When was the last time you heard of someone making pizza dough from the yeast found on local grapes? Never you say? Well, now you have. And not just any pizza dough, but San Francisco-style sourdough pizza dough. That’s exactly the type of pizza dough you’ll find at ASH Wood Fired Pizza.

The ASH Wood Fired pizza made with the wood-burning oven that is located inside the food cart

Ted Scharpnick started ASH Wood Fired in April of 2014. He came to Portland from San Francisco with the desire to start a culinary business here in the Rose City. In San Francisco, Ted was baking sourdough breads for a well-known vegetarian restaurant using the yeast from wild grapes. He still uses the same sourdough starter recipe to create the dough for his wood-fired pizzas. The dough is made from scratch every day using yeast from grapes local to Portland.

The ASH Wood Fired pizza made with the wood-burning oven that is located inside the food cart

One thing about the ASH Wood Fired menu is that certain items change every day. The standard pizza is the Margherita with cart-made marinara, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. The daily meat pizza is new each day. It is created using seasonal ingredients. The daily veggie pizza is also made new each day with seasonal ingredients. The side dish is new each day as well.

An inside view of the wood-burning oven which is inside the ASH Wood Fired food cart.

All of ASH Wood Fired menu items are made in their wood-fired oven which is in the cart. Both the pizzas and the sides. Even dessert. For dessert you can order wood-fired S’mores. The s’mores are built using cart-made-from-scratch marshmallows, graham crackers from Petunia’s Pies and Pastries, and dark chocolate from Moonstruck Chocolate.

The ASH Wood Fired food cart seen at The Gantry food cart pod located at the lower station of the Portland Tram.

ASH Wood Fired can be found at The Gantry food cart pod located at 3121 SW Moody Ave. The Gantry is located right at the lower station for the Portland Aerial Tram in the Zidell Shipyard. ASH Wood Fired is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. On weekends they’re open 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

Listen now as Steven Shomler and Ken Wilson talk with Ted Scharpnick of ASH Wood Fired about wood-fired pizza made with a sourdough crust that’s started with yeast from grapes. Did we mention there’s a wood-burning pizza oven inside the cart?

PRP