THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
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It’s easy to be the ‘advocate of the independent pizzeria.’
You already do the hard part.
LEADERSHIP FROM BEHIND
Founded in 2013 by brothers Steve and Jim DaPolito, Bisonte Pizza Co. has grown to three locations in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Bisonte” means “buffalo” in Italian, reflecting the DaPolitos’ hometown roots, and their branding draws a passionate Buffalo Bills fanbase. But it’s their management style, which Steve calls “leadership from behind,” that caught PMQ’s attention. They run classes based on How to Win Friends and Influence People, explaining how to deliver constructive criticism in a way that encourages learning and improvement without breeding resentment. The DaPolitos cross-train managers on every job in the restaurant and give them less busywork. Instead, they’re out on the floor, checking on guests and supporting employees. “The thing Jim and I learned to do was lead people without authority,” Steve says. “So it’s not that I have the authority to lead you. It’s that if I treat you properly, with respect, and I have a knowledge base that I can share with you in a way that you welcome it, then…I’m a leader, right? So we teach that form of leadership to our people: how to be leaders. And when they achieve certain benchmarks, they’re promoted to manager, and their peers are like, ‘Yeah, it’s about time!’”
ELEVATING THE BUSINESS OF PIZZA
CONTENT
EDITOR IN CHIEF Rick Hynum rhynum@wtwhmedia.com
SENIOR EDITOR Charlie Pogacar cpogacar@wtwhmedia.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tracy Morin tmorin@wtwhmedia.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR/USPT COORDINATOR Brian Hernandez bhernandez@wtwhmedia.com
VP, ASSOCIATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Allison Dean adean@wtwhmedia.com
VP, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Danny Klein dklein@wtwhmedia.com
ART & PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTOR Eric Summers esummers@wtwhmedia.com
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Tory Bartelt tbartelt@wtwhmedia.com
DIGITAL PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Blake Harris bharris@wtwhmedia.com
A Publication of WTWH Media, LLC 662-234-5481
Volume 29, Issue 3 April 2025 ISSN 1937-5263
CONTENT STUDIO
VICE PRESIDENT Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER Ya’el McCloud ymccloud@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER
Abby Winterburn awinterburn@wtwhmedia.com
SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
VP, SALES
Lindsay Buck lbuck@wtwhmedia.com
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER
Tom Boyles tboyles@wtwhmedia.com
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Mike Weinreich mweinreich@wtwhmedia.com
VP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Eugene Drezner edrezner@wtwhmedia.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE
Brandy Pinion bpinion@wtwhmedia.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE
Tracy Doubts tdoubts@wtwhmedia.com
FOUNDER
Steve Green
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PMQ PIZZA Issue 3 April 2025 (ISSN 1937-5263) is published monthly in January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Ave #2600, Cleveland, OH 44114-2560.
Periodical postage pricing paid at Cleveland, OH. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PMQ PIZZA, 1111 Superior Ave #2600, Cleveland, OH 44114-2560.
Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own and not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ PIZZA may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.
BISONTE PIZZA CO.
16
Recipe of the Month:
Galbani Premio & Peppadew Pizza
Created by Donatella Arpaia, this flavorful pie features an ingredient that has seen a 41% increase in menu penetration over the past four years.
28 15 Brands to Watch
Hard work, passion and marketing savvy are must-haves for launching a remarkable pizza brand. These operators have all that in spades.
38 Rising in the Ranks
To retain top-notch employees, creating a path to success—and, preferably, a career—is essential. Here’s how three successful operators do exactly that.
44 When in Rome
Roman-style pizza has its challenges, but the painstaking, multiday process yields a flavor that’s unforgettable—and well worth the extra effort.
48 From Dough to Dominance: The Trupiano Family Saga
For this three-generation powerhouse, pizza competitions are a family sport, but their mutual love and camaraderie shine through in every slice.
The Road Less Traveled
From culinary brilliance to marketing, operations and culture, Dana Hokin and Robert Garvey have built an exemplary 50 Top Pizza-acclaimed restaurant at Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. in Chicago.
By RICK HYNUM
COVER PHOTO BY JORGE GERA
JORGE GERA
Polly-o mozzarella is the best part of the pizza
Developed specifically for New York style pizza, our new loaf is the perfect combination of quality and convenience. With a superior melt, stretch and browning, this formula is full of flavor with less residual oil.
CHEESE, Made in New York since 1899
email info@polly-o.com to request samples
CIRCLING THE SQUARE
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS 79-YEAR HISTORY, Buddy’s Pizza, the brand that gave Detroit-style pizza to a grateful world, has circled the square—pretty much literally. Starting on February 17, two Buddy’s locations in Grand Rapids and Portage, Michigan, began testing round pies on the menu. According to Buddy’s CEO Joe Dominiak, it’s all about adapting to change and meeting customer demand for something a little less angular, even as pizza lovers keep going crazy for Detroit-style squares in other cities across the U.S. “Pizza should make people happy, and we were hearing and seeing in the feedback from
our customers in West Michigan—many of whom may not have grown up with our square pizza—that they would enjoy more style options, sizes and price points in their pizza experience with us,” Dominiak said. Just like Buddy’s famous squares, the round pies, available in 10” and 14” sizes, feature Buddy’s signature sauce, threecheese blend and Sicilian spices. “To grow successfully… beyond Detroit, we’re going to have to try some new things and embrace some changes, all for the better,” Dominiak noted.
