Day in the Life: Patrick Ward, co-founder of Edinburgh's Pizza Geeks

This business owner tells us about his life as a nerd

3am

I wake up in a cold sweat thinking, “what if we are actually in the Matrix?!” Then I fall back asleep in 0.2 seconds.

6.50am

My dog, Chewbacca - the best alarm clock ever - wakes me up before a walk. My fiancée, Kate, takes him out before work. She’s the hardest working person I know and my biggest source of motivation. The first thing I do is make the bed. Little wins spur on big wins. I then immediately check my phone, despite everyone telling me I shouldn’t do it so early. I’ve just got to make sure that none of our stores are at DEFCON 1.

7.30am

I kick start my day with a cold shower and a black coffee. In theory, I try to learn something every morning. My business partner, Fin, usually recommends a great article or book. I also check my emails. All of them are very important, from arranging business meetings, to checking on updates of the next comic con.

9.15am

Patrick Ward

Chewie and I leave the house. There aren’t many places where you can walk past a dormant volcano, a palace, a castle, and a parliament within minutes of each other. We get a treat from one of the many amazing coffee shops on Easter Road. My current favourite is a long black coffee and a cheese scone from Little Fitzroy.

10am

I arrive at Cask Smugglers where we have a kitchen takeover to meet Fin and discuss ideas and ongoing projects such as our Pizza For The People (P4TP) campaign. Fin is definitely the Frodo to my Samwise, or the Thelma to my Louise. I value him so much.

11am

Fin and I check in with the managers across our stores. They’re always up for any of our ideas and often suggest some amazing ones themselves. In fact, it’s down to them that we’re well on track to make 10,000 pizzas this year alone for P4TP.

1pm

We’ll usually grab lunch from Fizz & Pearl at Festival Village on Waverley Mall Rooftop, their special is always, as Bill and Ted would say, “most excellent!”

2pm

We go our separate ways. I check in with the team at Neighbourgood Market where we’ve had our trailer for the past month. We’ve just partnered with Ooni and had the trailer upgraded with four of their Koda 16 ovens.

6pm

Unless working in one of the units or helping out with P4TP I go home. I go to my computer for some geeky research. I like to keep up with what’s going on and find some film recommendations for Fin that he probably won’t watch.

7pm

Kate gets home from work and we cook dinner together. We’ve both been enjoying some proper home-cooking and I think we’ve mastered Mexican food.

9pm

All work and no play makes Pat a weird boy, so I hop on Discord and game. My go-to is something from the Total War series.

11pm

I like to think I go to bed now, but it’s more like 1am.

Pizza Geeks has a restaurant in Haymarket, Leith and a permanent kitchen residency at Cask Smugglers on Waverley Mall Rooftop, www.pizzageeks.co.uk

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