In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Scott Wiener, director of Slice Out Hunger, about the Pizza Across America even that brings together pizzerias across the country for a good cause.

The week of National Pizza Day, Feb. 9, pizzerias are encouraged to donate 10 pizzas to their local hospitals, first responders, shelters or soup kitchens.

Registration is open now for the event. Every pizzeria who signs up tells the orchestrators how far they deliver and what days they can deliver. Wiener and his team take that data and pull into that destination points charities and hospitals that can receive on one of those days.

"Everything that we do with Slice Out Hunger is always to make life easier for the pizzeria, but still allow them to do the community service that they want to do," Wiener said in the podcast.

To learn more about Pizza Across America, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, talks to Jennifer Jackson, vice president of public relations for Hungry Howie's.

Jackson spoke about the public relations and advertising the pizza brand does. Hungry Howie's differentiates itself by offering flavored crusts. Jackson said the butter cheese is the top crust flavor, but the brand does unique LTOs like a sweet heat bacon.

Hungry Howie's also has a deep dish pizza and recently launched a Detroit-style pizza. Jackson said Detroit-style pizza accounts for up to 8-9% of pizza sales right now.

"To be an authentic Detroit style, it's having the sauce on the top. And most of the other brands claim it's Detroit style, but it's not, because it doesn't have the sauce on the top," Jackson explained.

The brand's strategy for communicating the brand's commitment to quality ingredients and food preparation standards for the public involves top-quality ingredients and fresh dough.

"We still make our dough fresh in store every single day," Jackson said. "We also use 100 % real mozzarella cheese. I believe we are one of the only brands that can say that we use 100% real mozzarella. Most of them are a blend. A lot of the larger pizza places are now using the frozen dough. So we're going to continue to stand by being that fresh pizza that we want to give our customers. So we'll continue to do that as long as we can."

To learn more about Hungry Howie's operations, growth and public relations success, click the button at the top of the page.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb.com, talks to Eric Soller, founder of Old Scratch Pizza in Dayton, Ohio.

With a formal culinary background and years working with mixer giant Hobart, Soller said he was primed and ready to open his own restaurant.

"I love pizza," Soller said. "I was thinking about a lot of things, but I kept coming back to pizza. In my experience with Hobart and then later in sort of corporate world, I traveled quite a bit for work. And when I would go to a city, I would go to three or four pizza places in a night. I'm more of a student of the business.

"I'm more of a restaurateur than I am a pizza chef. I love pizza. I can make pizza. My team is much better at it now than I am. But I saw some concepts out in the world that I thought I could morph into what would be a really great opportunity would eventually turn into Old Scratch Pizza."

The brand uses wood-fired ovens, and Soller calls his pizza "Midwesternly Neapolitan." Soller opened in a mostly industrial area, which he drove past every day coming home from work.

"And I saw that it was a couple of blocks away from our big hospital," Soller said. "It was right around the corner from University of Dayton. It was the it's right on the edge of downtown. It was close enough to University of Dayton Stadium to be one of the closest places with a parking lot to UD Stadium. And I just saw that I saw the potential in it. And, you know, we were pretty busy from day one. We took off right off the bat."

To learn more about Old Scratch Pizza, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In our most recent Pizza Marketplace Podcast, Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talked to Dallas Massey, senior vice president of Papa Murphy's Take N' Bake Pizza. Massey discussed the brand's $10 Tuesdays promotion and how it has evolved over the years.

In the beginning, consumers could purchase any pizza in any size for $10 on Tuesdays. Over the years, however, with the rising costs of labor and ingredients, individual Papa Murphy's stores have altered their $10 Tuesday promos. Today, guests can get any pizza for $10.99 to $13.99 depending on the location, and some Papa Murphy's operators have limited the type of pizza that can be ordered.

"I would say Papa Murphy's was built on $10 Tuesdays," Massey said. "I've been around the brand now a little over a year, year and a half. And I don't talk to anybody that doesn't bring up the Tuesday promotion. So I would say that there's a lot of brand equity that is built into $10 Tuesday. And ultimately, it's something that our franchise partners know and love."

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the link at the top of the page.

Michigan-based Saroki's Crispy Chicken & Pizza pairs delicious chicken and pizza in a mega gas station setting. However, it wasn't always this way. The brand, which has 19 location, used to have good pizza, but not great pizza. Owner Todd Saroki went to California to study under master pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani. What he brought back was a pizza product customers love.

Todd Saroki and his brother Curtis Saroki cut their teeth working in a kitchen in a uncle's gas station. They eventually took what they learned and opened Saroki's in a large gas station pavilion.

"We opened up with just our own recipes," Todd Saroki said. "We learned as we went, and we were doing well in the pizza space. We liked our pizza, but we didn't love it. When we were thinking about opening up our second location ... we said we have to have better pizza."