BUDDY’S PIZZA
Not all Buddy’s Pizza customers think square is fair, so the Detroit-style brand started testing round pies at two West Michigan locations in February.
SCRATCHING TOM HOLLAND’S ITCH
Spiderman hasn’t been spotted at any of Emmy Squared Pizza’s 30 locations—which is a good thing, because the Green Goblin would just show up and wreck the place—but actor Tom Holland’s non-alcoholic beer is a different story. The Detroit-style pizza company, founded by Emily and Matthew Hyland in Brooklyn and now headquartered in Nashville, teamed up with BERO, Holland’s brand, for the Perfect Pairings promotion in February. Prior to the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day, Emmy Squared started offering a trio of pairings at its stores and via nationwide shipping as at-home meal kits. Options included two Detroit-style pies paired with BERO Kingston Golden Pils; four Le Big Matt Burgers with BERO Edge Hill Hazy IPA; and one pizza plus two Le Big Matt Burgers matched with BERO Noon Wheat. Holland created BERO after swearing off alcohol several years ago. “I got sober, and I was looking for something that would scratch the itch,” Holland told TMZ in February. “I couldn’t quite find what I was looking for, so I thought I would start my own.” He said the Edge Hill Hazy IPA is his favorite. Sergio Perez, Emmy Squared’s head of marketing, said the brand is “passionate about crafting unforgettable dining experiences,” adding, “Partnering with BERO allows us to bring our innovative creations to even more people.”
MAKING THE CELLO COOL AGAIN
When most people think of the cello, Bach and Beethoven likely spring to mind. But with renowned celloist Dan Radin taking up residency every Thursday night at Toss Pizzeria & Pub’s South 1st Street location in Austin, Texas, the playlist is a lot more current: Think Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Aretha Franklin and John Mayer. Radin has backed up contestants on The Voice and opened for Grammy and Tony Award winners. A multi-instrumentalist, he sings as he plays and even writes his own pop-rock tunes. He kicked off his residency at the pizzeria with a free show, dubbed “Love at First Toss,” on February 13, which included, of course, heartshaped pizzas, heart-shaped pepperoni-stuffed pretzels, and a Valentine’s Day cocktail, the Cupid’s Kiss Frozen Margherita. Managing partner Justin DeLaCruz opened Toss Pizzeria & Pub in July 2017, plating New York-style pies, and followed up with a second location in August 2019. Events like Trivia Tuesdays and Name That Tune Bingo keep the joint hopping, while DeLaCruz slowed the action—and heart rates—down last spring for Motivational May, featuring experts in yoga and breathwork.
Emmy Squared paired its Detroit-style pizzas and Le Big Matt burgers with a trio of brews from actor Tom Holland’s brand, BERO, in February.
Celloist Dan Radin (left), shown here with Justin DeLaCruz, sings and performs pop-rock hits by Lady Gaga, Coldplay and other artists every Thursday night at Toss Pizzeria & Pub.
IP Phone Service
Increase revenue and lower cost
• No Busy Signals
• Call Recording
• Call Queuing / Auto Answering
• Multiple (random) start of call upsell messages
• On hold music/message loops
• Detailed reports—hold times, lost calls etc
• Callerid delivered to POS system
• Auto attendants— ”If you have arrived for curbside pickup press one ”
Cellular Backup Internet
Protect against outages
• When your Internet fails our cellular backup router keeps your phones, credit card processing and web orders all working.
• The backup kicks in automatically in seconds. So quickly you will not even drop calls in progress when your primary Internet goes down!
• The same router can be used to create chain wide virtual private network to connect your locations.
• SD WAN LTE/LTE A (4G/5G) modems.
On the PBX
“Press one to receive a text message with links to our onlne ordering ”.
SMS Marketing
Manage bulk text message marketing from our system to drive increased revenue. As low as $0.01 per message. Group text messaging to communicate with your employees (drivers, bartenders, all staff etc).
Price for this service varies based on type of message & volume.
• We apply volume discounts across entire chain, so individual location owners benefit from total chain volume.
As low as $0.01 per message for high volume customers!
Use your Existing Phone Number to send messages!
• Either through direct integration to your POS system, or by exporting lists from the POS to import into our platform, you can schedule & manage outbound text message marketing to increase revenue.
We are fully compliant with CITA/FCC regulations!
Text messages have up to 95% open rate within minutes: push online orders, drive additional revenue, & send upsell messages!
