Executive Editor Denise Greer and Design Lead Katie Wilson ventured to San Antonio to sit down with Hengam and Matt to get to the bottom of what makes their company so special. They’ve got quite a story to tell, and I do not want to encroach on it here, so read Mastering Mattenga’s Playbook and enjoy.

Bar Bites

When my family goes out for pizza – or just about any meal, really – we order appetizers. For one thing, we typically show up famished. Secondly, apps are usually the favorite part of my meal for some reason (minus the main event: pizza, of course).

If I ever find myself sitting at a bar, the first question I ask is, “What bourbons do you have?” I like a good Old Fashioned. My second question is always, “What bar bites do you have?”

I don’t want a full meal at the bar, but I usually enjoy a small plate while relaxing with a cocktail.

When a bartender hands me the restaurant’s entire menu, it can feel a bit disappointing. When I am given a lineup of bar bites, however – even if it mirrors the restaurant’s appetizer list – I’m a happy camper.

Check out the article on page 30 to read what’s hot with bar bites.

O-HI-O

Lastly, registration for Pizza Expo Columbus is open, and we are looking forward to a fun and exciting event in the Buckeye state. The show will take place Oct. 26-27 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. We have a fantastic lineup of speakers you won’t want to miss. Head over to PizzaExpoColumbus.com to get registered today. We look forward to seeing you there!

Best,

Jeremy White
Editor In Chief

Read the August 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

In this issue, we announce Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year. Find out the owners turned a failing pizzeria purchase into a fast growing pizza business. Learn how it make a sourdough starter.It’s Green Season! Green Chile, that is. Explore menu ideas that add New Mexican flavors to your pizza. Find out which strip mall locations work best for pizzerias – and how to maximize traffic. Discover why pizzerias are going with custom mobile apps to capture sales and return visits. Tap into addictive bar menu options to increase check averages.

Check out the full Digital Edition — Pizza Today August 2025.

Read the August 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

In this issue, we announce Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year. Find out how the owners turned a failing pizzeria purchase into a fast-growing pizza business. Learn how to make a sourdough starter. It’s Green Season! Green Chile, that is. Explore menu ideas that add New Mexican flavors to your pizza. Find out which strip mall locations work best for pizzerias – and how to maximize traffic. Discover why pizzerias are going with custom mobile apps to capture sales and return visits. Tap into addictive bar menu options to increase check averages. Go to the August Issue.

The post Pizzeria of the Year | Mattenga’s Pizzeria! | Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

Hengam and Matthew Stanfield set out to work side-by-side to build a restaurant business and prioritize their family. A decade later, that business has grown tenfold into an impactful local restaurant chain in San Antonio, Texas. Mattenga’s Pizzeria – named by combining the couple’s first names – has taken many years of transformation and perseverance to fully encompass its vision.

Today, Mattenga’s Pizzeria comprises seven locations sprinkled throughout the San Antonio area, generating annual sales of over $7 million. Ranked one of San Antonio’s fastest growing businesses under $10 million by the San Antonio Business Journal, Mattenga’s Pizzeria also was a recipient of the 2024 Small Business of the Year honor by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

The expanding pizza company has hit its stride with a vision, culture and growth strategy to become a national model for independent pizzerias. Mattenga’s Pizzeria is Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year.

We traveled to San Antonio to experience the pizza company firsthand, dive deep into its innerworkings with Matthew and Hengam – and, of course, try the pizza.

How Mattenga’s Pizzeria started | Humble Beginnings

College sweethearts, Matthew and Hengam married during their junior year at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. After earning degrees in engineering, they both found themselves unsatisfied with their careers as their blossoming family grew. Hengam, born in Iran, and Matthew, a California native, yearned to find a place to work for themselves in hospitality and raise their family. Then came those infamous words, “Let’s go buy a restaurant,” Hengam says. “How hard could it be?”

After visiting several cities to potentially relocate, the couple packed up their home in New Mexico and moved to San Antonio to take over an existing pizzeria, not knowing it was deep in the red. Hengam reflects on their naiveté in understanding P&L and profitability. With no restaurant experience, the Stanfields faced the obstacles of rebounding a struggling business while learning the intricacies of a pizzeria operation.

“It helps to jump off a cliff and, you know, you either crash at the bottom or you build the plane,” Matthew says.

2025 Pizzeria of the Year Menu | Mattenga’s Pizzeria

Using Hengam’s father’s pizza dough recipe, Mattenga’s created a menu of New York-style pizza with a southwestern Texas twist. The light and thin pizzas are baked in conveyor ovens. Known for their creative specialty pizzas, the Honey Bexar (cup n’ char pepperoni, jalapeño peppers and a drizzle of hot honey), Big Matt (creamy beer cheese base, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, onions, ground beef, bacon, pickle relish and topped with Thousand Island dressing), the Triple P (Bacon, Pickle Chips and pineapple) and the Santa Fe (pepperoni, bacon and Hatch green chile) have become local favorite pies.

Unique items include the 10-inch filled dough Texas Roll and house-made sauces, such as jalapeno-cilantro ranch. Appetizers, chicken wings, pastas, calzones and desserts round out the menu. They also are currently testing a lunch buffet at a location in a medical district.

During the first few years, the couple – along with Hengam’s parents, who have been vital to Mattenga’s – focused intently on improving the business. They capitalized on their engineering mindset of problem-solving and analytical thinking to set up the framework for Mattenga’s later success. Their efforts began to pay off at their flagship location in Schertz, on the far northeast side of San Antonio. The Stanfields self-funded the opening of a second location on nearby O’Connor Road in 2018 by taking over an existing 800-square-foot pizzeria. Retrofitting existing restaurants and self-funding are growth strategies that would continue as Mattenga’s opened more locations.

Mattenga’s Pizzeria Among Fastest Growing Small Businesses in San Antonio | ‘Thinking Bigger’

Mattenga’s experienced a seismic shift in 2020. Like many restaurant owners, Hengam and Matthew considered throwing in the towel. The couple even listed their two restaurants and received an offer of more than a half-million dollars for the modest pizza business. “We went through this identity shift of, ‘What do we do if we sell?’” Hengam says, admitting that they would probably open another restaurant. “We already have this, and we’ve always wanted to be in the food industry. We are doing this together, and we already have something going. Clearly someone wants to pay money for it. We made a ‘why not sell list’ of 10.”

