photography by Alex Maness

Neil Reitzel remembers his older brothers sneaking him into the bars at Walker and Elam avenues in Lindley Park when he was young. He’s evolved a lot since then, and, thanks largely to him, so has that part of the neighborhood.

Most recently, Reitzel opened a gourmet pizza place, Sticks & Stones, in the old Wild Magnolia Cafe building on Walker Avenue. Other restaurants put a gourmet spin on pizza, notably Brixx on Westover Terrace and Elizabeth’s in its seven locations around town. But none of them are as focused on local ingredients as Sticks & Stones, where many pizza toppings, beers on tap, and even ice creams on the dessert menu come from area vendors.

“Twice a week we go to the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market for ingredients, which is always a lot of fun,” Reitzel says. “Our beef and pork are from Cane Creek Farm in Snow Camp. We have Goat Lady cheese. We do have to go to national distributors for more common ingredients, but we try to go local as much as we can.”

His herbs are especially local. Basil, rosemary, thyme, and others grow in a pair of metal bins right outside the front door of the restaurant. Reitzel says he hasn’t figured out what he’ll do when the winter comes and the fresh produce and herbs won’t be available anymore. He isn’t worried, however. He’s had a knack for adapting to changing circumstances since he bought the Blind Tiger in 1988. He was just 26 years old back then, and recently sold his stake in the bar.

“I’m older now,” he says. “I don’t want to go in there and hang out all day anymore.”

Reitzel was spending more time at Fishbones, the restaurant he opened next door in 2001. Fishbones is now one of the most beloved neighborhood restaurants in the city, but he says it took a while for it to get there.

“We didn’t have the patio when we opened,” Reitzel explains, referencing the restaurant’s hot spot. “The basic menu was similar to what it is now, but it took a lot of tweaking to make it different enough from anything else in Greensboro.”

Late last year, he sensed the chance to make another change. “I had a lot of friends who were having kids, and they told me over and over again that there was nothing around town that accommodated families,” he recalls. “They said if we had high chairs and booster seats at Fishbones, they’d come in more often.” Reitzel thought about the vacant building caddy-corner to Fishbones. The place had been dormant since Wild Magnolia Cafe closed, and Reitzel says he knew someone else would eventually move in and compete with him. Why not be his own competition?

He leased the building and — with his brother and a few buddies — transformed it into a one-of-a-kind dining venue. Just past the front door, he mounted a tree trunk and branches to the wall so it looks as if a live tree has grown through the wall and across the ceiling. The trunk and branches came from a yard around the corner.

Potted collections of naked branches set around the restaurant came from Reitzel’s own yard and give the whole space a natural, outdoor feel. So do two large, rustic paintings of branches created by his brother, Charlotte-based artist Terry Reitzel.

Almost everything in the place has been recycled. Barstools are made from old rebar he recovered from D.H. Griffin. Chairs are from First Presbyterian Church, which gave them away. Reitzel and his crew sanded and repainted them. Blackboards are scrap-metal pieces sprayed with chalkboard paint. It’s an extraordinary effort to be green, but Reitzel says he’s always been that way. “I’ve lived simply forever,” he says. “I have a duplex in Westerwood and rent half of it out to save on expenses.”

The pizzas at Sticks & Stones, however, are more fanciful. Each one begins with a nice, chewy crust developed by Darrel Povanz, the former pastry chef at Ganache. From there, anything goes — and that includes the pizza names.

A Kiss Before I Go, for instance, features fried eggplant, wild mushrooms, mozzarella, and caramelized garlic, and tastes like eggplant Parmesan on a crust. Sweet Carolina is topped with Cane Creek Farm’s sweet Italian sausage, wood-roasted chilies, spinach, mozzarella, fresh ricotta, and Parmesan.

The one danger diners face is locking in on a favorite and not trying different ones. Soon, it will be too late. Reitzel and his staff are already thinking of the changes they’ll have to make to the menu based on the availability of local ingredients. But as always, he welcomes change.

“We’re still a work in progress, but we’re getting better and I have ideas to use more local ingredients,” he says.

“You see more people riding their bikes around town. A lot of people in the neighborhood walk here and park their baby strollers outside. Everyone is trying to be more environmentally conscious, and it all goes together with what we’re doing here.”

Sticks & Stones - 2200 Walker Ave.
336-275-0220 - sticksandstonesclayoven.com