EXAMPLE OF HOW IT WORKS:
1) Send a X Dollars off coupon message to customers who’s last order was more than 90 days ago, with the goal of “re activating” those customers.
2) Send an “upsell” coupon for add on items to more active customers
3) Automated campaign to send a few hundred messages per day, with the goal of adding 10+ additional orders per day. Messages can be coupons, but you can also get great traction with messages such as “Happy Monday. Did you know you are allowed to eat pizza on Monday?” followed by your online ordering link.
GALBANI® PREMIO & PEPPADEW PIZZA
Ingredients
• 16 oz. Pizza dough
• 1½ cups Galbani® Premio Mozzarella, shredded
• 1 cup of Galbani® Gorgonzola Crumbles
• 1 cup Peppadew® Hot Whole Sweet Piquanté Peppers, halved
• ¾ cup Caramelized red onions, for garnish
• 2–3 slices Prosciutto, torn into shards and fried in olive oil
• 3–4 Fresh basil leaves, torn, for garnish
• 2 tbsp. Honey, for garnish
Directions
1. Roll dough into desired shape and place on an oiled sheet pan.
2. Spread Mozzarella shreds evenly on the dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Then, sprinkle crumbled Gorgonzola on top of the Mozzarella.
3. Scatter the Peppadew pepper halves evenly over pizza, maintaining the border.
4. Bake in the oven and remove when the dough is completely cooked and cheese has melted. Remove from oven.
5. While the cheese is still hot, garnish with caramelized onions, prosciutto shards and torn basil leaves. Finish with a drizzle of honey.
By Chef Donatella Arpaia
The Galbani Premio and Peppadew Pizza, created by Celebrity Chef Donatella Arpaia, features the irresistible combination of topof-the-line Premio Mozzarella and Galbani Gorgonzola crumbles. Paired with hot and sweet Peppadews, it’s the perfect balance of flavor. If you’re looking for a pizza that delivers a bold, mouthwatering experience in every bite, this one’s a must-have addition to your menu. Don’t believe us? Try it yourself! The Galbani Premio and Peppadew Pizza will be available for sampling in the Galbani Booth #2147 at the International Pizza Expo®. If you’re in Las Vegas, stop by and try this incredible pie.
Ispirazione Italiana
BY RICK HYNUM
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
Robert Garvey and Dana Hokin took a wildly unorthodox path to success, building one of the world’s most acclaimed pizzerias at Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. And their journey has just begun.
IF YOU’VE READ THE CLASSIC 1980 NOVEL
A Confederacy of Dunces, you’ll recall Ignatius J. Reilly, the haughty, rotund ne’er-do-well who peddles subpar hot dogs on the streets of New Orleans—with little success and zero charm. He eats more “weenies” than he sells, insults his customers, and eventually belches and blunders his way into politics.
Think of Queens, New York, native Robert Garvey as the anti-Ignatius, with much better luck and people skills (and cooler hair). Now the co-owner of Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. in Chicago with his wife, Dana Hokin, Garvey started in the food business with his own hot dog cart, back in the glory days of punk rock. He was just 18.
After getting muscled off Manhattan’s more profitable street corners by thuggish weenie cartels, he found himself one night in front of the legendary music club CBGB. And out stepped club owner Hilly Kristal.
PHOTOS COURTESY JORGE GERA & ROBERT’S PIZZA AND DOUGH CO.
In 2024, 50 Top Pizza ranked Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co., owned by Dana Hokin and Robert Garvey, at No. 50 among the world’s best pizzerias and No. 10 in the U.S. Moreover, last year marked the restaurant’s fourth appearance in 50 Top Pizza’s U.S. list.
“I had been pushing my wagon up the Bowery, and every corner I stopped on, someone was telling me to take a hike within an hour,” Garvey recalls. “I passed CBGB at Bleecker Street, and there were at least 100 people outside the club. It’s 11:00 at night, and I said, ‘I bet they’re hungry.’ And they were. So I set up my hot dog stand, and shortly after, [Kristal] came out. He asked what I was doing. I told him, and he said, ‘Good idea.’ I said, ‘You don’t mind?’ He said, ‘No, you thought of it. It’s yours.’”
Garvey worked that corner every weekend for two years. “I was selling hot dogs to The Ramones, Patti Smith and others,” he says. “Joey Ramone spent many nights sleeping on the hood of my car.”
The secret to Garvey’s hot dogs? “I made my own fresh sauce and onions,” he says. “Not just the people at the shows, but all the cabbies around the city would come to my stand to get those onions. So, even at 18, I was pretty food-obsessed.”
Needless to say, he still is. But now, people come from all over for his pizza, and his riverside spot in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood is quite secure, thank you, not to mention spacious and jaw-droppingly beautiful.
But for Hokin and Garvey, the road to their phenomenal success—50 Top Pizza last year named Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. one of the best in the world—has been the one less traveled. When they
“I was selling hot dogs to The Ramones, Patti Smith and others. Joey Ramone spent many nights sleeping on the hood of my car.”
