Drive 3151 Miles To Get Topper's?

3 University of Minnesota-Mankato Students Did!

WHITEWATER, WI (Thursday, April 07, 2005) - To what lengths would you go to satisfy a craving for your favorite food? For three Minnesota college students, their craving for Topper’s Pizza was worth driving 3,151 miles in one week.
Three students from the University of Minnesota - Mankato recently spent their entire spring break driving cross-country from Minnesota to North Carolina to Wisconsin and back to Minnesota to eat gourmet pizza and specialty breadsticks from their favorite pizza franchise.

While at a fraternity party in St. Cloud, Minn., junior Sylvija Lovie, senior Aaron Bergstrth, and junior Katie Russell discovered a pizza chain that would immediately become their passion.

“We were at a party and a friend of ours got the Tacostix™ from Topper’s. They looked awesome. Unfortunately for us, everyone else thought so too and they were devoured in less than a minute, and none of us got any,” says Katie Russell. “So, later the next week we drove the three hours back up to St. Cloud to try them ourselves, and we were hooked immediately!”

At that moment Sylvija, Aaron and Katie decided that it would become their mission over their upcoming spring break to visit all 12 Topper’s Pizza locations and try every product on the menu. “We set some goals for our trip,” said Sylvia. “We wanted to try everything on the menu at least once, we wanted to have someone from each location sign our Topper’s t-shirt, and we wanted to do all of this in one week.”

Their journey took them through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina. Traveling in their 1993 Ford Taurus, they started their journey at the Topper’s in LaCrosse, Wisc., where they picked up what they called their traveling supply. “That is the great thing about the Taurus, it will fit three medium pizzas stacked two-high nicely across the back window, and we were going to need a lot of room for our traveling supply,” said Aaron.

Stocked up with their favorite gourmet pizzas (Sylvija the Potato Topper, Katie the Maui Topper, and Aaron the Fajita Chicken Topper), they hit the road headed for Charlotte and Hickory, North Carolina.

“When we were traveling through the Smoky Mountains, we were in South Carolina and our car stalled,” said Katie. “While many would be bummed out by this, we just saw it as a chance to catch up on eating our pizza. About 20 minutes later we were on the road again, filled up with Topper’s Pizza.” After visiting the Topper’s store in North Carolina (and filling up their back window once again) they pointed back north toward Whitewater, Wisc., the corporate headquarters of the 12 unit franchise chain.

“All of the locations were happy to sign our shirts and were very friendly. But our favorite location has to be Stevens Point,” said Katie. “They were the most excited to see us. When we asked them to sign our shirt, they screamed ‘You’re the ones going on that tour!’ They even took a picture with us! They really pumped us up since we’d been on the road all day. They were very talkative and willing to tell us about what’s going on around their town. It was very refreshing to know we had some real support behind us. Everyone who was working there knew about it, like they’ve been waiting for us to come.”

“The Madison locations were also very nice and supportive as well” said Sylvija. “The downtown location gave us some free buffalo wings, because they thought what we were doing was awesome. We weren’t expecting that, and it was just a really nice gesture for them to do.”

After their visits in Madison and Stevens Point they hit neighboring Oshkosh. Then they headed back toward Minnesota before making one last stop in Eau Claire, Wisc., to fill up the back window one more time for the last leg of their trip.

“We absolutely love Topper’s. We can’t wait until they build one in Mankato ‘cause we can’t afford to make this trip every week,” said Katie with a grin while eating a slice of her Steak Fajita pizza.

The cornerstone of the Topper’s Pizza menu is the hand-tossed gourmet pizza. The current menu features 17 different gourmet pizzas along with the usual assortment of more traditional “toppers.” Some of the most popular pizzas are the Fajita Chicken pizza, the Potato Topper™, and the Taco Topper™! The dough and sauce are prepared fresh in each store's kitchen every day. The vegetables are hand-cut, and only the highest quality deli meats and farm-fresh, real cheeses are used.

The franchise’s other signature product line is the Topperstix™. These thick, cheesy breadsticks are available in six different flavors and served with a variety of dipping sauces. They are incredibly popular not only as a side item, but as a stand alone snack or meal.

Topper’s also sells oven-toasted sandwiches called Grinders. These are not your typical cold sub sandwiches. These mouthwatering delights are loaded with meats, cheeses, and/or veggies placed on Classic Italian or Whole Grain Wheat Bread and then are toasted to perfection. Buffalo wings and cold drinks round out the offerings. A complete menu and coupons are available for each store online at www.toppers.com.

Topper’s Pizza has grown to 12 stores in the last 10 years, with more than 300 employees and is opening an additional four units before the end of 2005 in Milwaukee, Wisc.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and Winona, Minn.

“We are positioning ourselves for explosive growth throughout the Midwest states, especially on major college campuses,” said Scott Iversen, director of franchising. “When you have a following like we do with the college crowd, entry into a new market is almost easy. We are getting a huge number of inquiries from people who are interested in franchising both campus and residential stores.”

Topper's Pizza currently has stores in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and is currently seeking qualified individuals for partner relationships as they expand through franchising in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

For More Infromation Please contact:
Scott Iversen
Phone: (262) 473-6666
Email: siversen@toppers.com

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