Todd Saroki went to a pizza show, sat in one of Gemignani's seminars, and eventually went to Gemignani's International School of Pizza.

Today they use high-quality ingredients and brick ovens to make their pizzas. Curtis Saroki said they tried using conveyor ovens in some of their restaurants but didn't like the way the pizza came out, so they eventually went back to brick ovens again.

"We're very involved in operations," Curtis Saroki said. "Both of us were operations guys before we started franchising and I'm still going to locations to make sure that everyone's keeping up with the quality."

To learn more about the Sarokis' pizza journey, click the link at the top of the page to view the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Tory Williams, general manager of Bright Penny Brewing Co. in Mebane, North Carolina.

The brand has three locations, all of which operate differently. The main restaurant and brewery is in downtown Mebane where the brand does all its beer manufacturing.

Neapolitan pizza is the brand's biggest food seller, with favorites like cheese and pepperoni the favorites. There's a pizza called Family Friendly which has cheese, pepperoni and a local sausage. The 412 is a barbecue chicken, bacon, local hot honey and jalapeno, and the Sweet and Salty features prosciutto, sliced figs, goat cheese, arugula, and a balsamic glaze.

"We make our dough," Williams said in the podcast. "We make our sauce. We typically buy in a lot of shredded cheese, but we do slice our provolone and slice our Swiss cheese as well. We do some sandwiches as well so we do cross utilize some ingredients there."

To learn more about Bright Penny's brewery and how well beer goes with pizza, click the link at the top to listen to the podcast in its entirety.

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In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com, chats with Jordan Krolick, president of Blue Moon Pizza and Jeff Goldt, chief operating officer of Blue Moon Pizza.

The Atlanta pizzeria brand, known for its unique hybrid pizzas and passionate customer base, is ready to expand with franchising. Today, it has five units.

Looking ahead five years, Krolick said he expects Blue Moon Pizza to be larger.

"We do have a five-year plan," he said. "Our goal is to start franchising in early 2026."

As a professor of franchising at a university in the city, Krolick said franchising is a unique business "because it sounds really eat, but in reality it's kind of a pseudo-partnership. The business model has got to be such that both sides are making great money. And we want to make sure that we put our franchisees in the best position to succeed. And that requires detailed systems as we're building out. It requires a great business model which we already have and it requires a system that is truly ready to understand, recognize, deal with and be a true advisor and supporter to the franchise system."

The brand watches other companies to gain insight into how to treat its customers.

"We ... are making sure our employees know what it is that we are expecting out of them and what our customers, more importantly, are expecting," Goldt said. "We've been able to show them that if they give the service that we expect from them, and that they're capable of giving, they will get the reward financially from the customers, they will get it from the appreciation from the customers, they will get it from the hours they get to work with us and so forth, and also the enjoyment they get from being in the restaurants and being in that work environment."

Click the link above to listen to the podcast in its entirety, and don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group podcast channel for more great restaurant interviews.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Mike Burns, CEO of &pizza based out of Washington, D.C.

The brand was founded in 2012 by Michael Astoria who's still involved with the brand today. Astoria traveled the country and found D.C. was a blank slate and ripe for a gourmet pizza brand.

"Really, there wasn't a staple pizza here in D.C.," Burns said in the podcast. Astoria built one shop, unsuspecting that it would take off.

Burns said the brand got "too corporate" and lost the edginess it was known for after Astoria stepped away from &pizza in 2018. He came back into operations, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Astoria wanted to stay as the creator and founder, but didn't want to run it on a daily basis.

Enter Burns, who joined about a year and a half ago.

"It's been everything I thought it would be," Burns said. "It's a really fun brand and we're just trying to kind of bring it back to its roots of the fun, urban-centric college campus brand when it first started."

The brand has begun franchising. Burns said &pizza wanted to stay corporate for a long time thinking it could grow faster and the leadership team could control the brand.

Burns said he believes &pizza should have franchised six or seven years ago when it was at its peak. "It's such a cool, fun brand," he said. "Everybody loves it. There's a need for it in the market. Potential franchisees have been reaching out for years trying to franchise this brand, and to me to be at 45 restaurants, or 46 with a couple of airport units, is a shame."

To learn more about &pizza's franchising efforts and how it has increased business listen to the podcast above in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Kevin King, who recently took over Donatos Pizza last October as president and CEO. Under King's leadership, the brand is embracing strategies to keep it relevant for both new and existing customers amidst rising pricing wars in the pizza industry.

Donatos started in 1963 when its founder, Jim Grote, started a small pizza shop in the sound end of Columbus, Ohio based on principles and values that even today make Donatos a standout in the pizza industry.

The brand is founded on three tenets: lead with love, follow the Golden Rule and do the right thing.

