{"id":79640,"date":"2019-09-11T16:52:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T21:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=79640"},"modified":"2022-01-30T14:11:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T20:11:13","slug":"the-american-dream-wood-fired-pizza-and-football-in-vaught-hemingway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-american-dream-wood-fired-pizza-and-football-in-vaught-hemingway\/","title":{"rendered":"The American Dream: Wood-Fired Pizza and Football in Vaught-Hemingway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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DISCLOSURE: Elizabeth\nTettleton works at The University of Mississippi as an event assistant with\nAlumni Affairs and is the niece of John and Laurabeth Ferguson who own\nFergndan\u2019s Woodfired Pizza. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s\nbeen pizza in the Ole Miss Football stadium before, but not like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nyear, John<\/strong> and Laurabeth Ferguson<\/strong> have expanded the reach of Fergndan\u2019s Woodfired Pizza<\/strong> to Vaught-Hemingway<\/strong>,\nand have added over 16 new staff members to keep the Caf\u00e9 on Highway 30 plus\ntwo locations in the stadium fired up for every home game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll\nbe offering a limited menu in order to serve as many people as possible, and\nwe\u2019re located in sections A and L. We\u2019ll have whole 10-inch Ferge\u2019s and Dan\u2019s\nin the stadium,\u201d Laurabeth Ferguson said. \u201cThose two pizzas are our most\ntraditional offerings: Cheese (The Dan) and Pepperoni (The FergE).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurabeth and John also noted that they are offering the only option in Vaught-Hemingway that can be truly \u201cshared\u201d with another person. It\u2019s simpler, although maybe not easy<\/em>, to share slices of your pizza with someone else, but not so much a bite of your hotdog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Ferguson Family. photo credit: Pizzatv.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: Food Trucks<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When\nFergndan\u2019s opened in October 2016, they were a food truck-only enterprise and\nwanted to focus on a quality product with approachable and familiar toppings.\nLaurabeth and John wanted family at the crux of their mission and atmosphere.\nIn fact, their managers are their three children and their marketing and social\nmedia assistant is also a family member\u2014their niece, Rachel Tettleton<\/strong>. Many of their employees are siblings to one\nanother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADDING TO THE FAMILY: Second\nWood-fired Oven<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After\nseveral months of success, the Ferguson\u2019s purchased a second oven (nicknamed \u201cMushu\u201d)\nand a catering trailer in June 2017, allowing them to vend or cater at multiple\nsites at once. Whether catering at sorority functions, athletic events, Yalobusha Brewing Company<\/strong> music nights,\nor in the Chaney\u2019s<\/strong> or Castrol<\/strong> parking lot, their name was\ngaining traction and people were rapidly recognizing the familial smiles and\naddictive flavor of their pizza and associating it with their iconic orange and\nred tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fergndan\u2019s\nnext stop on the journey was purchasing a spot for their ultimate goal: a brick\nand mortar restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A FIRM FOUNDATION: Commissary and\nCaf\u00e9<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fergndan\u2019s\noriginally shared a commissary kitchen with Tarasque Cucina<\/strong> (John<\/strong>\nand Lauren Stokes<\/strong>) and YoknapaTaco<\/strong> (Jake Sessums<\/strong>), but the landlord decided to sell the location they\nrented. They purchased in November 2017 and began renovating a home, not far\nfrom theirs, to use as their commissary kitchen immediately and ultimately as their\ncurrent restaurant location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 7, 2018, Fergndan\u2019s opened its doors at 176 Highway 30 East. I, myself, was also a part of the opening team and had the opportunity to learn some pizza-making skills, try my hand at dough throwing, and worked several of their special events in the early days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FERGNDAN\u2019S EXPANDS INTO SWEETS:\nBremma\u2019s Sweet Treats<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fergndan\u2019s, pronounced similarly to Ferdinand\u2019s, is a portmanteau of their two son\u2019s nicknames: \u201cFergE,\u201d or John \u201cWilliam\u201d Ferguson II, and \u201cDan,\u201d or James McDaniel Ferguson. In similar fashion, they combined their long-time employee and pastry chef graduate (Brooke Mardis<\/strong>) and their youngest child\u2019s (Emma Grace<\/strong>) names into Bremma\u2019s Sweet Treats <\/strong>when it opened its baked good offerings up to the public in January 2019. Boasting hand-piped specialty cookies, filled bundt cakes, scrumptious cheesecakes, and wedding cakes to order, it\u2019s Oxford\u2019s best-kept pastry secret you need to go try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TA-ZA!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2019\nhas been a good year for the Oxford culinary scene, and the Ole Miss campus now\ngets to share in that growth as well. We\u2019ve watched Vishwesh Bhatt<\/strong> crowned with the James Beard Best Chef South Award<\/strong>, saw Snackbar<\/strong> hit a landmark birthday, witnessed new openings of Emily Blunt<\/strong>\u2019s Saint Leo Lounge<\/strong> and Clint\nBoutwell<\/strong>\u2019s Julep<\/strong> (the same folks\nthat brought us Oxford Grillehouse)<\/strong>,\nand Oxford will soon see other exciting developments (*winkwink* The Sipp on South Lamar<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For us, there is no offseason,” said Adam Martin<\/strong>, general manager of Centerplate,\nthe company that curates the food, beverage, and hospitality program at the\nfootball stadium. “We constantly strategize all year about how to enhance\nthe in-person experience for the fans who come to dine and spend time with us.\nIt’s all about the excitement, the quality of the food, and providing lasting\nmemories. Adding a local favorite like Fergndan\u2019s to our food lineup certainly\nhelps us achieve those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m elated for my family to have this opportunity to join Centerplate in offering a local, family-run pizza option for the attendees of our seven home games. And honestly, what could be more convenient after working on campus all day than arriving at the stadium and grabbing a delicious, freshly made pizza to devour as I watch the Rebels play? See you there this Saturday in line at sections A and L!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DISCLOSURE: Elizabeth Tettleton works at The University of Mississippi as an event assistant with Alumni Affairs and is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1009,"featured_media":79167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16247],"tags":[15296,6027,15297,10242,13217,6610,40,15124,15294,7067,9917,15295,699,15293,3575],"class_list":["post-79640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elizabeth-tettleton","tag-brooke-mardis","tag-elizabeth-tettleton","tag-emma-grace-ferguson","tag-fergndans-wood-fired-pizza","tag-fergndans","tag-food-truck","tag-football","tag-john-ferguson","tag-laurabeth-ferguson","tag-ole-miss","tag-pizza","tag-rachel-tettleton","tag-vaught-hemingway","tag-wood-fired-pizza","tag-yalobusha-brewing-company"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/FergndansPizza-oven-02.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}