By Roger DuPuis | WVIA News

Lots of places are famous for their piping hot pizza. Hazleton's hometown specialty is actually preferred cold.

The deli-style square pies, boxed or available as single cuts wrapped in cellophane and sold in corner stores, are a tradition in and around the city.

While living in Tennessee, Andrew Baranko longed for that taste of home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his sisters developed a recipe and began selling the pies around Nashville.

Word started to spread — in Tennessee, and back in Pennsylvania.

"We were doing pop-ups and farmers markets down there. We had some visitors from our hometown come and try it and they're like, 'you've got to bring this back to Hazleton,'" Baranko said.

He moved home and brought the recipe with him, setting shop quickly and efficiently not in a storefront, but using the Shared Kitchen Incubator at the Hayden Family Center for the Arts in downtown Hazleton.

"It has been nonstop ever since June 2022," said Baranko, whose namesake business turns out between 80 and 100 pies per day, which are then sold at mom-and-pop stores around greater Hazleton, including as far south as Jim Thorpe.

"It was seamless to transition from Nashville back here," Baranko said of the kitchen. "It's fully licensed, so we didn't have to bring in our own equipment. It kept our starting cost low to get off the ground here."

Hearing Baranko's success story was one stop on a walking tour of downtown businesses Thursday morning for state and local officials, including Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg.

The stops ranged from Baranko's start-up to more established businesses — Hazleton Food Market, Carmen’s Bakery and Restaurant and Jimmy’s Quick Lunch — ranging from 18 years in operation to over 85.

"Small businesses are really what make a community," said Gilburg, who was in town as part of a statewide tour in conjunction with Pennsylvania Small Business Week (April 28-May 4), and to promote Gov. Josh Shapiro's plan for a $25 million investment in the proposed Main Street Matters program.

“The small businesses along Broad and Wyoming Streets that we visited today are the key to a thriving downtown, and Gov. Shapiro is 100 percent committed to supporting them,” Gilburg said.

"Main Street Matters will help businesses redo their storefronts, upgrade anything that needs to be upgraded and really create the vibrancy that small towns need," she added.

More state investment eyed

The Democratic governor's budget also calls for over $520 million worth of investments directly tied back to a 10-year economic development strategy launched with DCED Secretary Rick Siger.

Shapiro is looking to secure bipartisan support for the plan. Among those joining Gilburg on Thursday's tour were two state lawmakers who represent the area: Sen. David Argall, R-Rush Township, and Rep. Dane Watro, R-Kline Township.

"Hazleton is really growing and the downtown is in so much better shape than it was just a few years ago," Argall said. "There's a lot of private sector money invested in the community, but the state has also done its fair share, and we need to continue that."

Hazleton Chamber of Commerce President Mary Malone agreed.

“We are excited to host DCED to show what the hard work of both public and private entities has done in last five years," Malone said. "The focus and continued investment by the Shapiro Administration in Main Streets across the Commonwealth is key to success now and in the future.”

'A great place to do business'

Beneath its yellow awning on North Wyoming Street, Hazleton Food Market offers a wide range of groceries, including fresh produce popular with the city's growing Hispanic community.

As regular shoppers made their way through the store around the crowd of officials and dignitaries, Manny Bisono talked about how the market owned by his father and uncles has thrived over the past 18 years.

"Hazleton is a great place to do business," Bisono said. "Especially the last five years, we've been filling up with different types of people from different backgrounds, and it's great to see different types of people coming into the business."

'It has to be a ground-up thing'

Walk up and down Broad and Wyoming streets in Hazleton's core, and the majority of storefront signs are for local small businesses, like the family-run market.

That's no accident, said Paul Macknosky, director of DCED's Northeast Regional Office.

"They're the type of businesses that stick in a community," Macknosky said. "Everybody knows the people. It's not a Walmart, a chain store that people are going to and getting personal service and camaraderie. You go to eat and you have a conversation."

Macknosky echoed those who say it will take a mix of public and private investment to continue the momentum. He believes Shapiro's plan, if successful, will help.

"This money will leverage a significant amount of other investment when we do it the right way in the right partnerships, and it's based on what the community wants," Macknosky said.

"I can't stress how important it is that it has to be a ground-up thing."

As the officials spoke with business owners, they frequently had to jostle for space with shoppers and the lunchtime crowds, a point not lost on Gilburg.

"What was neat about every small business we stopped in is community members were standing in line to get in," she said.

Shared kitchen model

Baranko’s Pizza is, perhaps, a key example of how multi-agency partnerships can foster entrepreneurial development.

It works, Baranko stressed, because the availability of affordable kitchen space helped him get the operation running with minimal overhead.

The successful launch of a pizza business inside an art center is one of the nontraditional partnerships that officials encouraged others to consider — and Baranko is not alone in using the space.

"We have about 12 entrepreneurs here working at the kitchen," said Hazleton Art League Executive Director Mark Peterson. "It's really exciting to see so many people come in."

The art center is a former bank building that was repurposed in 2019-2020.

The Hazleton Kitchen Incubator program "gives regional food and beverage businesses a low-risk opportunity to start small, test, develop, and scale without the cost of equipping, and maintaining their own commercially-licensed culinary facility," according to its website.

It is supported and administered by the Hazleton Innovation Collaborative, which draws on the resources of academic, business and non profit organizations.

Participants have to submit a business plan, pass an inspection process, sign agreements and pay both a $150 deposit and $15 per hour for use of the space, Peterson explained.

The entrepreneurs then book their time on an electronic calendar.

"And since we have access 24/7, if you want to make the donuts at 3:30 a.m., you are welcome to do that," Peterson said.

For Baranko, it provides time and space to make his pizza his way.

"Everything's homemade, the dough, the sauce, we make everything by hand," he said.

"We try to make each pizza better than the next."

PHOTO CAPTIONS (top to bottom):

Photo 1
Andrew Baranko, left, talks about his business, Baranko's Deli Style Pizza, as Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg, center, and others listen Thursday morning in Hazleton. Gilburg was joined by state and local officials on a tour of local businesses in the city in conjunction with Small Business Week. Gov. Josh Shapiro is proposing additional investment in such operations, including through a proposed new program called Main Street Matters. Baranko's business operates out of the Shared Kitchen Incubator at the Hayden Family Center for the Arts.

Photo 2
Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg peruses the offerings at Carmen’s Bakery and Restaurant in Hazleton Thursday morning during a tour of downtown businesses by local and state officials. The tour, held in conjunction with Small Business Week, was designed to spotlight Gov. Josh Shapiro's planned investment in small businesses, including the Main Street Matters program.

Photo 3
Manny Bisono, left, whose family operates Hazleton Food Market, listens to a question from Department of Community and Economic Development Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg on Thursday as she and other officials toured local small businesses. Listening alongside Gilburg are, from left, Paul Macknosky, DCED Northeast Regional Director; Brad Hurley, constituent services and district communications for State Sen. David Argall; Neal DeAngelo III, Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress board president; and at right, Sen. Argall.

Photo 4
Jim Grohol talks to reporters outside his family's business, Jimmy's Quick Lunch, as state Sen. David Argall listens. The East Broad Street business has been in operation for over 85 years.

Photo 5
Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg talks with Jim Grohol at his family's longtime eatery, Jimmy's Quick Lunch, during the tour of Hazleton small businesses.

Photo 6
Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce President Mary Malone, left, talks with Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary for Technology and Entrepreneurship Jen Gilburg inside Jimmy's Quick Lunch during the tour of Hazleton small businesses.