Then came a moment of clarity for the couple, with Hengam saying, “We are not selling, period. So, let’s commit and make this work. From there, we put our heads down and got laser focused on handling all of our frustrations. Why is this causing stress? What are we going to do to solve this issue? We weren’t running profitably then. We have to babysit our numbers. We don’t babysit our people, we babysit numbers. We got really meticulous about our engineering and building, and we grew our sales by 20 percent. We added locations and just going all in … our identity as business owners to think bigger.”

Thinking bigger also meant expanding out of their comfort zone of what a restaurant is. Ghost kitchens were popping up around the country in the early 2020s, so the Stanfields decided to test that market and add a ghost kitchen in 2021. They learned quickly that the ghost kitchen model wasn’t for them. “We had this mindset of, ‘Hey, if the rent is cheap, it’s low commitment’,” Hengam says of the endeavor.

The Stanfields aren’t afraid to test the waters in new areas – even if they become a learning experience. In 2024, they experimented with doing a kitchen takeover at a local bar.

While expensive lessons, Matthew and Hengam say they consider such experiments an education. “You fund your own education,” Hengam says. “It’s going to be like this graph of up and down, up and down, up and down. If you step back. ‘Oh, wow. Look at that – over the last three years, we’ve grown 117 percent.’”

Between February and June 2022, Mattenga’s opened three locations – including its second-busiest location in New Braunfels, a mostly carryout and delivery location with two outdoor tables – stretching farther from the San Antonio city center. Mattenga’s Pizzeria near SeaWorld also opened that year. In June, a Mattenga’s Pizzeria opened near San Antonio’s medical center district. During Pizza Today’s visit to the location, Matthew says, “This is 1,800 square feet here at the Callahan location. This seems to be a more ideal size.”

Mattenga’s experienced another growth spurt in 2024 with the Alamo Ranch and Wilderness Oaks locations.

So, what is the overall growth goal? “We want to get to 50 locations,” Hengam says. “We want to be San Antonio’s favorite restaurant, favorite pizzeria here in the city. We love San Antonio. The culture is great, family environment. We love it here, and so we want to continue to serve the city for years to come.”

Achieving such massive expansion, Hengam says, requires “Looking at how are we going to grow in the next three years differently. What got us here will not get us there. We’ve been gradually growing and with dirt under our nails – scrappy, grinding like.”

Matthew adds, “And self-funding, adding gray hair (for Hengam). The current plan is to grow with corporate stores versus, say, a franchise. … At this time, we want to keep it our own, our own brand under control. … We’ve done the second-generation spaces. I think the future is going to be our own space that’s built uniquely for us and being creative with the concept, and that fits with who we are as a brand.”

Getting to that level requires “obsessing over the numbers, the recipes,” Hengam says. “I think that has to constantly be the priority of fundamentals, of the best basics, consistency, systems and in standards, training, advancement. Those are all the building blocks that we’re layering.”

Hengam expands further: “That is the vision, and we’re going to figure out how the brand evolves, but we’re going to obsess over our customers. That will always be the basic and fundamentals for us: Texas hospitality; it’ll always be investing in our team. These will never change, at least. I feel these are just the fundamentals we’re continue to master and evolve as we go, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Mattenga’s formula for success is entrenched in the pages of its playbook and guides and affirmed through practice and training in the restaurants. “Our company values are Texas hospitality plus invest plus engineered equals 3x win,” Hengam says. “That is our math. We want to make sure 3x win is a customer wins, the team wins, company wins. All decisions need to be through that.”

Maattenga’s Pizzeria’s Values Center on Texas Hospitality

People are at the center of Mattenga’s Pizzeria. Even during Pizza Today’s interview with Matthew and Hengam, the couple and the team actively and warmly greeted every guest.

Customer engagement initiatives encapsulate Texas hospitality with a warm, welcoming presence and generosity. “I want to go deeper winning people’s hearts,” Hengam says. “You have to do that before you can win their wallets and some money. You have to win their hearts.”

Giving back and supporting the community is foundational at Mattenga’s as the company hosts fundraisers and Spirit Nights and donates hundreds of pizzas to local schools, nonprofits, churches, first responders and nurses. “Anytime we have a donation in town across the seven stores – it’s happening all the time – we share that. There’s a picture of it in the e-mail. You need to make your customers fall in love with you.”

Communication is key. “We send two texts and two e-mails a week,” Hengam says. That is a big contributor to our steady sales growth.” The consistent communication has several benefits. “Consistency builds trust, that we are a brand you can trust. We’re consistent, we’re there for you. Our ‘Feed the Family’, every Friday at 4 p.m. people will get a text.” Mattenga’s fans often comment that they can rely on their Friday text.

Even Mattenga’s rotating custom-designed pizza box bibs offer customers a fun and memorable interaction with the brand.

Investment in Employees at Forefront of Mattenga’s Pizzeria’s Company Values

Vital to Mattenga’s core values equation is expanding to a team of 100. Matthew and Hengam have created an employee culture and programs that encourage employee success and growth, while also giving them confidence in understanding the business.

Mattenga’s extensive playbook and guides set employees up for success, addressing scenarios they’ll face.

The Stanfields believe in the power of bringing the team together. They do so through three regular meetings. Engineered meetings drill down the numbers and operations. Invest meetings focus on the playbook one section at time, and managers then take the information back to their teams in duplication meetings with scripting and role playing.

Education is at the forefront at Mattenga’s. Managers also participate in a “Book of the Month” and present what they have learned. Some previous books include “Meetings Suck” and “The Toyota Way.” Initiatives like these help employees grow professionally outside of specific day-to-day Mattenga’s operations.

Mattenga’s Pizzeria Owners Apply Engineering to Pizza Business | Engineered

The Stanfields have applied Matthew’s civil engineering background and Hengam’s electrical engineering background to the restaurants. Business is math, Hengam says. Matthew controls the numbers, and the two have built transparency and a training vehicle to help their team grasp the numbers and how they impact each operation.

The pair has excelled at being a married couple as well as business partners. “I’ve got a fantastic wife, and we’ve got a clear vision for our family where we’re going,” Matthew says. “And so, because we have that direction, it’s easier when we have lost focus on the direction.” The two leverage their individual strengths to run the growing company. Hengam is drawn to marketing and customer relations, Matthew dives into budgets, building out new locations and he’s also known to fix equipment.

“Systems are freedom,” Hengam insists. With systems and talented and dedicated employees, Mattenga’s locations are well-oiled machines, enabling Matthew and Hengam to concentrate on growing the brand. With four children ranging from toddler to teenager, systems also have meant flexibility.

