Making Waves on Long Lake

Nick Ferrugia, owner of Long Lake Grocery, is toting hot pizza pies to coastal cottages and boats via a personal watercraft purchased just for the delivery service.

“We’ve been doing it for a few weeks now and it’s been very popular,” says Ferrugia, who's likely the county’s only business owner who delivers pizzas in person. “I have to keep a balance when I’m making deliveries. You’ve got to go fast, but not too fast to keep the pizza from moving around. I’ve only ruined one pizza so far. We apologized and gave it to the customer for free.”

Ferrugia is a former mechanical engineer from metro Detroit who bought the historic Long Lake Grocery five years ago. He came up with the idea to offer Sea-Doo pizza delivery one night when he had trouble sleeping. “I had been watching several boats line up at the dock, wanting to come to the store,” he tells The Ticker. “And I wondered, ‘How am I going to get pizzas to them?’ I thought about a small boat and then thought, ‘What about a wave runner?’”

Ferrugia bought a slightly-used, bright red Sea-Doo Bombardier. He then had a friend fabricate a sturdy metal rack and box to safely hold the pizzas. The rig is large enough for six extra large pies. Ferrugia can even deliver cold beer or wine if a customer needs beverages. When a customer calls in an order, instead of giving an address, they describe their lakeside home or boat. “Most of the time, they’re waiting out on the dock for us,” says Ferrugia.

Since buying the historic store in October of 2009, Ferrugia has made a couple of major changes. He demolished part of the back of the building and built a “beer cave” that greatly expanded the number of cold brews he could offer his customers. More recently he revamped the kitchen area, installing a new oven specifically designed to shorten the cooking time for the store’s popular pizzas.

Even though he’s updated the store, it still has a historic friendly feel and Ferrugia doesn’t want to change that.

“When logging was going on here, the lumberjacks stayed upstairs,” he says. “This historic building is a little over 150 years old. Our tax ID number is 001. It’s the oldest in Long Lake Township. Everyone knows this place. It’s important to keep it as close to possible to the way it’s been all these years. I can’t say enough about how great our customers have been. They’ve been so kind and generous to support us.”