Robert Garvey, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co.
talk about their “journey,” they’re not just rehashing a timeworn cliché. It’s a motif with a lot of deep thought and life experience behind it.
“We didn’t sit in a boardroom and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s get into the restaurant business and come up with a pizza concept,’” Hokin says. “It came out of our home. It’s an extension of who we are. It’s not a made-up-around-a-board-table marketing story. It’s a true story, and if anyone wants to hear these stories, we’re happy to take them on that path. I’ve always said, ‘All roads lead to Robert’s Pizza.’ It’s a result of our very different career paths and a winding road where everything came together. And here we are in pizza.”
JORGE GERA
The Journey Begins
Recounting those career paths in full would take up more space than print allows. Garvey worked in the produce business, sailed the seven seas as a merchant marine engineer and earned an MFA in playwriting. Hokin taught studio art at Carnegie Mellon University (where she met Garvey, now her husband of 35 years), then took over a resort hotel in the Caribbean with three F&B outlets and a marina, where Garvey put his engineering skills to good use. “All of those things went into our toolbox for this restaurant, and we’ve complemented each other in these various career paths [to arrive] where we find ourselves today,” Hokin says.
“We didn’t sit in a boardroom and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s get into the restaurant business and come up with a pizza concept.’ It came out of our home. It’s an extension of who we are.”
Dana Hokin, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co.
After the couple moved to Chicago, Garvey, then a pizza novice, spent the better part of a decade crafting his own dough recipe—another journey of sorts. He read books by Nancy Silverton and Peter Reinhart, visited pizzerias and tried to pick the brains of every pizzaiolo he met. “Everywhere we went—and I’m not exaggerating—if there was pizza on the menu, Robert would walk to the kitchen and see if he could talk to somebody,” Hokin recalls, laughing. “And I would say, ‘Oh, God, don’t! No, no, you can’t!’ It didn’t matter where we were.”
At that time, pizzaioli weren’t exactly forthcoming with their secrets. “Every chef would basically give me one tip,” Garvey says. “They’d say, ‘Try this,’ and give me one tip. So I’d go to the next restaurant [with that tip], and they’d say, ‘OK, now try this.’ It was just an accumulation of all these different tips from different restaurateurs.”
Undeterred, Garvey kept plugging away in his home kitchen, working with a wild yeast sourdough starter. He also brought his doughs to industry trade shows and tried the pies out using vendors’ ovens on the floor—again, much to his wife’s dismay. “I said, ‘They’re not gonna let us bring our dough in, you know,’” Hokin laughs. “But,
The Nutcracker Pizza is a guest favorite during the Christmas season, while gift cards brighten the holidays for both new customers and regulars.
sure enough, they let us test-drive all these ovens. It was very helpful, because we could see how Robert’s dough performed in different types of ovens.”
“I literally went through hundreds of recipes,” Garvey says. “I baked off thousands of pizzas. I improvised and improvised and improvised. At about eight years in, I spun this crust and said, ‘Wow, that’s one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. And I made it in my [gas-fired] home oven.’ I was pretty shocked by it, frankly.”
But Hokin and Garvey still weren’t planning to open a pizzeria. They mostly made pies at home for friends, gauging reactions and fine-tuning the recipes. “We lived in an apartment building in downtown Chicago,” Hokin says. “We had so many pizzas on any given day that Robert would walk down the street at 10:00 at night and offer slices to valets and doormen. That’s another example of me saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, you can’t go around offering pizza on the streets of Chicago. They’re going to think you’re crazy!’”
Even so, Garvey adds, “No one ever turned me down.”
Beautiful, Not Fancy
In June 2016, Garvey, by then certified through Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli, and Hokin finally took the plunge, opening a space near the current location of Robert’s Pizza. It was too small to accommodate customer demand, so after a year, they closed it down and started over. Their current 142-seat restaurant opened in June 2019, and it’s breathtaking, with an open kitchen, floorto-ceiling windows offering a view of the Chicago Riverwalk, and a waterside patio adorned with flowers and greenery—all thanks to the couple’s esthetic sense and background in theater arts.
“It’s beautiful, but it’s not fancy,” Hokin points out. “It tells a story, and that story is this idea of a journey.” The
“[Trade show vendors] let us test-drive all these ovens. It was very helpful, because we could see how Robert’s dough performed in different types of ovens.”
pizzeria itself drew inspiration from a cross-country trip Garvey and Hokin took in 1997 in a 1966 Mustang convertible. “We drove her from Chicago to Montana, and I shot Polaroids every 4½ miles,” Hokin says. “I had a thousand images from that road trip, and those inspired the palette and feel of the restaurant.”
Even a slice of Garvey’s pizza takes customers on a journey, she adds, “because from the first bite to the last bite, the experience shifts—it’s a very different flavor profile.”
Dana Hokin, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co.
