Thanks to a couple of hippies who just don’t know when to quit, there is still good pizza in Vernon to help Jennings County residents to make it through the pandemic lockdown.
Just as the lockdown was about to begin, partners DeLynne “DeDe” Wilson and David Bishop bought the Vernon Pizza Shop and were trying to learn the business of making good pizza.
“We had no idea what was about to happen. We decided to start our own pizza business just as the world was getting ready to shut business down,” Bishop said.
The demands of running a business were not new to Bishop. For years he operated Bishop’s Motors in Vernon.
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In 2018 he closed his auto business and opened a music store at the same location.
Around eight years before, Wilson and Bishop had decided to enter the world of music. They learned new instruments and started the Spare Change Band.
Together, they also started Hippies Music and Events: a business designed to arrange musical events and performances.
Their adventure in music was not without challenges, but it was going well.
The Spare Change Band had many bookings and they were working on a new album when Bishop learned his Uncle Fox needed a new kidney.
In the medical process of trying to donate his own kidney to his uncle, Bishop learned he, himself had a very serious medical condition.
By February 2019, Bishop was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of cancer and was told there was no cure for him.
“They basically just told me to go home, get my life in order and prepare to die soon,” said Bishop.
After the initial shock settled, Wilson and Bishop decided to fight the bleak prognosis and began researching alternate treatments for cancers of the lymph system.
Bishop began a regimen of good nutrition, herbs and natural remedies and is now going strong.
“Some days are better than others but over all , I think I am doing very well, certainly better than what the doctors said I would be doing,” laughed Bishop. “You just can’t quit and stop trying. You must keep going ahead.”
Together, Wilson and Bishop decided a world pandemic was not going to stop them either.
Wilson found there was more to making a good pizza dough than she had ever imagined.
“Something was not working right with the dough raising so I called my mom and sister in to help me figure out what I could do better,” Wilson said.
By the time Hippies Roadhouse Pizza opened during the last days of March, their Pizza was ready to go and now Wilson is experimenting with new kinds of pizza in addition to the traditional pizzas on their menus.
“So far my favorite invention is the chicken and pickle pizza. That is delicious and it is pretty too. People really like that when they try it,” Wilson said.
Whether traditional pizzas or newly invented pizzas , their pizzas are flying off the shelves faster than there is time to make them.
“One night we missed 118 calls. We were so busy. We just couldn’t answer all the calls,” said Bishop. “Yes, starting a new business at the same time the whole world is fighting a pandemic is scary as hell. But, you just can’t stop and wait “.
Hippies Roadhouse Pizza is open Thursday through Sunday from From 4 p.m. to 10 p.m or, until the dough runs out.
