Odd Moe’s: More Than Just Pizza

Christy and Wayne Miller craft their two most important relationships – the one with each other, and the one with Odd Moe’s – by using the same ingredient: integrity. 

Of course, they are more humble than that. 

“We’re just two people that make lots of pizzas,” Christy said, laughing. 

Pizzas that are made with fresh dough that’s never frozen; with local produce (when available) that are chopped by hand; patented, secret red and white garlic sauces. Even the cheese they use is unique – called Bacio, made with buffalo milk to give it a richer, creamier texture. 

“We take pride in our product,” Christy said. 

They take pride in being part of the community too, starting with who they hire to the kind of outreach they do within West Salem. 

“We love employing people in the community,” Christy said. “We know we're not  a ‘career job’ for any of them, and we tell them that we’re just a stepping stone, but we try to treat it like a learning center. We’re training these kids how to present themselves in the world to other potential employers. How to be a hard worker.”

When the West Salem High School puts on drama or choir performances, Odd Moe’s is there to feed the crew with deeply discounted pizzas. When a customer walks through the door or calls to have a pizza delivered, it’s not very common that either Christy or Wayne don’t know their names and what they are going to order. “We just try to do good and keep plugging along,” Christy said. “We love to serve people.”

The Millers have owned the West Salem Odd Moe’s location since March 2011. The company is a franchised corporation, with locations in North Salem, South Salem, Keizer, and McMinnville – where it all started. There are also locations in Canby, Newberg and Hillsboro. 

“We're not a conglomerate,” Wayne said. “We are a local franchise, born and raised here in Oregon. That's why we call our pizza a Northwest style, because we were born here in the Northwest.”

Now, after nearly sixteen years in operation, the Millers have been able to step back from the business a little and enjoy the fruits of their labor. What felt like a stroke of bad luck when Wayne got laid off from his contracting job in 2008 ended up being the catalyst that set Millers on the path to becoming first-time business owners. 

“We bought the company on a whim,” Christy said. “The opportunity just kind of dropped in our lap, and it seemed like the right thing to do, and we really liked the company,” she said. “We went and talked to some of the owners of the other stores and they just had really positive things to say about it.”

And the rest, as they say, is history. Not without bumps along the way, of course. “We just dug our heels in,” Christy says. “We were working open to close for several years. We put in a lot of hours, and learned a lot as we went.”

“I was the brawn, she was the brains,” Wayne added, laughing. 

You could say how they met was on a whim, too. 

“Now that’s a funny story,” Wayne said. They met at a bar called Favorite Mistake, a spot each of them frequented on different days, but as fate would have it, they happened to switch things up one week and landed at the bar on the same day. 

“It was a Tuesday, so not a day that either one of us would normally go, but we just both happened to be there,” Wayne said. “I said, ‘is this seat taken? And we just started talking, and when we looked around, we were the only ones left in the restaurant.’” “So I said, ‘when are you going to take me on a date?’” Christy said. 

They’ve been together ever since.

“You know, people always ask, how do you work together and live together?” Christy said. “And it sounds corny to say, but we truly just enjoy being together. You know, we're in work mode, we've got different jobs, and a lot of times, he's at the back of the store and I'm at the front, so it’s not like we’re right on top of each other. But we still love to hang together.”

On their commute from North Albany, Christy will read to Wayne as he drives. Right now they are reading “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks. 

“We don't just stick to one genre,” Christy said. “We read Stephen King. We read John Grisham. We like all different kinds of books.”

Outside of owning and running Odd Moe’s, they play games and enjoy puzzles together. They work in their yard. They like to travel, sometimes visiting two of their children on the east coast. 

“Wayne built me a she-shed,” Christy said, laughing. 

“We always have a few projects going on at the house,” Wayne added. 

Clearly, teamwork is the secret sauce to their relationship.

“We're a team in our marriage. We're a team at work. We just balance each other out,” Christy said. 

“You have to be able to talk, but on the other end, you need to be able to listen as well,” Wayne said. “Nothing can be fixed if you don’t talk about it.”

If you find yourself at Odd Moe’s on a Monday or a Tuesday of any given week, you’ll see Christy at the front, taking orders and interacting with the customers – her favorite part of the job. Wayne will be in the back, but chances are, he’ll pop out and say hi and get to know you, because that’s just how things are at Odd Moe’s.