Pearl Street Pizza, Barre
In 2019, Peter Roscini Colman set up the dry-curing facility for his company, Vermont Salumi, in the back half of a cavernous space along Barre’s North Main Street. The following fall, he opened AR Market, a full-service grocery and deli located in the front of the building. Wilson Ballantyne, Stefano Coppola, and Chris Ruiz joined forces in January 2022 to establish Pearl Street Pizza on the left side of the market. Their handsome blue-and-white-tiled Italian wood-fired pizza oven in the front window attracts passersby, and Pearl Street’s beer and cocktails keep them just as satisfied. Maria Buteux Reade spoke with co-owner Wilson Ballantyne in late August, wrapping up a few moments before Congresswoman Becca Balint and her team came through for a conversation.
On Saturday, August 19, we had what will hopefully become the annual Barre Biergarten event. We had an amazing turnout of 500 people, more than double what I had anticipated. It was everything we hoped for. We knew that the Barre Community Relief Fund was about to launch so we worked in conjunction with them to create a launch party for BCRF. Our goal was to get the community together, raise some money, and do something positive.
The city was fantastic and helped us get permitting under control so we could use the entire pedestrian walkway on the side alley and wrap the beer garden around the building. Everyone had to work pretty quickly because we threw this event together in less than a month. We were doing our take on Neapolitan street food, making small pizzas, folding them over, and wrapping them in parchment paper like a walking pie. Almost all the beer was donated, and we had incredible contributions from beer crafters all around Vermont. We had 16 taps going, including a lot of taproom exclusive batches.
We were eager to work with other folks who had been affected by the flood. Xav from Buch Spieler Records in Montpelier was spinning vinyl; Kevin Kerner, co-owner of Three Penny Taproom, was behind our bar pouring beer; Ehren Hill, manager at Blackback Pub in Waterbury, was running around like a madman helping us all day.
From left: Bucket by bucket, a volunteer slops out muddy water from a flooded basement in Barre; Surveying the inundated basement that houses Pearl Street Pizza‘s production kitchen. On July 10, 300,000 gallons of water rushed through this space. Photo courtesy of Shannon Alexander.
It was heartwarming and humbling to have so many businesses and people reach out to help. Crooked Barn Charcuterie in southern Vermont donated a load of sausage. Caledonia Spirits donated barrels that we used to create a nice ambience for the garden. Some of our most valued regulars jumped in and volunteered doing whatever was needed. The party ran from 2 to 8 p.m. and then we moved inside and kept going for a couple more hours. Everybody had a great time.
In terms of what happened to us in the flood, we spent that Monday down in the basement lifting chest freezers up on milk crates, thinking a foot off the floor would be sufficient. I was the last one to leave this building on Monday late afternoon. Water was barely coming through the front windows and we didn’t know what to anticipate, but we had to get the heck out of here because our cars were already underwater out back. That afternoon, I caught as many of our seating area barrels as I could—they were floating down the pedestrian way. Our picnic tables all washed away. One landed three blocks away with the umbrella still open.
The shop up here came through fine, but we had 300,000 gallons of water in the basement. Our production kitchen and storage downstairs were a total loss. We even lost our starter for our grandma-style pizza, and that takes weeks to rebuild. Had I known, I would have brought the starter home with me instead of coming in the next day and seeing the container floating like a buoy.
We were closed for two weeks doing cleanup. During that time, we started offering take-andbake pasta, salads, and desserts to go, anything we could safely prepare in the upstairs kitchen. We met people at the door; no one was allowed inside. We had 15 to 20 volunteers show up for two weeks straight helping us clean. So many other businesses here weren’t affected, and they were eager to help us out by getting pumps, running errands, bringing fresh water. We burned through pressure washers like they were disposable to keep up with the cleaning and mopping up.
If we hadn’t done a GoFundMe, we wouldn’t have been able to reopen. The influx of volunteers and the outpouring of support from family and friends and the community kept us going. But we’re back in business and feeling good.
