On April 12, eagle-eyed bystanders located near Creek Street looked to the sky and witnessed a Temsco helicopter hoisting a 5,200-pound pizza oven through the air. This unusual sight served as an unofficial announcement of Cape Fox Lodge’s newest addition, a dedicated pizza restaurant being constructed along the outside wall of the building.
Dubbed “the Eagle’s Nest,” the restaurant promises a new style of pizza — and other, yet-to-be announced exclusive menu items — coming to Cape Fox’s primary dining location. The roughly 1,600 square foot artisan-style pizzeria has continued construction since the delivery of the authentic, Italian-made oven, which was the first pizza-specific piece of the project to be installed.
According to Cape Fox Commercial Group President Tim Lewis, the idea for such an addition had been contemplated for years before the decision to move forward was actually made.
“Years ago we wanted to put in a cigar lounge, and obviously with the laws you can’t do that anymore,” Lewis said during a Thursday morning phone interview. “So we identified what we believe is a need for a different style of pizza in town, and we decided that was the direction to go, because it also services our hotel rooms greatly. I mean, who doesn’t want to order pizza as room service? So we decided to go in that direction.”
Lewis detailed that the idea’s conception was a group effort, shaped collectively by Cape Fox’s entire commercial team. He explained that the lodge has “been running out of space every summer in the restaurants,” and something needed to be done about it. After some team brainstorming sessions, the Eagle’s Nest concept was born, and the project was given the green light.
A main issue in the project’s beginning stages was the question of how and where to build the pizza restaurant. One initial idea was to construct the restaurant in a wooded area on the west side of the lodge, and to transport the oven to the site via Married Man’s Trail.
According to Eagle’s Nest General Manager Nick Buchanan, that idea — and many others — was eventually abandoned in lieu of the plan now being executed.
“The big challenge was, ‘How are we going to get a 5,000-pound brick oven down the trail?’ Two machines, and an old trail, there were probably about three weeks and 17 different ideas on how we were going to do this,” Buchanan said. “The joke was in the beginning that we were just going to helicopter it in. We thought maybe we would use machinery, that way we could get it up into the corner. Well, parts of the trail probably weren’t going to be sturdy enough to carry two machines [and] 5,000 pounds, so really at the end of the day it became a safety factor. Ironically, the safest way to do this was to hook it up to a helicopter and have them drop it onto the corner of what we had framed up there at the time.”
Describing the pilot’s exploits as “poetic,” Buchanan said that seeing the centerpiece of Cape Fox’s newest addition hanging from a helicopter caused some anxiety, but the job went off without a hitch.
“I was pretty anxious about it, obviously anything can go wrong at any time with something like that, but it worked out perfectly,” Buchanan said. “There definitely was a thought of ‘If we lose this oven, we’ll have to wait another year for another one, if we lose this we don’t have a restaurant.’”
Temsco Helicopters pilot Daron Hehr used a 150-foot synthetic longline with a weight capacity of 10,200 pounds to hoist the oven into the air from the lodge’s front parking lot. He then flew the oven over the top of Cape Fox Lodge, and set it down in a pre-built and marked area that will soon become the Eagle’s Nest.
Temsco Chief Pilot Eric Eichner explained that safety was the top priority when performing the job.
“When we do stuff like that in congested areas, we have to file a congested area safety load plan with the FAA,” Eichner said. “We basically designate all of the emergency landing areas, the place where the equipment is going to be picked up and dropped off, arrival and departure paths, and we send that in to the FAA and they have to approve it. Any time we fly, if we were to put an A/C unit on top of a building, we have to do that as per the FAA regulations.”
In tandem with the pizza restaurant, Cape Fox sent two of its chefs to multiple schools in the Lower 48 — including one operated by the Italian company that manufactured the oven — in order to learn dough and sauce recipes, cooking techniques and how to utilize the new pizza oven to its full capabilities. The oven is capable of cooking with both gas and wood, which will give the “artisan pizza” a “different flavor” according to Lewis. Pizza made in this oven will be decidedly different from what he calls “mass-production [pizzas] that you see all over town.”
The Eagle’s Nest’s interior decoration is being designed by HR Administrator for Cape Fox Commercial Services Michelle Lewis — Tim’s wife — who also designed Cape Fox’s 108 Taphouse located on Main Street. Tim said Michelle has a unique theme in mind for the restaurant.
“From what I hear, she’s making it into kind of a treehouse theme, since it’s right there on the side of the cliff and up in the trees,” Lewis said. “So if you like the design and what you see at 108, from what I’ve heard and seen come through the door, I think this one won’t disappoint.”
The restaurant will operate independently of Cape Fox’s Heen Kahidi dining room, meaning that guests in one area will not be able to order from the other’s menu. Lewis explained that the Eagle’s Nest will have a full menu that will include more than just pizza. One additional dish he revealed will be tableside s’mores that will allow guests to make their own marshmallow, graham cracker and chocolate desserts right at their table. Cape Fox also is partnering with 49th State Brewery to include their line of soft drinks in the restaurant’s own Italian sodas.
Lewis said the Eagle’s Nest is intended to be a place that welcomes the entire family. The area will be “indoor-outdoor,” and will incorporate features to afford diners an open-air experience, weather-permitting.
“We’ve tried to make it a fun place, family-oriented,” Lewis said. “There’s going to be a nice, open-air patio — the whole restaurant actually. The wall that faces the water actually opens all the way up, floor to ceiling, so it’s more of an indoor-outdoor space. And we’re excited because I don’t think there’s anything like it in Ketchikan.”
The target date for a grand opening is the first week of August, although those plans could change due to ongoing supply chain issues. Such circumstances have already forced the Cape Fox team to abandon their initial target of early July. Lewis said that the team is currently waiting on “doors and windows.”
Cape Fox also is refurbishing its funicular system in tandem with the pizza restaurant’s construction. The project has been delayed due to the war in Ukraine, as the Cape Fox gets some of the parts for the system from a Ukraine-based manufacturer. Still, Lewis said the parts are expected to be en route shortly, and guests soon will be able to ride the tram directly to the Eagle’s Nest, which will have a dedicated stop built into the structure.
As for future expansions for Cape Fox, Lewis said the company is far from finished.
“We might pause on restaurants, but this isn't it,” Lewis said. “We’re working on several things right now, we’re nowhere near done.”
*This article was originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News*
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