“It’s really about the care and time we put into the dough,” Garvey explains. “Every step is measured, from the way we mix the dough to the amount of fermentation to the way we stretch it and bake it. Even the way we put pizzas in the oven, there’s a system we follow….I do a two-day ferment on all of my dough and then a nice, long rise. So it tends to be very delicate. You won’t see us tossing the pizzas in the air; it’s so delicate that it would open up to, like, a 3’ diameter almost immediately. So the way we handle the dough is very, very specific. We weigh everything. There is nothing that isn’t weighed, including the yeast, flour, tomatoes, water. And that allows for consistency.”
Finally, the kitchen team bakes every pie for six minutes at 650°. “I’m looking for a nicely brown bottom, but also a little bit of black char in the crust,” Garvey says. “It’s not burnt, it’s just caramelizing the natural sugars in the flour. And when you do that, you literally change the flavor of the pizza. If you can get a little bit of that black char and caramelize those sugars, you get a much different, much more complex flavor from the dough. Those little nuances were my obsession for years and years, and that’s what makes our dough special.”
An Exemplary Restaurant
There’s plenty more that’s special about Robert’s Pizza. As theater lovers, Garvey and Hokin aim to create a full-blown experience for guests, especially in the colder months. During COVID-19, they trotted out their first annual Howl-o-Ween event, which included a pet parade and costume contest. With a professional photographer on hand, they awarded baskets of treats to pups wearing the cutest, scariest and most creative outfits, kindling warm memories and laughter as another cruel Windy City winter moved in. There’s also a Thanksgiving pizza
Echoing the complex flavors of its artisanal pies, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. elevates traditional items like wings and tiramisu with carefully selected ingredients and flavor combinations.
plus whole apple pies in November, while Christmas brings The Nutcracker Pizza in a collab with the Joffrey Ballet.
And the hits keep coming with a ticketed dinner series that puts Garvey’s world-renowned culinary team to the test. The latest series kicked off on December 5 with a Mediterranean pizza theme: the Chickpea Croquette, the Seafood Shakshuka, the Roast Lamb, the Loukaniko. It returned on February 22 for The Orient Express Dinner, and April 10 features a Latin American theme. Even if guests can’t pronounce half the words on the menu, their mouths and bellies get the tastebud-tickling message.
“We weigh everything. There is nothing that isn’t weighed, including the yeast, flour, tomatoes, water. And that allows for consistency.”
Robert Garvey, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co.
From pizza making to marketing, operations and employee culture, Hokin and Garvey could teach a master class in pizzeria management—if they only had the time. With systems and processes covering the full gamut, they have built an exemplary pizza restaurant, even offering health insurance and 401(k) benefits to their employees.
So is expansion in the cards? “I think we’re at an inflection point now,” Garvey says. “We’ve been growing so quickly that we really haven’t had time to do a deep analysis of the business. Over the next three to six months, we need to really analyze the level of business, how we run everything, the staffing requirements, food requirements, prep requirements, etc. And then we’ll ask, what’s our next step? So we don’t really have an answer for that yet.
“We’re very happy where we are,” Garvey adds. “But I think we’re in a position that, if we choose to, we definitely can grow into another location. I think that’s something we’re going to answer over the next few months as we analyze just how we got to where we are. Because it’s been quite a ride!”
Rick
Hynum is editor in chief of PMQ.
The dock and outdoor patio at Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. offers relaxed dining with the stunning scenery of the historic Ogden Slip.
Hokin and Garvey masterminded a ticketed dinner series that has become a major culinary event during Chicago’s cold winter months.
PMQ salutes the innovators and trailblazers that are making their mark on communities nationwide with passion, flair and, yes, even spinach.
WATCH TO 15 BRANDS
Hard work, passion and creativity are must-haves for launching a remarkable pizza brand. These operators have all of that in spades, plus marketing savvy, strong values and dedication to their communities. So raise a slice to 15 amazing pizza brands and keep building yours—you might make the list in 2026!
By RICK HYNUM and CHARLIE POGACAR
Mr. Moto Pizza, SAN DIEGO, CA
San Diego’s Mr. Moto Pizza is a hip, high-spirited, New York-style brand with a mischievous sense of fun and razor-sharp branding. Founded in 2015 by Gibran Fernandez, the seven-store company will debut two new locations in Orange County this spring, with two more on the way. Delivery boxes feature Fernandez himself sporting a comically oversized mustache, a message on the lid signed, “With love, Mr. Moto,” and an urgent plea on the inside: “Use our app! Stop wasting $$ on 3rd party apps.” When guests buy a beer, they can spin the Moto Wheel for prizes, such as 50% off their next order, and visitors to the website can’t miss the pop-up touting the Moto Mondays special, which feeds an entire family for $29.99. Plus, the company sports some of the coolest branded cars on the road today.