The Stanfields’ focus surrounds critical analysis. Each quarter, Matthew and Hengam evaluate areas of improvement with the team. “We’ve looked at strategic initiatives that are short term,” Hengam says. “Last quarter, we implemented a commissary at one of our locations. This next quarter, we’re focusing on adding, upgrading some of our tech. … Short term, it’s important to look at initiatives. We’re looking at AI stuff, some of our software.”

Roughly once a year, the Stanfields carve out specific time with no distractions to think about the business, just as they did during that pivotal moment in 2020. “It takes time to think deeply about your problems,” Hengam says. “Make that frustration list. How are we going to solve our issues? We have a lot of problems in our business, just like anybody else. How are we going to divide and conquer and move forward?”

Denise Greer is Executive Editor at Pizza Today.

Read the August 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

In this issue, we announce Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year. Find out how the owners turned a failing pizzeria purchase into a fast-growing pizza business. Learn how to make a sourdough starter. It’s Green Season! Green Chile, that is. Explore menu ideas that add New Mexican flavors to your pizza. Find out which strip mall locations work best for pizzerias – and how to maximize traffic. Discover why pizzerias are going with custom mobile apps to capture sales and return visits. Tap into addictive bar menu options to increase check averages. Go to the August Issue.

The post 2025 Pizzeria of the Year: Mattenga’s Pizzeria in San Antonio, Texas appeared first on Pizza Today.

I first met owner Eric Redfield (his wife, Amy, is his business partner but she prefers to stay out of the limelight and let Eric handle interviews) at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas several years ago. He had just sat in on an educational session, following a keynote, and introduced himself to me. Of course, I asked him all about his pizzeria, which had just gotten off the ground. He explained how it was a labor of love after being in a corporate job for many years. Eric was thoughtful, intelligent, inquisitive and, probably most importantly, determined. In short, he was impressive. I had no doubt his pizzeria was going to succeed.

Jeremy White, Editor in Chief, Pizza Today Magazine

I watched it from afar for a couple of years and then myself, Denise Greer and Josh Keown took the 90-minute drive from Louisville to Camporosso to check the place out. It was booming. Eric and Amy clearly had figured out the restaurant industry.

The food was outstanding, no doubt. But what captivated me even more was the staff and how Eric and Amy interacted with them. I remember Denise and I talking about how obvious it was that this couple CARED about their employees. I don’t mean in the token sense, either. They really cared and they showed it in numerous ways. In turn, the staff was as friendly, efficient and excellent as I’d ever seen.

Denise wrote a great article on Camporosso Pizzeria that we published in our April 2019 issue. At the time, the store was humming along with over $1.4 million in annual sales.

It has nearly doubled that in the past five years. Again, impressive … but what struck me even more is just how invested Eric and Amy are when it comes to their crew and community.

In the article beginning, we talk about their philanthropy. What did not make the article due to the information being embargoed until a later date when some plans that are currently in the works get finalized, is this: it’s only the beginning. In the future, Eric and Amy intend to give back to their local community in a BIG way. That’s all I can say for now, but we’ll cover it down the road when it happens.

Go to the feature and take a look at a pizza business that is not just on the top its game, but at restaurateurs that epitomize what it means to be selfless.

Congratulations to Eric and Amy Redfield and to Camporosso — our 2024 Pizzeria of the Year.

Best,

Jeremy White
Editor In Chief
jwhite@pizzatoday.com

The post Commentary: Pizzeria of the Year appeared first on Pizza Today.

Spirit of Giving

Our 2024 Pizzeria of the Year has impressive record of philanthropy

Eric Redfield sat inside the dining room of his pizzeria as our staff buzzed around snapping photos and taking video. A bit emotional from the big news Pizza Today had just bestowed upon his shop, he reflected on what our editors told him about being impressed by his record of giving back to his community in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. The night before, he and his wife, Amy — along with their staff — hosted a charity event to raise funding for cancer research. This is commonplace for the couple. Since the inception of their pizza-fueled labor of love, the Redfields have used their business profits to do extensive and lasting good in their community. It’s become more than a passion — it’s a mandate.

And that’s but one reason Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria has been named Pizza Today’s 2024 Pizzeria of the Year.

Three popular pizzas — Sopressata Hot Honey, Margherita and the Prosciutto and Fig — at Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Photo by Josh Keown.

The spirit of giving began on day one.

After a successful corporate career that spanned three decades, Eric and Amy decided to go all-in on this passion project and open their pizzeria. (Their origin story, as well as menu offerings, were detailed well by our very own Denise Greer when she visited Camporosso and wrote about the business back in 2019, so we’ll skip that here). The couple opened shop in an old building that had previously housed a garage for years and went to work building their dream. From the start, the focus was on making their restaurant the best place to work in Ft. Mitchell.

“Employee satisfaction is number one,” says Eric. “Everything else will follow after that. So, we were determined to create a great work environment with a dynamic culture. It’s fun.”

The Redfields knew they wanted to generate employee satisfaction through generosity. It’s hardwired into their ethos.

“It started when we first opened,” Eric recalls. “We offered group health and dental. We offer a matching 401K. We offer 100 percent of the first six percent that these employees contribute. I have 10 employees that are in the 401K program. Six of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever invested a dollar. And I have four people on our group health. It’s the first time two of them have ever had insurance. So that matters. That means something.

“We started with 15 employees. We have six that are still with us eight years later. Our running average since we’ve been open is 10-percent turnover per year. That’s unheard of. This doesn’t happen if I don’t have employees that stay and have a sense of purpose that they can grow here.”

During the COVID shutdown in 2020, the couple took things to new heights.

“For a period of time, Amy and I decided that we were going to give 100 percent of our profits to our employees. So that’s what we did: we gave 100 percent of our profits to our employees. We distributed about $60,000 to our employees over that period between what we gave and then, when the community found out, they started donating to it, too. It was really amazing to see.”

Photo Collage includes owners Eric and Amy Redfield, along with staff making pizzas at Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Photos by Josh Keown.

On our first visit to Camporosso, the dining room

— outfitted with a wood-burning oven to churn out Neapolitan pies — was responsible for the lion’s share of sales. While patrons may take leftovers home or sporadically call in a to-go order at that time, the focus was entirely on the dine-in experience.

“We didn’t even have a contract for pizza boxes,” Eric quips.

