was flabbergasted when a request for 10 pizzas from Vir- ginia Beach, Va., was made. A rabbi who had been a daily consumer of the Southfield store's offerings moved a short time ago from Windsor to Virginia Beach and was saddened by the kosher offerings in his new community. It seems the local community cen- ter had pizzas shipped from a New York outlet at a cost of $19.95 per pie. "He said, `Aryeh, your pizza is much better than this,"' Mr. Sharon said. The rabbi asked Mr. Sharon to ship his pizzas. Mr. Sharon did not rule out the request but told the rabbi he needed to learn how to do it first. Mr. Sharon called the New York pizza store and had a pizza shipped to him. He found the cheese pizza had been cooked and sliced. With a piece of wax paper in between each piece, the slices were stacked, placed in a large Zi- plock bag and put in a pizza box which was slipped into a Federal Express box. "I was surprised," he said. "There was nothing to it." See Kosher Bites, page 116. With the goading of the rabbi in Virginia Beach, Mr. Sharon shipped out his first batch of cheese pizzas and waited for the return reviews. The Virginia Beach Jews gave high marks to the Southfield treats. "They said it was 100 percent," Mr. Sharon said. Emboldened by his success, he has since shipped out 10 falafel pizzas to a yeshiva student in New York, purchased for the student by his mother; sent several vari- eties of pizza to his own son in Mi- ami; and flown pies to Florida, Texas and Minnesota. He has also refined the way he ships the pizzas. After a large piz- za is cooked, it is allowed to cool and is sliced into eight pieces. The pizza is placed on a cardboard cir- cle and shrink-wrapped before it is placed in a box which is then sealed with tape. The pizza box is put in a Federal Express two-day delivery box and sent out. The cost of one pie is $16.95 but each subsequent one gets a little cheaper. For 10 pies, the price per pizza drops to $12.95. All prices include shipping and handling. While the two-day delivery seems to work well for the recipi- ents, some don't want to wait that long. One mother sent her son in Missouri a pizza using two-day de- livery. It wasn't fast enough for the son. "He called and asked, 'Can you please send it overnight?"' Mr. Sharon said, "I don't know if we are going to do that" because of the higher shipping costs. To accommodate the others, the store has set up a toll-free num- ber and now accepts Mastercard and Visa for payment. While some would welcome the success of such a venture, Mr. Sharon fears what it will bring. He has no plans to open another franchise of Jerusalem Pizza be- cause he is already working 14- hour days. ❑ Et To order a pizza for ship- ment, call 1-888-581-1212 or (810) 552-0088.