New Cape Coral pizza business opens with pies, slices and subs on the go

Richard Holdridge didn’t set out to open a pizza business.

“I needed a commissary for my food truck, The Canvas,” the Fort Myers native said. “I want to bring art to the food world. So we came here.”

“Here” is the Cape Coral Elks Lodge on Lafayette Street, where he reached an agreement to use the kitchen.

“I noticed there was a pizza oven,” Holdridge said. “It wasn’t being used so while we were waiting for the truck, we started experimenting with pizza. I didn’t think anything would come of it.”

Well, The Goombah Pizzaiolo came of it.

Holdridge is selling pizza, slices, sandwiches and more out of the kitchen around the back of the Elks.

“Two weeks into it, people got interested and started coming,” Holdridge said. “You don’t have to be a member. Just come around the back and you’ll find us.”

Holdridge came across his dough recipe as haphazardly as he ended up where he is today.

“I was making dough on the fly and started to run out,” he said. “I threw some stuff in quickly and it came out gorgeous. It took me a couple of batches to do it the same way every time. Some of my best dishes, maybe 60%, have come that way.”

But don’t let him fool you. A lot of thought and care goes into what he does.

Pizza made healthy

“Everything is homemade,” he said. “The sauce, the sausage, the dough. We make the cheese fresh in-house every day. Fresh mozzarella goes into every pizza.”

Holdridge is out to change how Southwest Florida thinks about pizza.

“I want to make something seen as unhealthy healthy,” he said. “Pizza is healthy. Our sauce is healthy. Bread is healthy.

“Bread is not the enemy. As long as it’s made with health in mind.”

For his dough, he uses unbleached, unbromated flour, meaning it hasn't been treated with bromide. He also minimally uses dry yeast, opting to create a natural yeast that’s more gut-friendly.

The sauce is made from scratch, as is the made-fresh-almost-daily sausage.

“There are no shortcuts here,” he said. “Once people try our sausage, nine out of 10 times, they’re ordering it on the next visit.”

Holdridge, who has Italian and New York roots, has been a chef for 15 years and in the industry for two decades.

He began washing dishes at Shrimp Shack in Fort Myers when he was 15, went to Pizza 2000 at 18 and left the industry at 20. After losing everything during the recession in 2008, he signed up for culinary school intending to become the best of the best. After some ups and downs, mostly downs, he ended up at Paseo Country Club and became the executive chef.

After a stop at Bayfront Bistro, he headed to Seattle to be with family and was once again named an executive chef. After more ups, downs and COVID, he returned to Southwest Florida to help open The 239 restaurant at Mercato in North Naples in 2022.

Holdridge met Michael Ernst while working with Botanical Brewing Co. and the two are now partners in The Canvas food truck and The Goombah.

Slices, pies, sandwiches and more on the menu

They work shoulder to shoulder in the Elks’ kitchen, creating pizzas and sandwiches.

The Boss’s — a sauerkraut and Canadian bacon pizza — was Ernst’s idea.

“It was my favorite as a kid growing up in Davenport, Iowa,” he said.

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The duo make New York-style and Chicago tavern-style pies.

“There’s no flop to it,” Holdridge said. “It’s perfectly crispy out of the oven and into the box every time.”

Wings, calzones, stromboli, burgers and quesadillas are also available, as are a Philly cheesesteak and chicken BLT too.

Slices are available all day for $4.

“We make those to order,” Holdridge said. “It takes longer but it’s fresh and hasn’t been sitting around all day. It’s better quality.”

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“This isn’t just another pizza place,” he said. “We’re about attention to detail and health like no other place in the area.”

The Goombah Pizzaiolo, 850 Lafayette St., Cape Coral (go around back and look for the sign); (239) 770-4352; 239goombah.com and on Facebook for updated hours

Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: The Goombah opens in Cape Coral with pizza, subs, burgers on the go