The pandemic changed that overnight, forcing the Redfields to navigate an unexpected new business landscape. That’s when a night-long planning session led to a migration to takeout. While the restaurant has since returned to its roots by focusing on providing a stellar dine-in experience, to-go orders have remained a permanent fixture that has helped grow revenue.

“I don’t think Neapolitan pizza travels well, but the community embraced it,” Eric says of the necessary buildout of to-go systems Camporosso put into place.

“I remember Amy and I saying, ‘We’re going to have to go to a takeout model.’ And we were dine-in only, so we didn’t have that model. We said, ‘How do we do this? How do we transition to takeout only and survive?’ We didn’t know what we were up against. Nobody did.

“But we figured it out and we reopened takeout only the very next day and never skipped a beat. And during the time that we were takeout only, I made a commitment as the owner to meet every customer that came and picked up food from us. I gave them a fist bump and I met every customer. And that really resonated with the community. And, in turn, we did not lay off one employee during the Covid shutdown.”

That dedication to literally meet every customer comes as no surprise once you get to know the Redfields a bit. It is who they are. And the result has been a tide of community support because people like supporting good people.

Camporosso’s Carryout Catapults the Business

The additional carryout revenue ultimately helped catapult Camporosso to a new level. Sales last year were well over $3 million out of one unit. Meanwhile, Eric and Amy astutely kept the momentum going once dine-in reopened by doubling down on staffing. They brought in a dedicated phone person to take carryout orders. They briefly — very briefly — added online ordering. But as orders poured in and taxed the kitchen staff, it was time to step back and focus on quality.

“We tried it for two hours,” Eric laughs. “It overwhelmed us and so we turned it off. My pizza chef came to me and said, ‘If I just fill the orders we have from online, and we base it on our turn time, we’ll be filling these orders until 2:30 in the morning.’

“They just kept coming. Plus, people were calling as well, so it was just too much. We’ll never go back to that. We get some negative social media comments about stepping into 2010 since it’s now 2024, but we’ll never do online ordering again. There’s only so much capacity we can do and keep the quality we want. And quality is very important to me.”

The open kitchen with views of the ovens is a showpiece of the dining experience at Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Photo by Josh Keown.

That mindset is also why Camporosso won’t grow to a second unit and beyond.

At this point in the Redfields’ careers, it’s not about ballooning the bank account. It’s about building up others around them.

“I hear it every day,” says Eric. “Venture capital approaches me all the time and says ‘You should add a store in Newport. You should put one in Louisville. You should franchise.’

“I will never, ever, ever be complacent and will continue to grow this business. We’re satisfied, but not complacent. But we love what we’re doing here in these four walls. It keeps me smiling and it keeps Amy smiling. We have a dynamic business that is rooted in our employees, in the customer experience, in the community and in our food. We are able to stay laser-focused on these four tenets. If we became too ambitious and looked to grow, we’d lose focus on that because I’m not there or Amy’s not there. We are happy with what we have and don’t need more.”

With 12 full-time employees and 50 total staff members, Camporosso clearly has become a foodservice employer of choice in Northern Kentucky. The business’ 2023 payroll exceeded $1 million.

“We didn’t do $1 million in revenue in our first year, and now our payroll is that,” says Eric. “We haven’t lost a full-time employee in four years, and we’re proud of that. We employ single moms, single dads, 20-year-olds. It’s so gratifying to see young people who have never heard of 401Ks tracking their investments on their phones and planning for their futures. I had a corporate job for 30 years and I can sit here and say I’ve never had a bad day in the restaurant. Never one bad day.”

Jeremy White is Editor-in-Chief of Pizza Today.

Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria Pizzeria of the Year honor receives national media attention

Since we announced Wood Fired Pizzeria, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky as our Pizza Today 2024 Pizzeria of the year, the designation has received a number of national media stories. Check out a few of the media outlets spotlighting 2024 Pizzeria of the Year Wood Fired Pizzeria, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky:

Cincinnati Enquirer: Pizza Today magazine names NKY spot Pizzeria of the Year

LINK NKY: Ft. Mitchell’s Camporosso named 2024 Pizzeria of the Year

Who are past recipients of Pizza Today’s Pizzeria of the Year?

Pizza Today, a leading B2B pizza industry publication, began the prestigious award many years ago go. Let’s look at the most recent recipients of Pizza Today’s Pizzeria of the Year:

2023 Pizzeria of the Year: Modern Apizza, New Haven, Connecticut

2022 Pizzeria of the Year: Tony’s Pizzeria Napoletana, San Francisco, CA

2021 Pizzeria of the Year: Razza, Jersey City, NJ

The post 2024 Pizzeria of the Year: Camporosso Wood Fired Pizzeria, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky appeared first on Pizza Today.

Modern Take

New Haven-style pizza has become synonymous as a best American pizza style. It’s not just pizza, it’s apizza pronounced “AH-BEETS”. One of New Haven, Connecticut’s ‘holy trinity” of the style resides away from the tourist capitol of Wooster Street, the birthplace of the apizza.

Sandwiched between the I-90 freeway and Yale University, Modern Apizza sits on State Street and has created its own cult following. The landmark pizzeria has been called the local’s favorite and the Boston Red Sox’ lucky charm.

Modern holds an intrinsic truth in pizza history. But it’s today’s Modern that has earned the famed restaurant Pizza Today’s coveted Pizzeria of the Year honor.

Pizza Today visited the acclaimed shop one weekday summer morning before the crowds lined its block. Greeted by a marquee awning displaying the Modern logo, it is flanked by “Traditional Brick Oven Apizza” and “Est. 1934”, it makes an impressive statement before you enter the restaurant. The long, dimly lit dining area is lined with booths leading to the counter at the end. A pass-through opening gives diners a peek into the original kitchen and original formerly cole-fueled oven. To the left is another dining area that features its historic menu board displaying prices from 1960. Photos and articles throughout the restaurant reveal key moments in its history.

Modern Apizza owner William “Billy” Pustari stretches dough.

Standing near the kitchen entrance is the man at the helm: William “Billy” Pustari, who took over the business in 1988. He ushered in a new era at Modern, right when New Haven apizza notoriety escalated. His mark will forever be ingrained into Modern’s history. With 45 years in the pizza business, Pustari says, “It was a labor of love. It’s all I know. It’s all I ever did. Never went to college. Restaurant U., that was it.”

Modern was founded in 1934 as Tony’s Apizza by Tony Tolli. The business changed hands to Louis Persano then to Nick Nuzzo, from whom Pustari purchased the pizzeria.

