A new slice of Pizza-N-More

May 31--Chad Redick received his first pizza orders two weeks before his new restaurant -- 3rd Generation Pizza-N-More -- even set its opening date.

"Most are longtime customers from years ago, when my father and grandfather ran the place," said Redick. "Those customers never forgot us, and they wanted to be first in line for our first official pizzas."

If all went according to plan, 3rd Generation Pizza-N-More opened its doors Saturday, nearly 13 years after the original Pizza-N-More shut down its ovens. That restaurant in Valley North Mall was run by Redick's father, Larry, and before that his grandparents, Art and Lois.

"Pizza's a family tradition," said Redick. "It's what we do."

Over the last decade, the 43-year-old Redick sold cars and made commercial signs, but never quite stepped away from the family pizza business he knew as a teenager. "The requests kept coming from people who hoped we'd re-open the restaurant," he said. "I couldn't go anywhere without people asking when we'd be back in business."

Said Redick, "The encouragement from folks was incredible and humbling -- enough to make us all a bit teary-eyed."

When a prime spot opened up on North Miller Street (between Walgreen's and Albertson's), "I saw it as an opportunity I couldn't pass up," said Redick. The 1,100-square-foot pizza parlor will seat 40 in-house diners and start with 13 employees (seven of them delivery drivers).

Redick said he envisioned exactly how the interior would look, but it took the skill and muscle of his stepdad, Rick Coggins, to transform the former home of a security service into a pizza parlor with kitchen and dining room.

The restaurant's menu is the same from 13 years ago, including Pizza-N-More's popular dessert pizzas (apple, peach, blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip and others), the meat-loaded Leonardo's Special pizza, baked spaghetti and baked meatball sub sandwiches. Sauces and dough are made fresh daily, and only fresh produce is used.

Redick added, "It's a simple as this -- I want to serve customers the pizza I'd like served to me. That's a big part of treating everyone like family."

Details: 3rd Generation Pizza-N-More, 1118 N. Miller St. (in the former Corban Security building) in Wenatchee. Phone: 888-7696. Web: Facebook (keywords 3rd generation pizzanmore). Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dine in, delivery and take-out available.

ABC's of retail display

Wandering around town last Tuesday, we ran into Nikki Tidwell, an employee of Craft Warehouse, who was restocking an outdoor display of giant papier-maché letters used in craft projects. Tidwell, 20, said the letters -- nearly 24-inches tall, $10 each -- are used in signs and projects personalized with monograms. Make that BIG monograms. Craft Warehouse is located at Valley North Center in Wenatchee.

How much do you pay?

Please stop your whining about high auto insurance rates. Turns out Wenatchee has the fourth lowest rate in the state.

Yep, some online outfit called ValuePenguin waddled through stacks of facts and figures to find that Wenatchee drivers pay, on average, about $586 a year for auto insurance. That's 18.8 percent below the statewide average.

"Wenatchee is without a doubt one of the cheapest places to insure a vehicle in Washington," trilled ValuePenguin. (Yes, many penguins trill or trumpet.)

Other cities with really low annual rates: Walla Walla ($569), Bellingham ($574), <location value="LU/us.wa.pulman" idsrc="xmltag.org">Pullman ($583) and Ellensburg ($588). You can see that only a few bucks separate rates in various cities.

So who pays the most for auto insurance? Yikes ... residents of Lakewood pay $907 a year, followed by Tukwila ($876), Federal Way ($869), University Place ($862) and Auburn (also $862).

Just so you know, ValuePenguin surveyed 54 cities around the state for a sample of insurance rates based on a 30-year-old single male driving a Toyota Camry about 15,000 miles a year. He's got good credit and no accidents. They got quotes from five national companies to determine the average rates. The stats also show that ... hey! Shouldn't you be wearing a seatbelt as you drive and text your friend about this post on insurance?

This weekly column is compiled from "Everyday Business," a blog by World reporter Mike Irwin. You can reach him at 665-1179 or [email protected].

Reach Mike Irwin at 509-665-1179 or [email protected]. Read his blog Everyday Business or follow him on Twitter at @MikeIrwinWW.

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