Yum’s of PDX, PORTLAND, OR
Miriam Weiskind, founder of The Za Report—a pizza pop-up—is bringing her renowned neo-Neapolitan pies to the brick-and-mortar space with the launch of Yum’s of PDX this spring. The former New Yorker gained recognition teaching with Scott’s Pizza Tours, appearing on Food Network’s Chopped and baking over 5,000 pizzas during the pandemic to help those in need. Her pop-ups in New York and Portland built a devoted following, ultimately leading her to choose the latter for her first brickand-mortar location. But the journey wasn’t easy. After facing 58 investor rejections, she secured funding from five aligned backers to launch Yum’s of PDX. According to Weiskind, it will embody her commitment to quality, creativity and the joy of “breaking crust” together.
Lynn’s Chicago Pizza, CHICAGO, IL
Lynn’s Chicago Pizza started as a simple date-night experiment and evolved into a deep-dish pizzeria in Chicago’s South Side. Founded by Lynn Humphreys and Brandon Bruner, the restaurant brings a much-needed pizza option to an area dominated by soul food. With Bruner’s 15 years of culinary expertise, they crafted a lighter, more digestible deep-dish pizza using semolina, 00 and bread flour. After launching as a virtual brand in May 2023, Lynn’s quickly gained popularity via social media and word-of-mouth. By September 2024, the couple opened a brick-and-mortar shop in a food desert in the Woodlawn neighborhood—the closest restaurant, Humphreys estimated, is about a mile away. The menu features pizza, wings, salads and more, but it’s streamlined to make the operation easier to run. To attract customers, they leverage local media, community events and local influencers. The duo’s goal is to expand, but for now, they’re focused on making an impact in Woodlawn.
LYNN’S CHICAGO PIZZA
MR. MOTO PIZZA
Spinachio Pizza, NORTH HALEDON, NJ
Sisters Ardiana Gashi and Zana Kaloshi have made spinach on pizza a thing at Spinachio Pizza. They named the shop after their grandmother’s Spinachio Pizza, a recipe that hasn’t changed for 30 years. Razor-thin, bar-style “skinny pizzas” feature prominently on the menu, while the Spinachio Exclusives boast a top-secret spinach blend as the base. The brand’s so hot, the sisters welcomed two influencers on the same day in February—and one of them was Dave Portnoy, who stole the show from Jessica Romano of Instagram’s @twogirlsoneslice. Portnoy rated the Skinny Cheese Pizza a strong 8.1, while Romano raved about the Skinny Spinachio and the Mosaic (a four-section 16” combining various specialty pies). Anthony Pizzi, who manages Spinachio’s social media and online ordering, says Portnoy’s timing took the team aback. “We’ve been dreaming of the day he’d show up at the shop. Even that day, we were talking about him, and boom He showed up….And since the review dropped, we’ve been extremely busy!”
The Cap’ns Slice, BERLIN, MD
Yancey Carapico’s two-year-old carryout-only pizza shop won our hearts with its imaginative pies and clever theme: Every pizza is named after a “captain,” famous and not-so-famous. Captain Kirk, Captain America and Captain Hook? Duh, of course. Other pies honor war heroes (WWII Italian submarine officer Salvatore Todaro), athletes (Roquan Smith of the Baltimore Ravens), and even fictional mobsters (Manny Ribera, Tony Montana’s right-hand man in Scarface). Carapico makes up for the lack of a website by consistently posting strong pizza pics on Instagram, collaborating with local farmers and chefs, and routinely tagging PMQ to keep our attention. Aye aye, Cap’n!
The NONA Slice House, SAFETY HARBOR, FL
There’s seldom a slow day at Jamie Culliton’s multi-style hotspot. He’s a two-time gold medalist at the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, but the dude knows his dough, too. NONA’s Detroit, Sicilian, New York, Chicago tavern and Olde World styles appeal to nearly every taste, and Culliton has won countless national awards for his culinary skills. He wowed Dave Portnoy in March 2024 with a trio of pies, including the Detroit Red Top, leading El Presidente to proclaim, “You won’t find a better Detroit.” Before launching NONA, Culliton spent years opening Grimaldi’s Pizzeria stores around the country, but he’s an indie pizza guy at heart. And an entertainer, too. When Culliton and his squad break out their dough-spinning dance moves, customers get dinner and a show.
Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza, FLORIDA/TEXAS/GEORGIA
Chef Renato Viola looked to the stars to create pizzas that no one can forget. Now he’s a luminary in his own right. Viola opened the first Mister O1 location in a Miami office building with no signage or windows. But his star-shaped masterpieces, like the Star Luca and Star Michele, quickly earned him fame. Within a decade, Mister O1 had 15 stores across Florida. That number keeps climbing—now at 22—and his franchise brand keeps spreading, with five stores in Texas, two in Georgia, one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and one in Madrid, Spain. Viola named his company for the prestigious O-1 visa that allowed him to immigrate from Italy to the U.S. due to his “extraordinary artistic ability.” He’s one pizza star that’s on the verge of going supernova.
JAVIER
Emmy Squared, 12 STATES AND WASHINGTON, D.C.