Pustari already owned a pizzeria in nearby Fairfield and was tipped off by his pizza box supplier that Nuzzo was ready to sell. After working in the business for 50 years and with the sudden loss of his son, Nuzzo was ready to pass the reins over to its next proprietor.

When asked if he had any reservations about taking over Modern, Pustari says, “No. Shoot from the hip.” He worked for Nuzzo, learning the ropes, during an eight-month transition, which brought in some much-needed consistency to the operation. As Pustari was being introduced to his new business, New Haven apizza saw a boom. Since Modern had already established itself as a major player in the style movement, Pustari was able to capitalize on the resurgence.

Modern Apizza Invests Back in the Business

In the early 1990s, Pustari set into motion renovations that would be a key driver to the volume Modern outputs today. First, he expanded the dining area to seat 130, added an additional oil-fired brick oven and makeline, as well as a prep kitchen. In the basement, he added a dough room that today outputs 250-pound batches of dough three times a day and converted an old wooden refrigerator into the store’s beer cooler.

Next, he tackled parking by purchasing and demolishing the neighboring fish market to create parking, a high commodity for a Northeaster urban restaurant.   

“We put everything back into this thing,” Pustari says. “We didn’t take the money and run. We threw every penny back into it. That whole side of the kitchen wasn’t there that we walked in on. The Back kitchen wasn’t there. The downstairs wasn’t there. We built all of that. We reinvested constantly.”

Pizza makers work together to make pizza at Modern Apizza in New Haven.

Streamlining Modern’s Systems

Pustari infused a laser focus on the restaurant’s systems. “What I brought was organization, just reorganizing it,” Pustari says. He created an assembly line process so efficient that he consulted with Sbarro to teach the chain how he does it. “I really enjoy that assembly line process of getting the product from here to there,” he says.

Modern sells up to 1,100 pizzas a day on the weekend, so the operation must be running at its most efficient.

Systems had to be dialed in. “It’s flowed as the business got busier because you have to gear up to what you are doing,” he says. “In the past when it wasn’t that busy, you could get away with all this stuff but you’re trying to do the volume that we do here it’s impossible. You must be well-oiled machine.”

The two-makeline setup consists of a dough opener, dresser, oven cook and cutter. You can even find pizza makers tag teaming a pizza to get it topped quickly. “Everyone knows what their job is,” he says. “You don’t have to be told. It just works. I try to explain this to people. They’ll look out there and see a line down the street and say ‘gosh, that’s got to be chaos.’ They come in my kitchen and it’s just like this (a quiet calm).”

The system is fluid and Pustari is always looking for ways to improve it. He insists, “It just happens naturally to me like people are naturally gifted at different things.”

The system depends on Modern’s 62 employees. He’s quick to credit the business’s success on his tight-knit crew. Many of the staffers have been at his restaurant for decades, a testament to the culture Pustari has created, a quiet and calm culture led by example. “If you make it here, if you start working and you’re one of us kind of, you fit in, you never leave,” he says.

There is no shouting or cursing in the kitchen, Pustari says. In fact, as the kitchen received phone orders for 27, 19 and 12 pies in a row, the crew was calm and focused on their tasks. It’s a family affair as his wife folds boxes with the team, while the father and son duo work the makeline and oven.

Modern Apizza’s Product Evolution

Modern still specializes in its charred, chewy yet crispy texture that it was founded on. The apizza was born from its meticulous dough, made from a natural mother starter and its 24-hour cold ferment.

Pustari says not much has changed on the menu since he’s taken over. Modern churns out traditional apizza from its oil-fueled brick oven. The Italian Bomb with bacon, sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, onion, pepper and garlic is still a favorite, as well as the Clams Casino with bacon and peppers.

The menu is streamlined, offering appetizers including salads and its famous garlic bread; apizza and calzones.

Where changes have been made are with the products. “Ingredients have changed from 35 years ago, just buying better products.” Pustari is proud of the  local sausage he sources, which is hand-pinched on every pie. “They bring it every day,” he says. “They call us early in the morning. We tell them how many pounds we want, and they grind it, make it and bring it over.” He would rather do business with products right down the street. Rather than dealing with the large soda companies, he opted to stock a local soda.

The beer menu also features local breweries. He even took it a step further and started collaborating with New England breweries as far back as the early 1990s to do limited edition beers only sold at the restaurant. “We did a Modern Lager, a classic Lager,” he says. “This past Monday, we made an Italian Pilsner with a brewery called Counter Weight. That is the first one I’ve done with them. So, we go down to the brewery and add in all the hops and add in all the grains and transfer it from tank to tank and spend the whole day so it’s a lot of fun. We sell them in 4-packs. This year, we’re doing a 4-pack with a t-shirt as a package. The last time we launched it, we sold 40 half barrels of the beer within two months.”

With the house beer and 10 taps combined with an assortment of wine, alcohol is six percent of its sales. “We go through beer like a bar does,” he says.

Modern Apizza Maintains its Community Reputation

While Modern has an ever increasing stream of tourists flocking to try the apizza, it’s known as the locals’ spot, something that Pustari strives to maintain. He puts his emphasis on the New Haven community. “We’ve done fundraisers for all the local cops,” he says. “Someone gets hurt, injured, you know, we jump on board on it. Fire department eat here every Friday from all the different houses in New Haven and if they need something, they have a tragedy, or something happened, we jump in on it.”

With a busy phone system, locals have also cracked the code to miss the tourist lines. “All the locals, all the people that know me, they all do that.”

Modern’s growth is only limited by time and space. The restaurant draws $5 million in annual sales without delivery or use of third-party services.

Even with all the renovations and systems in place, Pustari says they’ve reached maxed capacity. “Demand especially on the weekend is probably five times than what we do,” he says. “We could probably sell 5,000 pizzas a night if we had the capability of it.”

Pustari and his team focus on optimizing what they can with the set number of hours and 2,800 square feet.

“We’re really good at retaining our clientele. We are really, really good and there’s a big face on it. It’s my face on it all the time and that’s why I don’t try to bastardize it.”

Pustari is constantly asked about opening more locations and new ventures, but his resolve is strong. “It’s not my thing,” he says. “I’d rather just have it nice, mellow and easygoing; you know. I love the restaurant business. I’m a social person. I can’t do office work. I can’t sit down, I can’t write. I can’t spell but I can cook and that’s what I like to do.”

Denise Greer is Executive Editor at Pizza Today.

