Posted on 01/29/2013 7:28:39 AM PST by rawhide
Army National Guard Maj. Shawn Fulker is thousands of miles away serving in Afghanistan, and when his wife's birthday came around, he decided he wanted to do something very special.
Josephine Fulker loves Mellow Mushroom pizza,so her husband emailed Mellow Mushroom's corporate website on Thursday to ask whether one of the company's Jacksonville stores could deliver a pizza and a $50 gift card to his wife at their Jacksonville, Fla., home.If they could, he said, he would call the store and pay for it with his credit card.
Mellow Mushroom did one better. Unbeknownst to Shawn Fulker,a local Mellow Mushroom franchise was working to make his request even more memorable.
"We had the cook make a heart-shaped pizza, and then we stopped by the nearest Publix (supermarket) to get flowers and then we picked up balloons, just to kind of make it special," Brooke Chafee,a manager at the Jacksonville store, told ABCNews.com on Monday evening.
Chafee and another employee of the store made the special delivery - which included the $50 gift card to Mellow Mushroom - in person to Fulker's home on Thursday. They didn't charge Shawn Fulker a thing.
John Valentino, the Mellow Mushroom franchisee who owns that location and others in Jacksonville, said his store was happy to have made the day special for the couple.
"Of course we weren't going to charge him for anything," Valentino told ABC. "Him being a serviceman and his wife being home. … Hopefully in her husband's absence we were able to help her have a great birthday while he's over in Afghanistan serving our country."
"When I received the email and photo from Mellow Mushroom I was sitting at my desk, and had to get up and leave the room to compose myself. I am very grateful for that moment."
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
Great story.
It's a college-type hangout. Good pizza, good crust. It's a good chain, and much better than places like "Dominos" or "Little Ceasars".
pizza franchise of the year :)
I wish we had a chain around here... I’d order tonight as a thank you. Wonderful story... thanks for posting it, rawhide!
Not only that, they make a truly delicious pizza.
What a wonderful story!
MM has THE best pizza in the US. Their Holy Shitake pizza is to DIE for and their cheese pizza is sooooooooo good!!
Yup. Will be picking up some of their pizza tonight.
Dang, now I want a Mighty Meaty, and the nearest Mellow Mushroom to me is two hours drive north. Grrr...
Holy Shiitake!
Now that’s marketing.
i wouldn’t buy from a hippie peace sign company but this is a nice story.
They make these buttery pretzel-roll things..... I miss those... (we moved)
Their sandwiches are pretty “dope” as well.... da-dum-dum.
Corporate site not coming up. Hopefully the problem is traffic handling at the server. A happy problem based on a remarkable story. I hope they become inundated with orders today and into the future. I had never heard of them before this.
Love MM! If I am correct, their first location was in/near Buckhead in Atlanta. We used to go there when we were in college back in the day. I LOVE the ham & swiss sandwich with the sprouts there. Perfectly delicious!
Being a long time pizza connoisseur of New York (we know our pizza!), one can usually tell from a pic if a pizza is terrible. But that pizza looks nice and tasty. Would love to try their pizza.
 BLESSED BE THE PIZZAMAKERS |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.