Today, I would like to introduce you to an incredible couple, who we are happy to call close friends. Some of our best friends are the ones we met when living on the road or on the water; there’s nothing like hanging out with kindred spirits, or visiting them again during our travels.
Mark and I met Tom in Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas, in 2008. He was sailing his sturdy little Ellida and would meet up with his girlfriend further down the Caribbean island chain. In St. Martin, we caught up with him and Karmen, who is a chiropractor and aspiring photographer. Her traits came in handy, as Mark was suffering from a bad back one year and he and I had a romantic plan the next year.
When you’re in your thirties traveling the world, you need money. In my opinion, there are two ways to achieve this: you either find jobs along the way or make a living as a freelancer while remaining mobile and adventurous, or you return to your home country to collect money in return for hard work, in order to pick up the alternative lifestyle again a few years later. Mark and I did the former, invented a product called The Wirie, started selling and supporting it and kept cruising for eight years in total. Tom and Karmen chose the latter: they sold their boat after three years of cruising and started a new venture, something they’d never done before, in a place they never lived before.
After hearing the stories from Tom and Karmen about how they started a successful gourmet pizza joint from scratch in Monmouth, Oregon, via emails and during a visit to us in Santa Fe, NM last spring, we finally could see their achievements in person, and reap the tasty benefits, this past October. Yeasty Beasty did not disappoint. Our intended short stay turned into ten incredible days of hospitality, yummy food and drinks, and lots of fun.
A big part of our quest was trying to understand, and participate in, the Yeasty Beasty procedures. That meant more than eating the unique and delicious pies (with different homemade bone sauces) and tasting the many Oregon craft brews. We found out that Karmen and Tom make a different specialty pizza every day of the year, that their restaurant has rave reviews on Yelp, that they created this business from the ground up, including buying, organizing and decorating everything concerning the interior, interviewing and hiring staff, and making the organic dough and recipes in house. They created their personal strain of yeast six years ago and have been hand-feeding it, twice a day, every since. To say we were impressed is an understatement!
On our friends’ days off, they showed us around the area. We hiked, explored and relaxed for hours on end. And, when nobody felt like making lunch or dinner, there were always new pizzas or calzones to try. Needless to say, Mark and I were spoiled rotten during our stay in Monmouth, and we look forward to returning the hospitality and love soon. Hopefully over Christmas.
As Tom and Karmen now get ready for more explorations on a different sailboat (we inspired them to buy a catamaran instead of a monohull this time around 😊), we are the ones needing to focus on work while living ashore. Maybe just maybe, we get to travel together in our respective Mercedes Sprinter vans for a few days this winter, before they head to Florida towards their new, adventurous life.
PS: Bone sauce is a dipping sauce (offered in different flavors) for the crust of the pizza, which is called the “bone” of the pie. The twelve (!) homemade choices at Yeasty Beasty can be found here. My personal favorites are the Ranch and the Chipotle.
Have you ever heard of bone sauce? Ever worked in a pizza restaurant before? Do you like pizza? If not, what’s your favorite food?
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December 19, 2018 at 18:42
My first job was in a pizza place. Love pizza but can no longer do cheese … sigh. Did your friends sell the pizza business or hire a manager? It’ll be fun traveling together in your camper vans. Have a great Christmas!
December 20, 2018 at 13:41
Mark is allergic to cheese as well, but can do small portions once in a while. Plus, he loves goat cheese. 🙂 They have some reliable managers now, so that’s fantastic. It would be nice to travel a few days together in the vans. They are trying to convince us to join them to Florida to help work on their boat while we live in our campers, but Mark and I declined. 🙂 We will remain in SoCal and Arizona for the rest of the winter.
December 19, 2018 at 19:23
Hi, Liesbet – You had mentioned Tom, Karmen and the Yeasty Beasty to me before. Thank you to bringing them all to life so beautifully in this post. Seeing the pictures and descriptions of that pizza reminded me of another amazing pizza friends made this past September!