New Haven Apizza

Pizza Today overs coverage of common pizza styles in the U.S. New Haven apizza is a favorite American pizza style that has expanded beyond New Haven to cities across the country. Explore more on New Haven-style Pizza:

What is New Haven apizza?

Take a New Haven Pizza Tour with Pizza Today. 

Check out how New Haven style pizza has fared nationally in our Guide to the 2023 National “Best Pizzas” Lists

Learn more about Apizza in an in depth interview Frank Zabski on The Hot Slice Podcast. Frank operates the New Haven Pizza School.

Modern Apizza Pizzeria of the Year receives national media attention

Since we announced Modern Apizza as our Pizza Today 2023 Pizzeria of the year, the designation has received a number of national media stories. Check out a few of the media outlets spotlighting 2023 Pizzeria of the Year Modern Apizza:

Food & Wine: This Pizza Joint Was Just Named Pizzeria of the Year, and No, It’s Not in New York or Chicago

Patch: Pizza Today ‘Zine Names Modern Apizza Eatery Best Pizzeria For 2023

Eat This, Not That!: This Is America’s Pizzeria of the Year for 2023

Parade: The Pizzeria of the Year Was Just Named—And It’s Not What You Expect

The post 2023 Pizzeria of the Year: Modern Apizza, New Haven, Connecticut appeared first on Pizza Today.

The famed Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco’s North Beach has reached new heights with record-breaking sales of over $1 million a month. The blockbuster sales and Tony’s unwavering reputation as one of the world’s best pizzerias have earned Tony’s Pizza Napoletana the coveted Pizzeria of the Year 2022 honor by Pizza Today.

Learn more about the pizzeria concept from owner and pizzeria industry icon Tony Gemignani as Pizza Today gives you an inside look into Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.

Watch now:

Read the full feature:

2022 Pizzeria of the Year: Tony’s Pizzeria Napoletana, San Francisco, CA

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Approaching 1570 Stockton Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco at lunchtime, a line of eager diners stretches for a half  block. At the corner resides a thriving legend in pizza history, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. Everyone on that block knew they were partaking in something special. 

Tony’s Pizza Napoletana is a melting pot of pizza styles. The pizzeria excels at an array of them, including Classic American, Classic Italian, Pizza Napoletana, California, Pizza Romano, New York, Grandma, Sicilian, Detroit, Coal-fired, St. Louis and gluten-free. With a full menu, Tony’s applies the same “respect the craft” approach to everything served, from the giant meatball app to house-made pastas, desserts and a comprehensive beverage program. 

“I always said I want to make it an institution,” says owner Tony Gemignani. “There is only one. I always felt like Tony’s could be the best pizza in the U.S. It could be the best pizzeria in the world. Tony’s is like what’s your favorite spot in Detroit and New Haven and New York and St. Louis and let’s all have it in one place.”

Tony’s has experienced a renaissance that has catapulted the famed pizzeria into uncharted territory: one-million-dollar net sales a month. It’s an unfathomable number for even the highest volume of pizzeria. 

Pizzeria of Year Proud Sponsors

The blockbuster sales and Tony’s unwavering reputation as one of the world’s best pizzerias have earned Tony’s Pizza Napoletana the coveted Pizzeria of the Year 2022 honor by Pizza Today.

To grasp the steps Tony took to reach unprecedented sales, especially amidst a volatile business environment, let’s look at Tony’s in its infancy.

Today, Tony Gemignani is at the pinnacle of his 31-year pizza career. He is the chef and owner of more than 30 restaurants and a school. The 13-time World Pizza Champion’s name has become synonymous with pizza making. He has taught some of the industry’s brightest operators and pizza makers. Today’s pizzeria community looks to him as an industry thought leader. It’s easy to forget that Tony’s ascension was gradual and filled with obstacles and those who doubted his vision. But he never did. “Tony’s is the first concept that had multiple ovens and styles,” Gemignani says. “Everybody said ‘why’? Everything has always been ‘what are you doing that for’? Nobody got it other than my wife.”

He spent several years traveling and researching the pizza styles, processes and ingredients that put Tony’s on the map globally. In the mid-90s, he couldn’t simply Google how to create so many styles. Traveling to pizza cities, he immersed himself into every facet of a given style. He also went city to city to experience Italian festivals and soak up every pizza industry-related event. “Before it was Google, before you could just YouTube it, you had to be out there and I always say, it’s the experience of going to Detroit and going to Buddy’s and going to Naples and trying Enzo’s. There is that feel or understanding of it.”

The industry was very different then. Operators held their secrets closer than they do today. Learning a new style was time-consuming. He spent a decade bringing the concept vision to fruition. “There was a lot of sourcing, not only importing ingredients, it was sourcing ingredients that were regional ingredients from America that nobody could get,” he says. “So, there was a lot into Tony’s that took a lot of research, time and being on the road all those years at the conventions and pizza and Italian festivals.”

Tony gained experience and acclaim at his brother’s pizzeria, Pyzano’s Pizzeria in Castro Valley. But Tony wanted to chart a course of his own making. He found partners and just after the economic recession of 2008, Tony found a quiet Bay Area neighborhood that had yet to be revitalized. Vacant storefronts were plentiful in North Beach. Honing in on the Little Italy neighborhood, Tony had his pick of buildings. But as he eyed the corner of Stockton and Union, even his broker warned him that it was a cursed corner. Tony instead followed his due diligence on the block’s history. “For 90 years it was like three places,” Tony says. “After that, it was three to four places in two and a half years.”

Tony’s Pizza Napoletana opened as a full-service pizzeria in 2009 with raving success. Right away Tony saw a void in convenience, pick-up and delivery in his fine-dining pizzeria and wanted to take over the neighboring storefront. Within eight months Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza & Slice House opened under the same business license.

With the combination of fine dining and a counter-service slice house, Tony’s was designed to hit high sales figures and its rise began gradually.

“Celebrating the first $1 million, it took a lot and then to get to $1.2 and to do a $5,000 night, those were exciting times,” Gemignani says. “Before she was my wife, my girlfriend sitting on the counter and me writing out checks. I don’t want people to think that I was never there. Or you could be there, and it could be gone one day. You never know what could happen. 

“Then you say ‘wow, how can you do a million-dollar month?’  he says. “A million dollars a year you’re always trying to achieve that and then the $2 million restaurant. But with Tony’s the goal was $10 million a year honestly. As we started to go, I would always dream about ‘wow, I could do $10 million’ and now it’s like ‘can you actually do $12 million’ and during a really unstable and interesting time?”