How many pizza entrepreneurs are also published poets? Just one that we know of: Emily Hyland, whose 2024 collection of poetry, Divorced Business Partners: A Love Story, was featured in The New York Times last year. She’s also the co-founder of Emmy Squared, which launched in Brooklyn in 2016 and has since burgeoned into a Detroit-style company spanning a dozen states. Divorced Business Partners delves into the heartache of, well, divorcing your business partner—namely, executive chef Matt Hyland—while growing a restaurant concept to nearly 30 locations. The marriage might not have lasted, but customers fell in love with the brand—and the frico-crusted pies—that came out of it. And CEO Troy Tracy says his team has just begun to tell its story. “We’re very committed to our model, our growth, our food and our hospitality,” he told Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast in early January. “We just haven’t let everyone know about it.”
Pizza Karma, MINNESOTA
Rajesh Selvaraj never ate pizza until his early 20s. Now he’s the co-founder and chief pizza officer of Pizza Karma, a fastgrowing chain redefining how pizza is made. Pizza Karma uses tandoor-fired ovens— an ancient cooking method typically used for naan—to create its light, flavorful crust. After a quick bake, the crust is topped with one of the brand’s seven signature sauces and finished in a conventional oven. Founded in 2018 in Eden Prairie, Pizza Karma has four locations and three food trucks. Selvaraj partnered with the late James Beard Awardwinning chef Raghavan Iyer to craft a menu blending Indian flavors with pizza, offering mouthwatering options like Butter Chicken and Paneer Tikka. As Pizza Karma expands through franchising, Selvaraj envisions a nationwide brand introducing more people to globally inspired, tandoor-fired pizza.
Tiny Pizza Kitchen, BROOKLYN, NY
Auggie Russo, a former film editor, began experimenting with pizza during the pandemic. In 2021, he officially launched his pop-up, Tiny Pizza Kitchen, and what started as a hobby became his true calling. “I never thought I’d be good at anything,” Russo memorably told PMQ. “And that’s not artifice— it’s just true.” Russo’s inventive pizzas proved otherwise—like the ever-changing Miss Betty White and A Farewell to Figs—blending unexpected flavors with creative flair. His fennel-bourbon candied chilies even caught the attention of Stephen and Evie Colbert, who featured the recipe in their cookbook, Does This Taste Funny? Thanks to champions like the Colberts, food critic Pete Wells and Scott Wiener, Russo’s profile skyrocketed. But for Russo, success isn’t about accolades—it’s about making people happy with his food. “If I can do that while staying true to myself, then I’m already winning,” he says.
PIZZA KARMA
Pizza Baby, CHARLOTTE, NC
Founded by Steven De Falco and Trey Wilson, Pizza Baby quickly expanded from its first shop in the Wesley Heights neighborhood to a second in Elizabeth—on the other side of “Uptown” Charlotte—each with its own identity. Pizza Baby West, as the Wesley Heights restaurant is known, specializes in Americana-style pies and curated wines, while Pizza Baby East serves Roman-style Pizza alla Pala by day and 12” Americana pies by night. Eventually, the duo added Roman-style rectangles to West’s menu, but each location still reflects the vibe of its neighborhood. Beyond pizza, Pizza Baby has embraced bread as a revenue stream, selling to customers and other businesses—a nod to the Old World, where pizzerias often doubled as bakeries. In 2024, its dedication to quality landed Pizza Baby on 50 Top Pizza’s list celebrating the best pizzerias in the U.S.
Boogy & Peel, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Veteran chef Rachael Jennings opened Boogy & Peel in 2022 because pizza is the food she craves the most. While she describes her style as “bastardized Neapolitan,” Bon Appétit, which praised Jennings as one of eight U.S. pizzaioli who are “reimagining the craft,” calls it “cheeky.” The pies’ names reflect her rascally sense of humor: Harambe Loved Big Macs (the inspo here is obvious); the @kschifanorealtor (we have no idea what that means); and a Buffalo chicken number called the Bird Reynolds. To ensure her employees a “respectable wage” and health insurance, Jennings tacks on an 18% service fee to every order in lieu of tips. For a good belly laugh, don’t miss her video series, “Walk-In Chat,” where “you come in the walk-in and I tell you about the dumb s--- that you’ve said on our Instagram page.”
Pizza Delicious, NEW ORLEANS, LA
Tulane University grads Mike Friedman and Greg Augarten hail from New York, but they didn’t know a thing about making pizza when they decided to launch Pizza Delicious as a pop-up. That was 2010. Once their brick-and-mortar shop opened in a nondescript warehouse on Piety Street in 2012, they made sure it lived up to its name. Two years later, Eater New Orleans honored Pizza Delicious as Restaurant of the Year—no small feat in the Big Easy. Nowadays, Friedman and Augarten are on a roll again. In 2024, Pizza Delicious claimed a spot on 50 Top Pizza’s list of the best U.S. pizzerias for the second straight year. The duo even provided 50 pizzas to the NFL Commissioner’s Party over Super Bowl weekend. Despite all the acclaim, Pizza Delicious remains a hometown joint that awards a free pie every week to fans who tag three friends in a post on Instagram.