"If we do those, we know we'll have a successful business in the end," King said.

Donatos has 180 traditional restaurants across the U.S. and 270 units inside Red Robin restaurants.

"Donatos has always been about abundance, great toppings, great quality and super consistent," King said.

To learn more about the Donatos Pizza story, click the link at the top of the page.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel for more great podcasts with industry leaders.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Mary Jane Riva, CEO of California-based Pizza Factory.

The brand was founded in 1985 in two small California towns and will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. Riva and her husband, Bob, came aboard as franchisees in 1990 and opened five of their own Pizza Factory locations. In 2012, the founders were ready to leave and sold the company to the Rivas.

"The culture of Pizza Factory is so much about community and it's individuals being able to come and work in a town or a city. Some of our stores are in really small towns, so it allowed people who wanted to be self-employed and live in a small town and actually accomplish that," Riva said.

Pizza Factory connects with its communities with owner/operators who are residents of the towns their shops are in.

The brand was recently acquired by Wonder Franchises. "After 12 years, it can to a point where I knew it was time to bring on some extra resources," Riva said. "Another set of eyes, and bring on that support system that I felt that as an office and for the franchisees, really we are the steward of the brand. The franchisees are who we work for, and I felt that is was time to bring on another set of eyes and that youthfulness."

With rapid changes in social media, digital and tech stacks, Wonder will help Pizza Factory into the future. "Bringing them on was one of the ways I felt we could support the franchisees better as well as accelerate growth."

Listen to the podcast to learn more about Pizza Factory and Wonder Franchises future. Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube Channel.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to John Stetson, CEO of Florida-based Stoner's Pizza Joint.

The brand was founded in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia. The first location had a stone oven, which is from where the brand takes its name. Though the brand enjoys its double entendre namesake, there's actually no cannabis involved in the recipes, though Stoner's does use it in its marketing.

"We kind of pivot depending on the marketing we're in," Stetson said. "If we're on a college campus, I think we're very outgoing with the name. If you go into one of our locations we'll have #legalizemarinara, #ownajoint, #getbaked -- those kinds of play on words of cannabis and pizza simultaneously. But, then you go into some other demographics where it's more of a community and it doesn't resonate as well. We, in those markets, will drop the 'Joint' from our signage as 'Stoner's Pizza.'"

He said he doesn't want to lose that family of four ordering a pizza on a Friday night and the franchisees strive to be local pizzerias in their respective communities. The brand also delivers to a lot of schools, so it's cognizant of how the brand stands in the community.

"We use it to our advantage when we can and obviously pull back when we need to," Stetson said.

To hear how Stoner's Pizza Joint is weathering the economy and more, click the link above.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Networld Media Group YouTube channel for more exclusive podcasts.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, Editor Mandy Detwiler talks to Carl Comeaux, CEO and partner of Texas-based Crust Pizza Co. Comeaux joined the company after being a fan of its pizza. Crust now has 30 units in Texas and Louisiana and plans to grow another 15 in 2025. It has seven corporate stores and 23 franchised units with a goal of 250 units in nine years.

"We're looking for owner-operators," Comeaux said in the podcast. "Right now at this stage of where we're at in growth, eventually we'll be looking for multi-unit franchisees that own 10 to 15 other units for other concepts that are looking for a second brand to sink their teeth into."

Comeaux said the product helps Crust stand out in a heavy pizza field.

"It's premium quality," he said, adding the dough is made in house every four hours. "Our sauces are all proprietary blends — our pizza sauce, marinara, Ranch, Alfredo ... the sauce are amazing that you can put on the pizza or dip. ... We created our own propriety cheese about a year ago, and when we did that we were able to save 50 cents per pound on cheese."

To learn more about Crust Pizza Co.'s operations and how the brand is building its own tech stack, click the link above.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Jim Metevier, CEO of Mountain Mike's Pizza. The California chain of 240 restaurants is making waves on the West Coast with its toppings-heavy pies and tight operations.

Metevier has more than 30 years experience in the restaurant industry. He previously served as the company's president and COO before taking the reigns as CEO earlier this year.

Metevier said the restaurant business is not for the faint of heart.

"I always find it funny when I talk to prospective franchisees ... people will tell me 'Hey, when I retire, I want to open a restaurant. That's the opposite of retiring!" he said.

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the link above.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Brandon Hunt and Zane Hunt, brothers who launched Via 313 in Austin, Texas.

Zane said he and his brother were raised in the Detroit, and grew up eating square pizza, now known as Detroit-style pizza.

"You thinking about where we're at right now in 2024 with the hyper gentrification of pizza," he said. "Back then, there was just round and square pizza. Round pizza could have been a number of different things. Square pizza could have been a number of different things, whether its was a sheet-pan pizza from an Italian bakery or Grandma-style pizza, and then we had Detroit with the caramelized edges."