Fast forward, it’s the end of 2019 and Tony’s Pizza Napoletana capped the year with $9.1 million in sales and he anticipated reaching that $10 million mark in 2020 for the first time in its history.

Tony was also eager to be a sole proprietor of his namesake business. He had already bought out one partner and in February 2020 Tony bought out the second partner. “I got the biggest SBA loan I’ve ever gotten, the biggest loan I’ve ever gotten,” he says. “I had never gotten an SBA loan. I had only gotten a home loan. I’ve been able to get private equity. Maybe two weeks after the documents were done and we signed everything, COVID hit.”

The bottom fell out. The COVID-19 Pandemic obliterated San Francisco’s once thriving restaurant industry. The initial blow to Tony’s was devastating, a 56-percent decline in business during that second quarter. 

Tony stepped into the forefront on Pizza Today’s The Hot Slice Podcast and Checking In With series offering other operators the realities of COVID-19 in one of the country’s largest metropolitan cities and the actions he was taking to rebound. Some of those steps triggered the immense growth Tony’s experienced in 2021 and 2022.

But survival was paramount at Tony’s in 2020. The team got creative and innovative to maintain during the grim time, instituting such initiatives as Wine for a Dime, frozen pizzas, take and bake pizza, family specials pizza kits, pizza valet, Easter egg coloring packages, cocktails to-go, and 10 percent customer loyalty pens.

They also took a hard look at the operations, making decisions to decrease menu options and offer better online ordering. They restructured the Slice House kitchen and streamlined to-go and the third-party/pick-up window directly on the sidewalk.

Tony’s had used parklet prior to COVID-19, so as soon as the city approved the outdoor seating, Tony went all in. “I invested in the parklets on both sides of the restaurant with lighting and heaters,” he says. “It was a big investment.” The parklets were completed in phases with roofing added for colder months. The parklets created an additional 100 seats for the busy restaurant. While indoor dining was closed, the parklets, carryout and delivery flourished. 

The initiatives helped stem the damage and triggered a comeback. The efficiencies and parklets sparked Tony and his team to think forward. “What happens when it comes back? During COVID, you didn’t have both open at the same time. So, I’m going to my GM Natale, ‘how are we going to handle it? We could barely handle it at $9.1 and we’re hoping we can get to $10. I remember when we hit $9 and I was like what happens when we hit $11? We don’t have enough refrigeration. We don’t have enough room.” 

As Tony staged a comeback, he was experiencing one of his toughest times personally with the loss of his mother, who always pushed him to do what makes him happy. He also faced his own mortality after serious illness and surgery, giving him new perspective on his living legacy. 

Tony took the gamble and reinvested in his concept and created a concrete strategy to handle the sheer volume that he anticipated for Tony’s. 

In 2019, Tony had started the process of opening a bakery that would also act as a commissary for dough production for Tony’s, as well as other brands. Delayed by COVID-19, Toscano Brothers opened around the corner from Tony’s in May 2021, moving all dough production (mixers and equipment) from Tony’s to the bakery. It doubled walk-in refrigeration and freezer capacity for dough and frozen pizzas — approximately 70 percent more dough for pizza. It also shifted 25 percent of the inventory from Tony’s to the bakery, which now housed flour, semolina, yeast, oil, malt and other dough-making supplies for Tony’s seven dough recipes. 

The bakery also provided revenue generation through breads such as sourdough baguettes, artisan batards and boulé then cross utilized them for menu items at Tony’s like garlic bread, bruschetta, crostini and sour cherry and chocolate caramel bread pudding. Bagels and pastries added extra income.

Using the bakery as a commissary helped free up much needed space at Tony’s. The sauté and fryer lines were expanded to double the space and new equipment was purchased. A double stack gas brick oven was replaced by a triple stack electric deck oven.

With dough being made at the bakery, the prep, refrigeration and storage areas at Tony’s were poised to tackle more products.  

The kitchen areas in Tony’s and the Slice House are compact, something you wouldn’t expect for a million-dollar-a-month business. However, “It’s tiny, right?” Tony says. “Everyone knows their stations. They are good at what they do. They’re great pizza makers.”   

Approximately 100 employees staff Tony’s and the Slice House. A seasoned and tested team has been vital to Tony’s success. “Robvell, JP, Stephanie, Mario, Juan, there are a lot that have been with us since the beginning.”

Retaining his team has been key in a tough labor market. “A big part of it is I try to lead by example,” Tony says. “So, I am in the kitchen still. I think that’s pretty important that employees see you working. I’m able to do that. Pay is important. Treat them right is important.”

Tony takes a sports team dynamic approach with his crew and hiring. “It’s a game every night. You have to be better at something. I’ve been pretty fortunate enough to keep some really great core employees. I think the core is important. The infrastructure is important. You can always get people to leave and come but it’s that GM, that chef, wine director, lead bartenders, lead servers.”

Another key factor in the concept is creative marketing, often unorthodox campaigns. While Tony’s currently does not use a marketing or PR agency, the pizzeria is able to drive traffic with fresh stories that keep Tony’s top of mind in the community and beyond. During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Tony put a special pizza on its menu for a month to help raise funds for two badminton players to advance in the sport. A teen badminton champ himself, Tony even challenged the rising stars to a friendly match and taught them how to make pizza. It garnered media attention and generated funds for the athletes. 

Cause marketing is close to Tony’s heart with three major charities: George Mark Children’s House, Family House, and SF Marin Food Bank, as well as regular pizza donations to St Vincent de Paul. 

To grab attention, Tony has collaborated with artists to create custom, limited-edition pizzas and boxes with Ed Hardy and renowned artist and North Beach neighbor Jeremy Fish.

Tony is all about creating buzzworthy marketing. He is currently collaborating with Fish on a creative project with a local cannabis dispensary. Tony has created an out-of-the-box slice/cannabis pairing. “We do millionaire’s bacon, it has basil and tomatoes,” Tony says. “I do it in the wood-fired oven.” The pizza goes into Fish’s custom-designed box. “You bring that box up to the dispensary, you have a Tony’s preroll called the ‘Pizza Joint,’” he says. “It has notes of the basil and the tomato and that earthiness and smokiness of course of that pizza. So, it’s kind of cannabis world, pizza world and artist.” 

Tony says when you’re up against pizza companies with million-dollar ad and marketing budgets you must find ways to stand out from the crowd. 

