I am one of the three owners of A Boy Named Sue, along with Dan Zeidan [who owns the Grace Darling Hotel in Collingwood] and chef Yoreth Tudor. We’ve all been involved in hospitality since we were 16 or 18. We’ve known each other for years. We met through hanging out at the same parties more than 10 years ago. We bonded over our shared love of dancing.

The idea for A Boy Named Sue came to us when Dan and I drove past it a bunch of times when he was living in Kinglake. There was a notice on the door looking for expressions of interest, and we thought: ‘‘Let’s open a pizza place’’. It was a spontaneous decision. We did the entire fit-out ourselves. Everything is done out of recycled Oregon or redwood. Everything in the shop has been sourced from hand-me-downs or hard rubbish collections. We signed the lease in April but it took nine months of building.

Since we’ve opened, the locals have been really supportive. People are bringing in fresh vegies and fresh herbs. We’re all about using local produce. We’re using organically grown vegetables. We’ve got an organic vegetable garden and we’re aiming to source 90 per cent of our ingredients from 40 to 60 kilometres away, or at least in Victoria.

Our meats are often slow roasted overnight for 10 to 12 hours and then put on the pizzas. Our pizza base is a three-year-old sourdough culture. It is the yeast left over from our friend’s home-brewed beer. It’s amazing.

We’re looking to expand and open a private dining room and an Argentinian-style open-grill barbecue next door. That’s in the planning stage. We’ve got big plans for this town. I’m surprised at how amazing the community is up here.

The name for the place came to us when we were putting the glue on the floor at 3am, and Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue came on. Dan’s father has a shrine full of Johnny Cash memorabilia, so it is a homage to the legendary Johnny and Dan’s father Joseph. Just the other day, a guy bought in the 7’’ original record of the song he bought in grade 2. Another guy from Kinglake brought his Johnny Cash record collection in and bequeathed them to us. I think we have the biggest Johnny Cash record collection in Melbourne.