There’s something universally comforting about a great pizza story. It usually starts with a hot oven, a craving for community, and a lot of trial and error. But for Meredith Egan, the award winning maker behind Kingston, Ontario’s Lori Anne’s Pizza, the story also involves a tiny two bedroom apartment, a very understanding wife, and a whole lot of hustle.

Recently, Meredith sat down with Erica D’Arcangelo on the A Story About Pizza podcast to dive into his journey from washing dishes to commanding the local pop up scene.

Feral Children and Big Family Dinners

Before he was an artisan pizza maker, Meredith was just one of six kids growing up in the Ottawa Valley. Raising five boys and a girl close in age is exactly as chaotic as you’d picture.

“My dad used to say that my mom would ask him, ‘Is this normal? Have we raised feral children?'” Meredith laughs. “But he’d just say, ‘This is just boys being boys.'”

Despite the mayhem and the inevitable childhood fistfights, the Egan household was anchored by food. With a stay-at-home mom, home cooked meals were a daily standard. Some of Meredith’s favorite memories stem from massive family gatherings at his grandparents’ house, where his grandmother would spend the day cooking giant hams and scalloped potatoes for a sea of cousins.

When the family did order takeout, it was a classic Ontario style pizza: thick crust, thick cheese, pepperoni tucked under the cheese, and green olives. While Meredith’s palate has evolved since then, that nostalgic combination remains a fond childhood memory.

The Pivot Point: A Gozney Roccbox and Nowhere to Put It

Meredith’s professional culinary path began around age 19 when he started to study business at St. Lawrence College. To pay the bills, he took a job washing dishes at a local spot called the Grizzly Grill. The restaurant happened to have a wood fired pizza oven. Meredith worked his way up to the line, became the dedicated pizza guy, and fell hard for the craft. He later spent seven years honing his skills as a sous chef at Wooden Heads, a legendary Kingston institution.

Then came 2020.

While the pandemic sidelined many in the food industry, Meredith’s restaurant stayed busy with a thriving takeout operation. Around that time, his parents gifted him and his siblings a little bit of money to help navigate the tight times. While his brother bought a summer golf membership, Meredith bought a Gozney Roccbox, a portable, high heat pizza oven.

There was only one problem.

“My girlfriend at the time, now wife, and I lived in a tiny little two bedroom apartment,” Meredith recalls. “No balcony. I had nowhere to use this thing!”

Undeterred, he began hauling the oven to friends’ yards and his grandparents’ driveway. The backyard experiments quickly snowballed. A friend running the local Stone City Ales brewery invited him to do a pop-up. Meredith showed up with 60 pizzas, completely sold out, and realized he was onto something special.

Perfecting the Sunday Hustle

Fast forward through three years of grinding, and Lori Anne’s Pizza has become a mandatory Sunday ritual for Kingston locals. Named after Meredith’s mother, the business is a three person operation: Meredith stretches and builds the pies, his friend Mitch mans the oven, and his wife, Rebecca, handles the front of house, cash, and logistics.

Every Sunday from May to October, you can find them at the Memorial Center Farmers Market. They regularly sling about 120 pizzas in a single five-hour stretch, almost always selling out between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM.

While they started out simple with just a standard Margherita and a salami option, the menu has grown beautifully. Today, they serve up a classic Marinara, Margherita, Pepperoni, and Hot Salami, alongside a weekly seasonal special.

For Meredith, the weekly special is where the real fun happens. He collaborates with neighboring market vendors, pulling fresh, seasonal ingredients straight from the farmers’ stalls. One of his absolute favorites, a creation that earned him second place at a major Canadian pizza competition, features an olive oil base, fresh mozzarella, roasted butternut squash, red onion, basil, and parmesan.

Finding the “Zone”

Cooking under pressure in front of crowds can break even seasoned chefs, but Meredith finds a strange sense of peace when the smoke starts rolling.

“As soon as I get up there, I just think, ‘Oh, I’ve done this a million times,'” he says. “I just get into my zone. You kind of forget everything that’s going on around you. It’s a calming thing.”

That calm pays off in the form of a fiercely loyal community. Take Margo, a regular who has shown up at exactly 9:00 AM every single Sunday for two years to grab the very first pizza of the day. For Meredith, watching someone take that first bite, and seeing them return week after week, is the ultimate reward.

So, what’s next for Lori Anne’s Pizza? While the pop-up life and the backyard catering gigs keep them moving, Meredith is actively hunting for a permanent brick-and-mortar space in Kingston to call home.

Until then, you can find them burning wood and stretching dough at the farmers market. To track their weekly schedule and catch a glimpse of their next level pies, give them a follow on Instagram @loriannespizzaco.

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