BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
After a 13-year break, Steve Templin is back in the pizza game with Krave Pizzeria, 7743 Sashabaw Road Suite D.
Templin started in the pizza baking business as a high school senior in Lake Orion, working at a local chain.
“I had pizza on the brain,” he said. “I love the creativity, with the different toppings, thick or thin, Chicago-style, calzones. It’s not a hamburger. I like making people happy, giving them what they want.”
He went to Oakland University and earned a degree in HR management. After he graduated, he opened his own pizza shop in Oxford in 1993.
Over the next 13 years, he opened and operated five restaurants in Lake Orion, Oxford, and Waterford, making Pizza Today Magazine’s Top 100 Independent Pizzerias in the U.S. in 1998.
Templin sold the shops in 2006 to focus on family, and spent the next 13 years in the realm of corporate-based restaurants as general manager and training manager.
“It’s different than working for yourself,” he said. “I turned 50 this year (2019), and had to decide whether to stay with corporate or get back into the pizzeria business.”
He went with his passion, opening Krave Pizzeria in Independence Township last July.
“It has a new name to go along with the times, sharing the things you crave. So I checked, is ‘crave’ available with a ‘K,’ and it was,” he said.
His two sons, Logan, 19, a Clarkston High School graduate, and Lucas, 15, a Clarkston Junior High student, both help out at the restaurant, which has 17 employees total.
They buy fresh vegetables every day, with dough made daily, homemade hoagie buns, fresh baked cookies, and meats seasoned and cooked daily, never frozen. The pizza sauce is simple and natural, with the sweetness from tomatoes, not sugar, Steve said.
“It’s all quality stuff,” he said.
Krave also sources local items like Cook’s Farm Dairy Ice Cream out of Ortonville and Brix Soda out of Grand Rapids.
New items on the menu include vegan options and catering services, and they’re looking forward to opportunities to support local schools and community, such as Taste of Clarkston.
For more information, check Orderkrave.com.