Mama Tig’s Pizza in Eufaula has been voted Best Pizza in the State by readers of Oklahoma Living, a publication of the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC).

OAEC has widespread readership, and the article in the magazine’s January issue has boosted the number of customers at Mama Tig’s restaurants in Eufaula, Carlton Landing and Muskogee.

“It has picked up quite a bit,” said owner Janette Davis. “People have been driving long distances to try the pizza after reading the article.”

They come from all over Oklahoma, as well as Arkansas and Texas.

Janette and her husband Bob Davis own the Eufaula and Carlton landing businesses. The one in Muskogee at 2156 Gullick, is a franchise owned by Jonnie and Reo Rea.

OAEC is a statewide asso made up of 30 member systems, 27 distribution electric and three generation and transmission electric cooperatives, bringing power to more 523,000 Oklahomans and 125,000 customers in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas.

All of whom have access to Oklahoma Living magazine, so it isn’t surprising that such widespread publicity naming Mama Tig’s the number one pizza restaurant in the state would generate interest.

Readers of the magazine voted in the publication’s competition.

“We owe it all to our customers,” Bob Davis said.

Janette agreed, but added the hard-working and friendly employees to the reasons for the vote.

And, of course, the wood-fired pizza cooked in a brick oven.

“We cut our fresh vegetables every day – the bell peppers, red onions. We slice our fresh mushrooms. We strive for good quality and fresh ingredients,” said Janette.

Some pizzas are named after family members.

She knows a thing or two about pizza making.

Her grandfather came from Italy in 1903, eventually opened a bar in Mount Pleasant, Michigan in the ‘50s and served pizza.

Her parents opened a pizzeria in Lake George, Michigan the ‘70s, called Mama Tig’s.

Her mother’s last name was Tignanelli.

“Family and friends called her Mama Tig. That’s where the restaurant’s name came from,” she said.

Her brother, Frank Tignanelli, owns a successful pizza business in Millersburg, Michigan called Detroit Frankie’s Wood Fired Brick Oven.

Janette and Bob’s eldest daughter, Erin Bridges, is general manager of their local restaurants.

Their younger daughter, Ashley Davis Caldwell, works at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas, but has aspirations to be in the pizza business.

It took time for Janette and Bob to arrive in Eufaula.

After they married they moved to Texas, where their daughter Erin was born and raised in Frisco.

Erin won a softball scholarship from Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, where she met fellow-student and future husband Brendon Bridges, now an associate district judge in Eufaula.

Meanwhile, her parents had moved to Kansas City.

After Erin and Brendon married and settled in Eufaula, where Brendon began his law practice and Erin became an elementary education teacher and softball coach, the Davises moved here to be closer to their grandchildren.

Bob Davis wanted to get into the pizza business here, but Janette wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it.

“I worked at the Eufaula Pharmacy as a pharmacy tech for awhile,” Janette said.

However, in 2016 Bob won out and the couple started Mama Tig’s Pizza food truck, which eventually led to a bricks and mortar store in Carlton’s Landing and then the Eufaula store at 123 Selmon Road. The Mama Tig’s in Muskogee is the result of a Stigler teenager working for the Davises on their food truck when it was in her town. After she grew up and married she decided she wanted to get into the restaurant business so the Davises entered into a franchise agreement with her and her husband Reo.

The Davis’ are now looking at retirement, and to that end they named Erin general manager of the growing restaurant chain.

“When I resigned from coaching (at Checotah), they’re the reason I kind of resigned. They wanted me to be more active in the business because they wanted to retire,” Erin said. “Even when I was coaching I would help them out.”

Janette said when they decided to get into the pizza business here they weren’t sure what they were going to do.

“We just knew the flavors we liked and we were trying to bring those flavors here. We couldn’t find pizza anywhere else like it. So we put the family recipes together and came up with what pizza would work.”

Judging by the voting of Oklahoma Living readers, they came up with the right formula.

Janette is looking forward to retirement.

“I don’t want to open any more restaurants,” she said. “Since Erin has come on board, it has freed us up. We were working all the time.”

But they would discuss franchising.

“We’d be happy to talk to anybody who is interested to make sure it’s a right fit,” she said.