Renee Kreager never expected Renee’s Organic Oven to make it as far as it did in Caliente’s Pizza Madness competition.
Her restaurant, on East Tanque Verde Road, specializes in healthy and organic pies.
Menu items are void of any MSG and trans-fats. The beef used is grass-fed and the chicken is free-range.
Pizzas can be served gluten-free, vegan, and utilize only the freshest locally-produced ingredients.
Kreager saw Renee’s rise to the second-place spot in the Pizza Madness brackets as a positive.
“I took it as a rallying of people saying that this kind of stuff is important,” she said.
In 2015, Renee’s Organic Oven will celebrate its 10th anniversary serving its own brand of pizza in Tucson.
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Renee and her husband, Steve Kreager were high school sweethearts in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, before moving to town in 1997.
The two fell in love with the city while visiting Renee’s sister on spring break.
“We decided that this is where we wanted to be after we graduated,” Kreager said. “It was gorgeous.”
Both Steve and Renee had experience in the food service industry before Renee’s.
Steve knew his way around a kitchen and Renee worked the front of the house.
Renee spent several years as a waitress for Frank’s Restaurant on East Pima Street and the Eclectic Café, which sits in the same shopping center as Renee’s.
The Kreagers named their restaurant Eclectic Pizza when they opened shop in 2005, but had no affiliation with the café, aside from sharing the same silent investor.
“There was no connection in dollars earned nor spent, in food philosophy or commitments,” Kreager said.
What the Kreagers wanted was a restaurant that served food that anyone could get behind; cuisine that used locally-sourced ingredients with an emphasis on organic and health-conscious dishes.
Steve and Renee were strict vegetarians for years before and after arriving in Tucson.
When Renee was pregnant with her son, who recently turned 12 years old, she went on a strict, completely organic diet.
No sodas. No caffeine. No fruit or vegetables treated with chemicals.
“I felt so amazing,” she said. “I found it very hard to go out and eat anywhere else. It really does happen. When you eat really well, you can taste what is being done to your food.”
Her experience led her to believe that she and her husband could open a restaurant where this type of cuisine would be at the ready.
“To go out and spend money on something that is so poorly prepared and served so hastily was unappealing to me,” she said. “I thought that we could totally do better.”
Renee’s menu quickly gained a following, with positive feedback rolling in on social media sites such as Yelp, Urbanspoon and TripAdvisor.
Business nearly doubled after the Kreagers changed the name of the restaurant to Renee’s Organic Oven in 2011.
“I remember thinking that this was our time to shine,” Kreager said. “It was during the economic downtown. Everyone was paying attention to their money and where it was going. They wanted to give it to somebody who was investing it back into the community.”
The name change spelled success for the Kreagers. The couple saw a drastic increase in customers, despite the downturn, and the fact that it was the middle of summer and there was ongoing road construction on East Tanque Verde Road.
“We really blossomed,” Renee said.
Renee’s has continued to hold on to its success.
One of the restaurant’s most popular pizzas is its Thai curry pie, which comes topped in red curry sauce, chicken, mozzarella, red pepper, zucchini, onion, basil leaves and Parmesan cheese.
“People aren’t sure what to expect when they first order it,” Kreager said. “But I don’t think I’ve seen anyone who hasn’t liked it after they’ve had a few bites.”
Kreager hopes Renee’s second-place spot in Pizza Madness helps inspire other restaurants to follow in their footsteps.
“We want the other pizzerias to see that this is something different,” she said. “Hopefully, they consider integrating some of the things we do into their own menus.”
