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Madman Chef Runs N. Oregon Coast Pizzaria

One creation up close

(Wheeler, Oregon) – The Oregon coast is known for its wacky characters. You need only linger a bit with some of the locals, and you'll soon discover that old axiom of "living on the edge" rings true in numerous ways on this coastline.

The Nehalem Bay, on the north Oregon coast, is especially ripe with such interesting and memorable folks - and one is gaining quite the cult following for his pizza experimentations as well as his infectious sense of humor.

Guido’s Ristorante, in the six-block-long burgh of Wheeler, is one of many funky surprises found in the Nehalem Bay area, containing a character of a pizza chef whose regular customers love his mad experiments with pizza toppings. Manager Phil Kaufman has a devoted fan club of folks who come in just to have him “surprise them” with whatever pizza toppings he feels inspired to toy with.

Inventing wild pizza and pizza-like creations has already become a tradition at Guido’s, which opened in January of this year. They call it “Designer Pizzas.”

It started off with just one group of three, who somehow nicknamed themselves the “three guinea pigs.” They told Kaufman a certain budget, and other than that, simply put whatever he wanted on the pizzas. The result has been a flurry of mix ‘n’ match creations by Kaufman, who now has four or five groups come in just to have him experiment on them.

“I know that I’ll be doing this almost every night now,” said Kaufman. “It’s genuinely a lot of fun.”

Concoctions have included items like montrachet cheese with spinach and shrimp over a pesto base, or roasted garlic, lamb, pine nuts, proscuitto, feta cheese and various kinds of Italian sausage. Kaufman creates vast, mountainous gourmet pizzas, crammed with a variety of high-end toppings.

“There’s often like eight to ten toppings,” Kaufman said. “I’d say 40 percent of it is specialty meats, three or four cheeses and roasted vegetables. I look forward to this. It’s like having a blank easel.”

The former New Yorker goes shopping daily to find fresh, out of the ordinary ingredients. “If I was back there, I’d be hitting the street markets every day, looking for fresh stuff,” Kaufman said. “I get a little of something new each day, knowing I’ll be doing at least one of these. But I don’t need to get too much, so it won’t turn bad on me.”

He’s also experimented with topping pizzas with asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and then there’s that one with roast beef and sauerkraut, with a fresh horseradish base that was pureed that night.

Meatball "casserole" before and after

Another recent wonder included broccoli, montrachet cheese, shrimp, and large mushrooms stuffed with crab, among other things. A pizza with meatballs has also been a favorite.

And it’s all by request of the customers, who keep growing in numbers because of word of mouth. The first group told someone else, and they came in and told others, and so on.

“They usually come in later, around 8:30, because they know I won’t be too busy,” Kaufman said. “I now have just a couple of questions: what’s your budget, is there anything you don’t want on it, and do you want it heavy or light? Because some may want it more on the vegetarian side – more light – or with a lot of heavy meats.”

Pizzas aren’t the only things he experiments with either. One customer wanted a meatball sandwich – which is actually on the menu. But Guido’s was out of bread, so he created an unusual meatball casserole, with several meatballs baked beneath layers of different cheeses, a marinara sauce and veggies. The result was several orders that night for this impromptu dish, after others saw what Kaufman had created.

Kaufman entertains at Guido's

More experimentations are coming - including their enormous cioppino pies, which require 24 hour reservations - and Kaufman expects this “designer pizza” to grow even more among the locals. This is, after all, a place that is known for its uniqueness already; where Kaufman and the staff banter, joke and entertain like the ensemble cast of "Seinfeld." Area residents and regulars know this well about Guido's.

He sits for a moment and ponders the limits of this experimentation. Then, in his regular comedic manner, he quips: “I haven’t tried liver yet.”

675 Hwy 101, Wheeler. (503) 368-7778.

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