Five years ago, Andrew Cairl was working in the entertainment industry as a wedding DJ, photographer and videographer. He was booked on the weekends, but “I needed something stable during the week to keep the bills paid,” he said. He applied to the Casey’s across the street from his apartment in Waite Park, Minnesota. “I never would have imagined then what it’s become now.”

Cairl has held several roles as he has grown in his career at Casey’s and is now a district manager. A major accomplishment in his tenure was competing in the company’s most recent pizza competition, where he created a pizza that was a tribute to the pickle wrap—pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham, a popular appetizer in parts of the Midwest.

His pickle wrap-inspired pizza appeared as an LTO menu item in Casey’s locations in Minnesota and northern Iowa last fall.

“I wanted to do something to represent Minnesota and the Midwest that had a hometown feel. We kicked around a lot of ideas but narrowed it down to four pickle-focused recipes and let employees in some of our stores taste test them. The pickle wrap won every time,” said Cairl.

Continue reading The Path to Becoming a Pizza Pioneer in the March 2025 issue of NACS Magazine.

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