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 tra...
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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 tra...
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 tra...
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. T...
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 to...
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 ...
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 p...
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...
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 ...
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...
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 marketi...
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...
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 f...
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 numb...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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 co...
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 tra...
