Westside alumn Collin Adkisson, started Mootz when he lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He recently opened up the brick and mortar pizza restaurant in Countryside Village. Adkisson started small and built Mootz up to what it is today.

“Me and my brother started making pizza out of our garage and we had a link in our Instagram bio where you could have pizzas delivered to your house,” Adkisson said.

Eventually, this evolved into a food truck, and then a brick and mortar restaurant this August. They’re open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mootz still has the permits to take the food truck out to the public more, but it is usually for private events only.

“We’re closed Sunday and Monday,” Adkisson said, “We usually use [the food truck] for events only. we don’t take it out to the public on the street as much”

Since Adkisson grew up in the Westside area, most of his friends live nearby. Westside itself is located near Mootz, which is one reason why Adkisson chose Countryside Village.

“I worked downtown most of my career and with pizza I always just wanted to be in the neighborhood and to have the families and neighborhood people [as customers],” Adkisson said.

An average pizza is fifteen dollars, a slice is about four dollars, and drinks are two dollars.

“You can call in, and we do pickup and to-go orders as well,” Adkisson said, “We’re currently not on Doordash or UberEats, but we’re looking into it.”

While Adkisson’s favorite cheese is grana padano, a cheese similar to parmesan, he did not like cheese as a kid. He especially didn’t like sharp cheeses and smelly cheeses. 

Now, though he doesn’t want overly fancy toppings, he is branching out.

“The menu has fairly simple toppings,” he said. “Pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, supreme, just cheese pizza, and we recently decided the Hawaiian pizza.” 

Mootz also has a crispier crust as they are a neo-neapolitan style pizza, which is similar to a neapolitan pizza. A neo-neapolitan pizza is more American, and is cooked at 700 degrees, which is what makes it crispier. It also has heavier dough, and can have a raised or flat rim unlike a traditional neapolitan pizza which just has a raised rim. 

“I’m not sure what Noli’s or other places do, but as far as Mootz, what sets us apart is we use the best ingredients that we can get,” Adkisson said. “We use traditional methods and traditional equipment, but we also make our own pizza.We follow guidelines but we don’t let them restrict us at all.”

Adkisson is aware of the public’s differing pizza opinions, so he offers a variety of options.

“I think whatever you want to put on pizza is okay,” Adkisson said. “I know some people think pineapple on pizza is sacrilegious. …we put ranch on pizza here so like I know there’s some people that would cringe at the sound of that.”

Another thing that makes Mootz special is that they make their ranch, Italian dressing and blue cheese in house. They also offer a unique condiment for more adventurous people who like a kick of spice.

“One thing that we don’t make in house but a condiment that I love is our Mike’s Hot Honey,” Adkisson said. “It’s real big in Brooklyn and it was started by a guy who was a pizza maker and had a pizza shop in New York. He eventually branched off and started making hot honey.”

Mootz also has a gluten free crust, and offers vegan options. They can make all of their pizzas without cheese, and have many veggie-only options, including their veggie pizza with mushrooms, green peppers, onions and black olives. As for vegetarian options, it isn’t just pizzas to look forward to.

“We [also] have garlic confit here,” Adkisson said. “We’re considering doing garlic knots as an appetizer.”

Adkisson is always thinking of new specials as well.

“We actually had a barbeque chicken pizza,” Adkisson said. “We’ve done a buffalo chicken pizza before too. We used to run them as specials on the food truck.

As far as dessert, Adkisson is still playing around with the options, but they do currently have a classic on their menu.

“We have chocolate chip cookies right now, and in the future, we’ll have different cookies and possibly a chocolate cake here soon,” Adkisson said.

Adkisson has always wanted to make pizza since he was a child.

“I remember one day I ate pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I remember thinking, ‘man I could eat pizza all day, everyday’,” Adkisson said.

Adkisson’s favorite pizza he sells at Mootz is either the pepperoni or the margherita pizza.

“To me, I feel like pepperoni pizza resembles what pizza is,” Adkisson said.

Since Adkisson doesn’t eat much processed food the only pizza flavored thing he has tried is the Pringles, which he thought were not bad.

“I think pizza is a good marketing strategy, if you want to sell something just put pizza on it,” Adkisson said.

However, he doesn’t just like pizza because it tastes good or has grana padano cheese on it.

“I’ll say I like pizza specifically because there’s a little bit of an art to it and a little bit that’s out of your control,” Adkisson said. “With pizza it’s a living thing and you can go down a rabbit hole with it.”

Roberto Garcia, an employee at Mootz, knew Adkisson’s brother and was looking for a job after he moved back from Oregon. He was told he could work at Mootz, and help out.

“I think he knows a lot about his staff, he’s knowledgeable, he researches a lot, he executes well and you know that’s what I like,” Garcia said. “The standard, the oven is beautiful, the place, you know more than anything this is a family business.”

While Garcia has been a chef for almost four years, pizza is a new land for him and he invites everyone to come to Mootz 

“Invite everyone to come try the pizza, it’s really good, it’s a nice place, it’s a family business and it’s really close to the school,” Garcia said.