While it’s true that Americans love a good barbecue, for many residents of South Africa, a braai (their word for barbecue) is a way of life. As one American expat now living in South Africa puts it: 
“A braai is acceptable for any occasion. That’s right. Birthday braai, Christmas braai, going away braai, welcome home braai, a Wednesday night just to get a few friends together braai, a graduation braai, housewarming braai, these are all perfectly acceptable times to have a braai.”
When our love of a good barbecue, especially where pizza is involved, led us down the path of KettlePizza (we started building and selling the KettlePizza right of out Al’s barn in Boxford, Massachusetts about four years ago), having a passionate customer base in South Africa was pretty far from our thoughts. But some four years later, and thanks to a lot of hard work, the KettlePizza is now readily available to the braai-loving people of South Africa through our exclusive partnership with On the Patio, “the trusted destination for all things home outdoor related.”
On the Patio and KettlePizza have a lot in common beyond our passion for pizza cooked on a wood-fired grill. Like KettlePizza, On the Patio was founded by two friends. Like KettlePizza, the idea for On the Patio was born out of a frustration.
In the case of On the Patio, it happens to be two friends who were frustrated by the lack of a one-stop shopping site that catered to the home outdoor lifestyle. As On the Patio Director Craig Simpson said, “As South Africans, we love our patios, our stoeps, sitting outside sharing a cold one. It is part of who we are, it is in our DNA, which is why when we looked online for specific, original products and experiences for the home outdoor lifestyle and couldn’t find much, we took action.”
Similarly, many of you already know KettlePizza was born out of a frustration with the lack of an affordable way to cook real wood-fired pizza without requiring the cook to remove the grill cover to feed the fire or check the pizza.
The stars aligned and KettlePizza and On the Patio, despite being separated by some 7,900 miles, found each other. So excited are our new business partners, and friends, that the folks at On the Patio commissioned this outstanding video show casing KettlePizza:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/tfdjWdnXWVY]
Since that faithful day in 2010, KettlePizza has been shipped to more than 50 countries. Our US distributor base is growing, and in addition we now have KettlePizza dealers in Canada, Europe, Asia, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and now South Africa.
We welcome On the Patio to the KettlePizza global community and hope you will too by visiting their company website, by popping over to “like” their Facebook page and by following them on Twitter.