My answers to your questions are:
1. No
2. No
3. Yes! Yes! Yes!
December 20, 2018 at 14:24
Hi Donna! It’s good that you tried our pizza first. If you ever get a chance to test these, there is no comparison. I just realized I seem to be on a pizza topic, as I mentioned some in my previous post as well, when we used a decent pizza oven during that house sit. We actually had our own veggie version again last Friday. Not bad, but man, a serious step down from the ones we devoured the previous months. 🙂
We hadn’t heard of bone sauce either before we showed up in Yeasty Beasty. I realize I should have added a description to the blog post earlier. They are mainly dipping sauces for the rims of the pizza crust. Since these crusts are already tasty, I didn’t see the benefit of it, but after trying the dipping technique a few times, I was sold!
December 19, 2018 at 22:46
Bone sauce does not sound good to me, but then again, I am not a meat eater. However, I do love a great pizza !!! Isn’t it fun , the people you meet on the road.
December 19, 2018 at 22:49
And I did work in a pizza place for 2 years in my 20’s. Learned how to spin pizza dough like a pro. I love a good veggie pizza! A place here in Truckee does one with roasted veggies. Yumm…..
December 20, 2018 at 14:27
Yum to the roasted veggie pizza. Mark and I have a Friday pizza routine while we house sit. That evening, we make our own crust and veggie pizzas. We started the tradition on our sailboat years ago, but since our camper doesn’t have an oven, we now have to wait for house sits to eat our pizzas again. 🙂 Guess what day tomorrow is? 🙂
December 20, 2018 at 14:26
We love connecting and reconnecting with other travelers on the road (or the water), Sue! The bone sauce is somewhat of a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with meat. They are dipping sauces for the edges of the crust, which are called the “bone” of the pizza. 🙂
December 19, 2018 at 23:37
What an amazing couple! I worked in a pizza place once. I quit – had the great satisfaction of putting my apron down on the counter and walking out, after the manager left me to deal with the lunchtime rush alone, and came back and complained that the tables needed clearing.
December 20, 2018 at 14:29
Haha! I would have loved to see the look on your manager’s face when you walked out like that on him/her! There is a big turnover with staff in pizza places, it seems like. Based on the comments here, I’m one of the few who hasn’t worked in a pizza restaurant before. Unless you count helping out our friends.
December 20, 2018 at 02:31
Such yummy food, my kind of place. Looks charming and welcoming. Lots of lovely memories with your friends 😄
December 20, 2018 at 14:30
Exactly, Gilda. I’d go back to that place many times again, if it was closer! Visiting our friends has made us realize how much work running a restaurant is.
December 20, 2018 at 03:48
Hello! I’ve been following you for a couple of years now and love your posts and adventures. My husband and I moved from Houston Texas to Salem Oregon two years ago, and I work at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.
Yeasty Beasty is great….and time to break out the small world comment!
Laura
December 20, 2018 at 14:34
Hi Laura! Thanks for commenting, and…. wow, that is incredible! I can’t believe you work so close to Yeasty Beasty! Karmen gave me a “tour” of the university grounds and we checked out the library as well. A small world, indeed. It makes me wonder how you stumbled across my Roaming About blog… 🙂
How do you like the move from the warmth to the “cold”? Lots of outdoor activities in the Salem area and I’m sure it’s much quieter (and less traffic on the roads) than Houston. Will you remain there for a while? I always think it’s quite interesting to move for jobs and being able to discover different places in the country/world that way.
December 20, 2018 at 05:24
Thanks for introducing us to Tom and Karmen, Liesbet. They seem like a great couple. It’s obvious they love what they’re doing. Who wouldn’t…being surrounded by pizza all day…yum! I love pizza, especially with extra cheese and onion. I’m not a fan of mushroom or pepperoni, though. They sure picked a great name for their restaurant. Love all of the smiling faces in your photos!