It took the brothers traveling to different parts of the country to realize that they were fortunate to have different styles of pizza in Detroit.

Zane moved to Austin in 2009 with his wife and kids and sought out pizza like he had at home "and we realized quickly it didn't exist," he said.

Zane and Brandon began examining what it would look like if they started their own pizza brand in Austin. They wanted to bring Detroit-style pizza to Austin, and used a recipe they were both comfortable with. It took almost two years to open their first location, a pizza trailer.

Brandon said what sets Via 313 is now focused on consistency and service. Though they won't compare their pizza to other Detroit-style brands, they instead focus on the customer and efficiency.

"Service was a thing that could separate us," Brandon said. "You really can't debate whether service is good or not or if we're the best at service. That's not debatable. That's really important to us."

To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click the arrow above.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Little Caesars franchisee Vicki Dunn-Marshall. Dunn-Marshall's focus on philanthropy has led to start Pizza Paws, a campaign that raises money for police K-9 units across the country.

The idea came about after there was a prison break in one of the towns where she operates a Little Caesars store. They brought in K-9 units from three or four states for several days.

"We were feeding the officers," Dunn-Marshall said. "They don't get support for what they do."

Human handlers pay for the food and vet visits themselves, perhaps using a small stipend from the department.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Wesley Keegan, founder of TailGate Brewery, a nine-unit pizzeria and brew hall in Nashville, Tennessee.

Keegan started with a brewery, but found his customers would have a beer and then leave to go find food. He tried bringing in food trucks, but that didn't seem to work. Instead, he started his own pizzeria using the best ingredients he could find.

"We run a full pizza kitchen in all of our stores and it's really a full pizza restaurant by every measure, but being a brewery, we call it a taproom, and the majority of our taproom sales is pizza," Keegan said.

To learn more about beer and pizza sales, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, and Jeff Hetsel, president of Cicis Pizza.

Hetsel says Cicis, which is a buffet concept, is doing well with positive sales, and the brand is currently looking for ways to leverage technology to increase those sales.

"One of the great things we try to do is if you don't see your favorite pizza, we'll make it for you," Hetsel said. Pizzas are cooked in about three and a half minutes.

The biggest change the brand has made over the years is improving and increasing its "eatertainment" and game rooms.

 In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to John Arena, co-owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas. Arena recently opened a signature pizzeria called Truly Pizza in Dana Point, California, with a group of friends. Together, they've built a concept new to the city that brings in both tourists and locals alike. 

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks with Les Tomlin, co-founder and president of PizzaForno, North America's first automated pizzeria, about the rise of food vending machines.

"The concept of automated pizza is relatively new to North America but has been around Europe for almost 20 years," Tomlin told Detwiler. "We found this technology platform — we being my business partner and myself — in France, and we were just amazed that this technology platform had not yet made it to North America."

The pizza vending machine helps with square footage, rent, waste and wages. It bakes an 11-inch pizza in under three minutes in 65 square feet, Tomlin added.

To listen to the podcast click here.

Pizzeria menus can range from small and tidy to large and complex, but they've all got one thing behind them: research and development.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Hisham Abdulfattah, partner and executive chef of Willow Street Pizza in Willow Glen and Los Gatos, California, about menu development.

Abdulfattah said his first job was working in a kitchen washing dishes at age 14. He later moved on to prep and cooking at a taqueria.

"I fell in love with the atmosphere of a restaurant and the fast-paced environment," Abdulfattah said, adding he went to a culinary academy right out of high school. "I worked probably every position in a restaurant, including front of the house."

During the pandemic, he got a loan and bought food truck, and one of his partners owned Willow Street Pizza, which he later invested in and now co-owns.

"There's something for everyone on their menu," Abdulfattah said. "Willow Street is a place where you can go and feel very comfortable and warm."

To learn more about Abdulfattah's approach to menu development, click the link to listen to the podcast in its entirety.

 Scott Weiner holds the Guinness World Record for the Largest Collection of Pizza Boxes. Weiner, who owns a pizza touring company in New York City, has become an expert in pizza boxes. Today's boxes hold more than just pizza — they're an extension of the pizzerias themselves. In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, Pizza Marketplace Editor Mandy Detwiler talks to Weiner about his collection -- which she personally certified by counting his collection twice. He's got nearly 1,900 pizza boxes now, and his collection has grown out of his Brooklyn apartment to a storage unit. 

We talked to Buddy's new CEO, Chris Tussing, to learn the history of Detroit-style pizza and what's making the style so popular in this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, editor Mandy Wolf Detwiler speaks with Shane Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Boostly, about the effectiveness of text marketing for restaurants.