700 kilometres for a pizza? Italian-born chef's restaurant a success in tiny Sask. town of Ogema

In a town of only 400 people, Solo Italia is making a name for itself.

Marco de Michele and Tracey Johnson, the couple who started the restaurant in Ogema, Sask. (population 403, according to Statistics Canada) met in Costa Rica in 2007. They were married shortly after and settled in Italy, where de Michele was born.

But after four years, he wanted a change.

"I said [to Tracey] 'I don't want to die in the same place I was born. Why not go back to your country?'"

They moved to Ogema,where Johnson is from and started Solo Italia in 2013 in the town, 100 kilometres south of Regina.

After a while, de Michele felt something was missing.

"In the electric oven, the pizza is yuck, it's not good," he said.

So de Michele built his own authentic wood-firedItalian pizza oven, with some of the materials coming directly from Italy.

Customers from far and wide

Customer Bill Fidykcame from Sundre, Alta. more than 700 kilometres away to try the pizza. He said his daughter gave him a book that mentioned the pizza place.

"As I read through it, [it] talked about the best pizza in the world," he said.

"There are people also driving from the United States just to eat a pizza," de Michele said.

Some people were told by friends in Regina they had to stop in if they were passing through. One man from Indian Head, about 140 kilometres away, said he comes for the dough.

De Michele also has a delivery truck that shipsthe product out to places around Saskatchewan.

After five years in Saskatchewan, he said he hopes for continued success.

"One day we sold out to La Ronge," he said. (That'd be more than 600 kilometres north.)

"One day, maybe to the North Pole."

With files fromAdnanMohamad