December 20, 2018 at 14:38
Hi Jill! Our appreciation for our friends soared, when we saw the fruits of their labor first hand. If we were ever considering running a pizza restaurant, this might have been the push we needed… to not do it! 🙂 I never mentioned that they are open 7 days a week and only take two vacation days a year. But, yes, having such great pizzas and other food and drinks at your fingertips at all hours of the day is a nice perk. I do think it’s better to be friends of pizza owners than be managers yourselves, though. Friends with benefits, right? 🙂
Have you ever tried red onion on pizza? In my humble opinion it’s much better than yellow or white onion. When we make our weekly pizza at home, it contains red onion, broccoli, mushrooms and spinach. And, lots of cheese for me. 🙂
December 21, 2018 at 17:05
Oh yes, having friends who own a restaurant is the way to go! I’ve never tried red onion, Liesbet. I typically like the sweet Vidalia, but I’ll suggest it to Derek…he’s the chef in the house. 🙂
December 21, 2018 at 17:58
Oh, or caramelized onions! We sometimes make a pizza version with chicken, pesto and caramelized onions. I have to quickly throw that out there, so you can mention this to Derek as well. 🙂 One hour until pizza time! 🙂
December 20, 2018 at 11:11
Who doesn’t love pizza? That is amazing they started from scratch and are now very successful. (I’ve watched enough Restaurant Impossibles and Bar Rescues to know how easy it is to fail in that business.) And they did it in a beautiful location.
Merry Christmas!
December 20, 2018 at 14:41
My oma, or grandmother, actually didn’t like pizza. It was not as much a part of our (Belgian) culture as it is in the American culture. I didn’t even grow up with pizza and my parents are still happy with a microwaved pizza once in a while. Yeah… I know. 🙂
Yes, our friends did really well. They prepared for a year before they opened, though. They watched all those shows, invested lots of personal money, tested hundreds of recipes, and investigated markets and locations. Crazy stuff, all the work and time involved!
Merry Christmas to you and your family as well, Alex!
December 20, 2018 at 13:15
It’s so lovely to see friends go off on new ventures and adventures and I hope you get to meet up again before they set off for Florida Liesbet. I’d never heard of bone sauce before but I have worked in a pizza restaurant for a few months when I was 18. It was owned by a lovely Italian family and we’d all eat together around a big table in the back before the doors opened 🙂💖 xxx
December 20, 2018 at 14:46
Hi Xenia! Our friends didn’t know about bone sauce either a few years ago. I forgot how they found out about it, though, either at a pizza conference, or from a customer asking them why they didn’t carry any bone sauces. These are dipping sauces for the edges of the pizza. The rims of pizzas are apparently called “bones” in the industry. There you have it! 🙂 Surprisingly, the trend caught on and we actually liked it as well. Even more bizarre is that some customers visit to restaurant just for their ranch bone sauce, or they order just bone sauce for their take-out order, boxes full of containers with it!
Learning the craft from Italians and sharing meals together sounds like a really good time!
December 20, 2018 at 14:44
I do like pizza and your post has made me hungry, but I have never heard of bone sauce. It’s not really bones, is it? Ugh if so!
December 20, 2018 at 14:48
A bit of a misnomer, that bone sauce, Anabel. I just added a description about it at the bottom of my blog, to avoid further confusion. Bone sauces are dipping sauces for the “undesirable” edges of the pizza, which are called the bone of the pizza. 🙂 All of a sudden the crust is very tasty!
December 20, 2018 at 14:53
I rather like the crispy crust as it is!
December 21, 2018 at 18:07
That’s what I said, before I dipped it in a tasty sauce. 🙂
December 20, 2018 at 18:40
Hi Liesbet, You had me at “pizza”….our family calls it “my last meal on Earth request”. Really interesting how your friends created their personal strain of yeast. We had a similar experience in the Yukon with sourdough starter. It’s obvious why their restaurant has rave reviews.😊
December 21, 2018 at 18:14
I love that reference to “last meal on earth”, yet, not having grown up with pizza (as a Belgian), I sometimes wonder about the devotion of North Americans to pizza. That being said, it’s perfect comfort food, and… we actually like it so much that it has become a weekly Friday tradition during house sits to create our own veggie pizzas. To start the weekend on a good note, you see. Guess what today is? Mark made the dough and soon, we will start chopping up ingredients!
