Charcuterie will be all the craze in Alachua on Monday as former helicopter pilot and flight school manager Pam Landis takes off on a new career at the grand opening of Graze Craze custom charcuterie and catering shop in Alachua Town Center.
The recently renovated 1,200-square-foot store is in soft opening mode, serving handcrafted charcuterie spreads with locally sourced, artfully arranged and house-made foods and dips. Graze Craze (15652 NW Hwy 441, Ste. 2B) is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday’s grand opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will include a ribbon-cutting with the Alachua Chamber of Commerce, free samples, giveaways, a champagne toast and live blues music from Landis’s husband.
With the support of her husband, Landis said she’s excited to bring the community a new food option that can be part of making memories during all of life’s parties, gatherings and everyday celebrations.
“I’m looking forward to really getting a chance to just celebrate the good times and the sad times, too. We celebrate life,” Landis said. “We just want to be part of the community and really get a chance to celebrate.”
Landis said she started thinking about landing her career in the skies at the end of last year. The Gainesville native and High Springs resident’s aviation tenure totaled 37 years, with the last 10 serving as the flight school manager at the University Air Center based at Gainesville Regional Airport.
She also helped put on community events for the airport, such as the annual Gator Fly-In and Armed Services Appreciation Day, which she called her baby. Since the school didn’t offer many opportunities to work with helicopters—Landis’s passion—the 61-year-old decided it was time for a change.
“And here I am. Change. I was ready for a new challenge in my life and this came along, and I’m really happy,” she said.
As new as the restaurant business is for Landis, charcuterie isn’t. She said the “snack boards” she frequently assembled for her hungry kids were a family favorite and prompted a friend to suggest Landis turn them into her next career path.
With a heart for serving small communities, Landis chose Graze Craze’s location near the interstate so she could easily reach all areas of Alachua County and beyond.
Even though Graze Craze is a franchise through United Franchise Group with over 100 locations throughout the U.S., Australia and Canada, Landis said she likes that it’s based in Florida and she can support the state.
She brings a hometown flare to the Alachua store by selling charcuterie boards made by a local woodworker and decorating the walls with her own photography of North Central Florida.
“It’s a franchise that I purchased. But I’m from this area, and I wanted to bring something that’s different, that we don’t have; all the fast food and all the fried stuff, I wanted something a little healthier,” she said.
Graze Craze offers a variety of board options—sweet, savory, keto and vegetarian—and sizes small enough to feed one grazer to as many as 6,000, Landis said. The shop serves charcuterie cups for grab-and-go customers and provides delivery and catering.
The chefs in Landis’s kitchen are known as “Grazeologists” and prepare the platters with Boar’s Head meats and cheeses. All jams and hummuses are made in house, and Landis said she works hard to source fresh fruits and vegetables through local farmers.
The boards taste as good as they look, Landis said, and include personalized messages on top like “slice, slice baby” and “sliced and diced for you”.
“[Graze Craze] has worked really hard to make sure that our boards are beautifully presented. They’re a work of art,” she said.
Starting a new career through a franchise has been helpful for Landis since the business structures are already built in. But there’s still challenges, like learning how to market her products and follow health guidelines.
The learning is what Landis likes though, so much so that she’s now an instructor and proctor for restaurant health exams. She said there’s plenty of times her aviation background comes in handy for running her business, and running it well.
“If you want to do it right, you’ve got to study. You know, you have your checklists, you have the things that you follow through,” she said. “I really, truly do understand following the checklist and what you’re supposed to do, making sure that you’re doing the very best. You have to do that in aviation too because it’s dangerous if you don’t.”
Down the road, Landis said she hopes to open a wine bar inside Graze Craze to host wine tastings and charcuterie classes. But for now, back on the ground, Landis wants to keep getting her feet wet with the new business and enjoy Monday’s celebration and start of a new journey.
“I’ve been in aviation for so long, the sky was my world,” she said. “And now I’m here on the ground every day learning all the new stuff.”
For more updates on the new shop, Alachua’s Graze Craze can be followed on Instagram and Facebook. Orders can be placed by phone at 386-418-0047 and online at grazecraze.com/locations/gainesville-alachua.