At the end of the day, it’s the personal connection. “When you have a personal connection with your restaurant and a personal connection to your customers and the food and what it’s like…those moments of purity are important to share,” he says. “Tony’s has always been about that. I have a story about every single pizza that lands on that table or the flour or the oven it came out of.”

DENISE GREER is Executive Editor at Pizza Today.

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New Jersey operator takes a risk, turns Razza into our Pizzeria of the Year

When Dan Richer’s first pizzeria was booming and his upstart second pizzeria struggling, up for sale and on the brink of closure, he did the exact opposite of what one might expect. And that gamble paid off hugely in the long run.

The road to get here after making that fateful decision may not have been easy, but the result is an even bigger success story than the original — and some serious bragging rights, to boot. Razza, Richer’s Jersey City, New Jersey-based operation, is our 2021 Pizzeria of the Year.

But before we get to that, let’s return to the beginning.

Dan Richer, owner, Razza, Jersey City, NJ

“I owned a pizzeria in the Jersey suburbs for 10 years,” Richer says. “It was thriving. So in 2012 I decided to open a second.”

Though his first operation had a different name, Richer called the new pizzeria Razza. He set up shop in Jersey City and went with a new dough formulation that altered the end product. It was a massive leap forward, in what he hoped would be an up-and-coming neighborhood in a diverse city. And it was failing.

“You can’t be two places at once,” Richer explains. “I was trying to go back and forth between both. I had two different teams that I was trying to lead, and my focus was split and I didn’t really feel like I was a part of either team.”

After a few years of running himself into the ground and seeing that Razza was about to go on life support, Richer took his gamble.

“I actually had the pizzeria up for sale,” he explains. The plan to download Razza and focus on his profitable first store made so much sense. “And I got an offer. I was all set to take it. And then I said, ‘Nope. I’m not ready to go. I believe in Jersey City, and I believe in Razza and I want to see it through and wanted to make it successful.’ So in 2015 I sold my first pizzeria and poured myself into Razza.”

You read that correctly. Richer sold a busy, established, money-making pizzeria to focus on one that had struggled to gain footing in a neighborhood that hadn’t yet come into its own.

“We were having a tough time getting guests in the door,” Richer admits. “We only had 44 seats at that time. And if you aren’t filling 44 seats with pizza, something has to be wrong. I think that the neighborhood was trying to support us. And they did to a degree — we stayed open. But people weren’t coming in during the winters. And nine years ago there weren’t as many people living in Jersey City. I never thought we’d make it 10 years. Jersey City was a different place when we started. If we opened any earlier I don’t think we would have made it.”

Pepperoni Pizza, Razza, Jersey City, New Jersey

The gamechanger proved to be a matter of presence. There’s a saying that the best ability is availability. Once Richer could devote all his energy to Razza, things clicked.

“As soon as I made that decision not to sell it and instead to sell the successful restaurant … I went all in at that moment. And I was so much happier because I became a part of the team here,” he says. “I wasn’t in this in-between place anymore. I realized that this was my happy spot — knowing my staff, knowing our guests and being a part of their lives, being part of my team and leading my team. That was success to me. I like my hands in the dough in certain parts of the day and teaching my staff and for them to grow as individuals and pizza makers and bread bakers.”

It wasn’t long before people noticed Razza.

“Six months later the New York Times came in and gave us a three-star review,” Richer says.

And then Jersey City itself began to grow.

“The local government has stepped up big-time,” says Richer. “They’re bringing in so much good stuff to Jersey City. Things that are out of my control have led to people discovering how great Jersey City is. It’s one of the most diverse places in the country, both economically and culturally. There are so many wonderful restaurants here. And we’re eight minutes from Manhattan. We have great public transportation, fantastic views of Manhattan and great architecture. We’re 15 minutes from Newark airport. The bones have always been here. It’s a very special place.”

Richer was 26 when he bought his first pizzeria. Though the product he developed and ultimately sold was good, Razza represented an evolution. The pizza there was similar, but on its own path. With the ability to tinker and an ever-curious mind, Richer dedicated himself to continual improvement.

“When I first started making pizza I had really bad technique,” he says. “I had no real knowledge of fermentation. I learned on the fly and taught myself.”

Richer knew the key was a living dough that he could ultimately manipulate by taking one variable at a time — temperature, time, ingredients, etc. — and making changes until he hit on something. His interest in fermentation grew, which led him into bread baking as well as pizza.

“The more I learned, the more I wanted to continue learning and pushing myself and my bread,” he says. “Ultimately, pizza is a variety of condiments on top of bread. If I wanted to evolve, I figured out that I had to understand bread and first make the best bread I possibly could. Only then could my pizza evolve as well.”

Again, he went all in. This time by taking on an adjacent space that recently came available, allowing him to increase his restaurant’s capacity. Construction on the expansion is underway now, and Richer hopes early next month he’ll be open for guests in the new dining room. The addition won’t just seat patrons, but also includes a bar, more kitchen space and a dedicated dough room.

“We’ll be able to better control variables in that room,” he says. “We’ve got water lines dialed in to the exact temperature we want, we’ll control the air temperature in there to what we want. It’s going to make such a difference to our consistency and our ability to put out the pizza dough we want to put out.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic halted dine-in at Razza, the staff quickly transformed the original space into a to-go-focused concept. Though sidewalk seating helped get the business through the warm months, Richer says Razza will notice a spike once the new dine-in space opens.

“We totally had to alter our model,” he says of the pandemic’s impact. “Where there used to be dine-in tables and bar seats, now there are piles of boxes and to-go plates, napkins, plastic forks. Everything changed. Being able to seat guests and serve guests inside again this winter is going to be huge. Our winters are pretty cold here and it won’t be long before we can’t really seat anyone on the sidewalk. The roller-coaster ride we’ve been on with sales spiking and dipping based on weather has taken a toll. It’s going to mean a lot getting the new dining room open.”

Whether the new space results in a menu change remains to be seen. Razza offers a weekly pasta, fresh bread with homemade butter, meatballs and occasional sandwich items, though the focus during the pandemic has been the pizza.

“We had really been getting into pasta,” Richer says. “We were doing a lot of pasta. But then I realized it was just too much at that time and our focus needed to be on our core product, which is the pizza. We scaled down the menu and did what we needed to do to serve our customers the best pizza we can during all of this. But it’s fun to grow the menu and to experiment, so I’m sure we’ll do some pretty fun stuff once we can.”

JEREMY WHITE  is the Editor-in-Chief of Pizza Today.

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