When we lived on our sailboat, we also had sourdough starter in the fridge. I remember feeding it once a week and having the obligation to create something with part of the dough. Maybe that’s how our pizza tradition started? I also baked our own bread on the boat and I remember using the same dough for both. Are you from the Yukon? Or did you grow up there? I love the Yukon! Wild and beautiful country.
December 22, 2018 at 06:40
It’s amazing how you do everything on the boat, even make pizza! I lived in the Yukon for 4 years, met my husband there. Yes, we loved living there and did a lot of camping throughout the Yukon and Alaska. You obviously have been many places throughout the world, and many beautiful countries….and the stories….
December 24, 2018 at 13:44
Lots of stories, for sure. Too many to tell. I’m working on a memoir right now, covering a decade of my life (my thirties). Most of it actually had to go and it’s still too long! One day, I hope to write about my earlier travels and experiences, like the ones in Canada and Alaska, and before that backpacking in SE Asia and such. We will see… I have to make a choice: living my life or writing about it. 🙂
December 21, 2018 at 11:08
Thanks, Liesbet, for introducing your friends, Tom and Karmen. Kudos to them for their entrepreneurial spirit and having worked hard to make Yeasty Beasty a great success! It would be fun if you could travel in your vans together for a little while. My answers to your questions: 1) No 2) No and 3) Yes. Here in Toronto, many pizza delivery places offer bone sauce although they’re called dipping sauce.
December 21, 2018 at 18:16
I guess bone sauce is the fancy “industry” term for dipping sauce. What kind of pizzas are popular in Toronto? The thick or thin crust?
Our friends wrote that their van is packed up, but there is no way of telling when they will reach San Diego. It’s quite a detour from Oregon to Florida! 🙂 But, hopefully, we will get to boondock together for a few days in the new year. That would be a fun vacation from working on my book and pet sitting!
December 21, 2018 at 11:20
How wonderful to spend time with friends and experience their business! Pizza no less, I love pizza! Entrepreneurial spirit at it’s best, and lots of fun photos too!
December 21, 2018 at 18:18
Thanks, Terri. I guess most of my readers seem to like pizza. 🙂 It’s actually the reason that our friends started a pizzeria. Tom’s research led him to learning that pizza restaurants are the most popular and frequent restaurants in the USA! That’s why they started one and nothing else.
December 21, 2018 at 11:51
Brava to you and the Yeasty Beasty couple for putting your own twist on being entrepreneurial. We are watching a Netflix series (The Great Escapers) about British expats who go to warmer climes to try their hand at new businesses, some almost failing before they succeed.
Tom and Karmen sound like a charming couple, and a perfect fit for adventurous escapades. By the way, I could use a chiropractic adjustment right now – ha!
Enjoy the season and a happy, healthy 2019 ahead. 🙂
December 21, 2018 at 18:23
The Great Escapers sounds like an interesting and intriguing series to watch, Marian. Especially since Mark and I are vaguely playing with an idea to start a brewery in the Caribbean one of these years. After we check off a few other projects, like my memoir. 🙂
Sorry to read that your body needs some help! Karmen is on her way to Florida! 🙂 The long way around from Oregon, though, passing by San Diego. They will hit three of the four corners of the country…
Wishing you and Cliff happy holidays and a fantastic 2019 as well, my friend and fellow memoirist!
December 22, 2018 at 01:23
That sounds like a lot of work, but they look like a lovely couple, Liesbet. 🙂 🙂 We don’t eat pizza often as my husband can’t eat cheese and that really limits your options, but I love cheesy garlic bread. Life! 🙂 Wishing you much joy in your travels next year and a healthy, happy Christmas!
December 24, 2018 at 13:41
My husband is allergic to cow milk as well, Jo, but he loves goat cheese. Since it’s only an allergy, he does get away with small amounts of cheese once in a while. I’m glad you are still able to eat cheesy garlic bread. Yum! I don’t know what I’d do without milk products.
