Everards and The Rustic Crust

Ross and Camille bring authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas to Nottinghamshire and beyond. They started off doing so out of a renovated Land Rover named Poppy (which they still have!) until a chat with us led them to opening up their very own pizzeria in the beautiful village of Farnsfield.

We work with so many amazing and inspirational independent business owners and Ross and Camille Oliver of The Rustic Crust in Farnsfield, have shown such great innovation, passion and drive to get their new business off the ground at a challenging time and make it a success.

It might not have been what Ross and Camille had imagined when they set out to expand their already successful and very popular pizza business and they can’t wait to be welcoming people into their brand new beautifully designed pizzeria once again. But, for now their passion and determination runs on stronger than ever and the people of Nottinghamshire are still enjoying delicious Neapolitan wood-fired pizza via takeaway and delivery.

Their journey so far!

After a trip to Rome and discovering just how tasty and delicious pizzas can be, Ross and Camille set out to create a ‘REAL’ handmade pizza. In 2007 they built their first pizza oven in their garden and set out to perfect the art of dough-making. For over seven years their delicious pizza creations were enjoyed by their family and friends before deciding it was time to share their passion with a wider audience and The Rustic Crust was born.

In 2014 the couple started serving their authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven in their fabulous converted Land Rover defender named 'Poppy' and worked hard to make the new business a success.

Three months later Ross decided to quit his job as a web designer and Camille left her job at B&Q to pursue their dream.

The Rustic Crust built up a fantastic reputation for its fresh Neapolitan style pizzas and friendly and professional service. It became popular with corporate events and caters for around 50 weddings a year and has earnt recognition as a regional finalist in the Wedding Industry Awards, for three years running.

They began touring Nottingham with regular pop-ups in the car park of their local Everards pub, The Brown Cow in Mansfield as well as Trent Bridge Cricket Ground and Sherwood Business Park in Annesley. They built up a following of fans who call themselves ‘pizza stalkers', which has become a social media hashtag and T-shirts with the slogan are available to purchase as part of The Rustic Crust brand.

Fans queue for up to an hour to get their hands on their hand-pushed, fresh, made to order pizza. As more and more people started to ask where they could find them and showing up regularly to their pop up spots, Ross and Camille knew it was time to take the next step and provide a permanent home for their much loved pizza business.

It wasn’t easy finding the right place and location that would be suitable to bring their pizzeria dream to life and that was where the partnership with Everards began. After a year of planning Ross and Camille opened the doors to their 55 seating family-friendly pizzeria in the former Co-op, in Main Street in Farnsfield on the 10th March. They were fully booked every night and receiving raving reviews.

Just 10 days later the Government ordered businesses to close due to the coronavirus pandemic and like all other restaurant businesses, The Rustic Crust had to close its doors. But this did not stop Ross and Camille, this innovative pair decided to take a different path and approach to their business, and came up with the idea of DIY pizza kits.

Some weeks they receive over 500 orders for their pizza kits, which come with step-by-step instructions and even an online demonstration from Ross on how best to cook your pizza.

It has been a great success and something that they plan to continue with once they can welcome people back into their beautiful pizzeria.

And who knows where Ross and Camille will take their exciting and much-loved pizza business next!

You can follow their pizza story on Instagram @therusticcrust