North Carolina pizzeria dishes on its special labor-inducing pie
"We’re trying to grasp the whole deal," one of the owners said.
— -- “The secret’s in the sauce” certainly seems to ring true for one Charlotte, North Carolina, pizzeria.
Hawthorne’s New York Pizza and Bar has recently gone viral for its Buffalo wing pizza, which is rumored to induce labor, and expectant moms are flooding in to get a slice.
The owners — Michael Adams, John Adams and Carlo Martinez — told ABC News it has been a roller coaster for them the past few weeks, adding that there are “pregnant women galore” heading to the restaurant.
“It’s a great story. It all started with a Facebook alert to our Hawthorne’s Pizza account from one of our moms, Henley [Schmiedel], and she just wanted to let us know and report that four hours after having our pizza, she went into labor and had the baby,” John Adams said on “Good Morning America.” “It’s just a great story.”
Schmiedel said, “I have a group of friends who have said for years now they believe that this one pizza has put several of them into labor,” according to Charlotte’s WCNC-TV.
She told the station that she ate the pizza at 7:30 p.m. and at 11:30 p.m. her water broke.
She said that after she sent a photo of her newborn daughter to her friends, “they said, ‘We told you. We’ve been telling you for years this works,’” WCNC reported.
The pizzeria owners said they know of nine women who went into labor after eating the pizza.
“It’s been pretty interesting. We’re just going with the flow,” Michael Adams said. “I think we have a total of nine now in about 21 days since we first heard about it from one of the first moms. We’re using that as our timeline.”
Ashley Fleming in one of those mothers.
“My mother-in-law actually told me about it. She had seen it on Facebook, and so we came and ate it. [We live] about 40 minutes away in Gastonia, and here he is,” Fleming said, showing off her new bundle of joy, Ryker, on “GMA.”
“I thought she was nuts, but I was ready and had been ready for several weeks. We tried it just for fun, and it worked.”
The pizza has gained such popularity that Hawthorne’s is tweaking the name of the pie on its menu.
“We’re going to be reprinting our new menu with the opening of our new store. It will still be the Buffalo wing pizza, but it will have in parentheses ‘The Inducer,’” Michael Adams said with a laugh.
He added, “We’re putting up signs for parking for mothers-to-be. We’re trying to grasp the whole deal. We’re a family-based business that started 13 years ago. This is another season of our life that’s been good for us. We’re enjoying the ride.”
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