The amount of work that goes into running a pizzeria yourself (and probably any restaurant) is mind-boggling to me, especially when you start from scratch and figure everything out yourself. Not for us! I thought running our business was crazy (it was, especially the way we were traveling and living), but this line of work… we’ve gotten too old for that. 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Jo!!!
December 22, 2018 at 06:50
What an interesting concept for pizza and some tasty-sounding sauces as well. It is always interesting to me to see the creative forces at work for leading an alternative lifestyle. Happy holidays!
December 24, 2018 at 13:45
Thanks for the visit and the comment, LuAnn. I guess we all have to be creative to live a life that we enjoy in combination with creating the funds to survive. These guys (unlike us) are successful business owners!
December 25, 2018 at 07:59
My problem seems to be lack of creativity!
December 26, 2018 at 12:58
Mmmm. Shall I believe that? 🙂
December 26, 2018 at 20:22
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 😉
December 30, 2018 at 09:58
🙂
December 23, 2018 at 08:01
What a wonderful visit. Wish we knew someone who owns a pizza restaurant! We love pizza. We used to make boat pizza on the grill when we sailed and have since figured out how to make it in the van on our little stove. Hope you and Mark are having a great holiday!
December 24, 2018 at 13:48
Not quite in the holiday spirit, Duwan, but we will get there. 🙂 One day, you’ll have to tell me how you make pizza on the stove, as we miss not having an oven in our van. And, it certainly is nice to have friends all over the world with different talents. Knowing restaurant owners is a massive perk and spoil!!!
December 24, 2018 at 13:20
How wonderful to reconnect with these special friends. Congratulations to them on starting such a succession business. A new type of pizza every day of the year sounds like quite the goal. I have never heard of bone sauce. Here we would just refer to it as dipping sauce but I like their name much more.
Best wishes for Christmas and hope you can reconnect soon.
December 24, 2018 at 13:51
Thanks for the compliment and congratulations, Sue. I will let them know on Thursday. 🙂 They have worked so hard, day and night, for years. Phew! Not our thing, but that’s why their business became such a success. Maybe you an introduce the word “bone sauce” in Canada next time you go to a pizzeria? Merry Christmas to you and Dave and all the kids and grandkids and granddogs and your mom!xxx
December 25, 2018 at 04:31
Yeasty Beasty sounds great – wish I had visited it when I was in Portland.
December 26, 2018 at 12:55
Monmouth is about an hour and a half drive from Portland, I believe. So, not by the door. Maybe when you take a little road trip with your mom or so next time. 🙂
December 26, 2018 at 04:20
Having started up two small businesses together, Ben and I love to read stories about business start ups. it is SO much hard work, no matter what you are selling but to be sure the food industry is definitely one of the hardest ones to be successful. Our youngest son started a food business last year (as an urban farmer, growing and selling micro-greens in Chicago)… to be sure it is NOT easy. There is always work to be done. And if its successful, then there is more work!
Kudos to Tom and Karmen for their hard work, their passion and for their success!!! They certainly sound like they deserve it. Love all the photos. I love pizza, but I don’t eat it too often as I try not to eat dairy and gluten. In Chicago I had a great vegan pizza which I really loved. I have had gluten free ones, which can be amazing and then again, sometimes they really suck… hahaha.
Great post!! Best of luck to them.
Happy new year to you both
Peta
December 26, 2018 at 18:16
Thanks for sharing your friends here and the beautiful photos and tidbits. Good times! 🙂
December 30, 2018 at 09:58
Thanks, Debby. While Mark and I enjoy being together social times are hard to beat! And we have another nice two days with these friends behind us. Now it’s back to work again. 🙂
January 8, 2019 at 11:24
How wonderful to connect with old friends! It must have been interesting to see the workings of their business over a multi-day period. I can imagine that after working so hard to build up their business and clientele, it would be hard to leave it in others’ hands to go on an extended holiday.
Jude
January 8, 2019 at 13:51
It was extremely interesting to immerse ourselves in the pizza business, via our friends. So much hard work and long days! While the wholesome, free food is a nice perk, this wouldn’t be our preferred lifestyle! The money is good and we were offered the manager job a while ago, but we passed. 🙂