About

ABOUT

2010: Pizza on Earth was founded in 2010 by Sarah Jane Johnson in partnership with her parents Brad & Elizabeth Johnson. As a 21 year old music student, Sarah Jane had wanted to start a café in a small corner of her father’s Brad company’s shop. Brad, at the time, was running Portico Timber Frames, a construction company. After the Johnsons’ neighbour on Shoe Lake exclaimed “what Dorset really needs is a pizzeria!” the idea was planted. Brad, a carpenter by trade, renovated his shop to make space and built the first wood-fired oven based on traditional Roman oven designs. It could cook 2 pizzas at a time. Sarah Jane, the creative force behind the Pizza on Earth menu today, designed all of the pizzas, naming them after Dorset lakes and attractions. The first pizzas on the menu were the Bigwinner, Hunting Season (now Carnarvonore), Firetower, and the Lake of Baysil. On Pizza on Earth’s first day of operation, Sarah Jane sold 7 pizzas.

2011: In its second summer of operation, Pizza on Earth was operated by Laura Clarke

2012: Sarah Jane returned to continue running Pizza on Earth for the third summer of operation. See the video below to see what Pizza on Earth looked like in 2012.

2013-2015: The business was starting to become popular. The customer base was growing. Sarah Jane’s 16 year old brother Graham started working for her in the kitchen. The first employees outside of the Johnson family were hired.

2016: With ever increasing popularity, Brad and Elizabeth Johnson renovated their building again to quadruple the footprint of the pizzeria. Customers were able to step inside to order, rather than being served at a takeout window. The original pizza oven was replaced with a larger oven of the same design which could hold 6 pizzas at a time. The photo below shows Brad building the oven in 2016. Sarah Jane expanded the menu to include the Trillium.

2017: Sarah Jane expanded the menu again to add the Ravin’ Lake and Traditional Margherita. Additionally, drawing on her winter experience working in a bagel shop in St. John’s, NL, Sarah Jane started offering Montréal style bagels. The bagels were baked in the wood-fired oven in the morning. Even after being covered all night, our wood-fired oven still is 500°F in the morning! The bagels were offered intermittently, and are sold still today at Pizza on Earth, but not everyday!

2018-2019: Pizza on Earth experienced significant growth in these years with an expanded deck and seating area outside. Elizabeth developed her garden adjacent to the ovens, enhancing the experience for customers who ate their pizza on site. In 2019, Sarah Jane left Pizza on Earth to start the Red Hen Bakery in Conception Bay South, NL. She ran the Red Hen for 1 year before moving to Whitehorse, YT where she lives today.

2020-2022: Brad renovated his shop again to add Elizabeth’s art gallery so that customers could see her original art while waiting for a pizza. Graham finished his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and moved back to Dorset to run Pizza on Earth. Graham and Elizabeth started hiring more employees, with Pizza on Earth’s employee numbers more than doubling to over 20 in 2020. Graham’s younger brother, David, joined Pizza on Earth as a cook. In 2022, a second wood fired oven was added to reduce wait times on busy July and August evenings. Additionally, Pizza on Earth made a significant investment in dough making and processing equipment to help meet growing demand.

2023: With Brad winding down his construction company Portico Timber Frames, part of his shop was renovated to expand Elizabeth’s art gallery. A café and retail counter was added, accessed through Elizabeth’s art gallery.

2024 – Present: Pizza on Earth is the top-rated food establishment in Muskoka & Haliburton areas by Google reviews. We hire up to 15 staff seasonally each summer and on some busy summer days make over 500 pizzas.

The Johnsons operate three other businesses