PIZZA BABY
BOOGY
PIZZA
The Turning Peel, PORTLAND, OR
A native of Hong Kong, founder Candy Yiu grew up poor. But, as she told Women in Pizza recently, “I’m a person who believes in dreams, and trying is free, so what’s the worst case if you fail? You just go back to where you are, and you don’t lose anything. I was already at the bottom.” Not anymore. Readers of The Oregonian voted The Turning Peel as the best pizzeria in Portland last year, giving Yiu the nod over spots like Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Pizzeria Otto. As the pizzaiola, Yiu turns three-day leavened sourdough into Neapolitan-style gems like the Delicata (roasted delicata squash, Italian sausage, fresh sage and fior di latte) and the Pear Chorizo (roasted pears, chorizo, oregano and fior di latte), to be enjoyed inside or on the gorgeous outdoor patio. As a child, Yiu often went hungry, so she lets nothing go to waste at The Turning Peel: Leftover dough is made into bread and given away for free.
Spinato’s Pizzeria & Family Kitchen, PHOENIX, AZ
Spinato’s has been around for half a century, but it has aged so gracefully—and wisely—it’s still a brand to watch in our book. We especially love Spinato’s for its social mission and kindness campaigns. The family created the Kenneth A. Spinato Foundation, focused on children’s causes, in 2009. In 2023, they stuffed “kindness bags” with toiletries, snacks and water and asked customers to buy them for $5 as giveaways to people experiencing homelessness (proceeds went to a nonprofit combating homelessness and food insecurity). And last Christmas, Spinato’s Nice List Holiday Kindness Challenge celebrated locals who go “above and beyond to spread kindness and joy.” For most restaurant brands, growth is top priority. Not so for the six-store Spinato’s, which put the brakes on new openings. As CEO Anthony Spinato told PMQ, “How do you grow and do it well? After 40 years, we looked at our core values and realized we just love making people’s lives better. That’s our advantage—you can’t manufacture that.”
Rick Hynum is editor in chief of PMQ. Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s senior editor.
ANGELA HOUSTON
CANDY
YIU
SOLVING THE PIZZA COMMUNITY’S PROBLEMS TOGETHER
Dear PMQ Pizza Readers:
In my nearly 14 years at PMQ, I have come to dislike the term “pizza industry.” It sounds so…industrial, like “automotive industry” or “tech industry.”
We’re not an industry. We’re a community.
We’re building relationships, not machines. We’re serving the people we love, nurturing bodies and souls, celebrating special moments in life, and making folks happy—all with the world’s greatest food.
As a community, we learn from each other. We grow with each other. We lift each other up. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed. That’s what pizza has always been about. And that’s what the 2nd annual Pizza Power Forum is about, too.
PMQ Pizza is bringing together more than two dozen speakers for 14 educational sessions to solve common problems, share wisdom, sell more pizza, increase profits and make more money. And we’ll have some fun doing it!
With the Pizza Power Forum, we’re building something special in Atlanta. Come join us, and let’s build it together.
Rick Hynum Editor in Chief, PMQ Pizza
25 Speakers / 14 Educational Sessions:
• Get Your Toughest Dough Questions Answered!
• The Mad Scientists of Pizza: Mastering the Intricacies of Pizza Perfection
• Culture and Leadership: Training, Coaching Up and Getting Buy-In From Employees
• TV Fame and the Pizza Game: Behind the Scenes of TV’s Hottest Cooking Shows
• Pre-Loading 2026: Pump Up Your Sales With a Full Year’s Worth of Moneymaking Promotions
• Get Your Pizza Marketing Questions Answered!
• Opening Store No. 2: How to Know When You’re Ready and How to Do It Right
• Go Bigger, Go Faster! Engineering Your Pizzeria for Phenomenal Success and Growth
• Think and Grow Like a Chain Operator
• Franchising 101: How to Grow Your Brand Using a Time- Tested Model
• The InTouch Insight DELCO Report: Beating the Chains at Their Own Game
• Reclaim Your Life: Building a Pizzeria Operation That Runs With or Without You
• Some Like It Cold: Shipping Your Frozen Pizza to Build a National Brand
• Supercharge Your Menu With Game-Changing LTOs and Signature Pizzas SEPTEMBER 2-4, 2025
IN THE RANKS RISING
Pizzeria operators share how they help guide employees from entry-level jobs to the heights of success within their business.
BY TRACY MORIN
WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR OPERATION, are plentiful growth opportunities available—and do you make them known to new hires? Are employees able to move up the ladder of your business, ascending to supervisor, manager or even future owner? And, along the way, do you offer them appreciation and work-life balance to fend off the burnout that pervades the restaurant industry?
In the January-February issue of PMQ, we asked successful operators about their best strategies for attracting, hiring, training and retaining young employees. One of the key factors in keeping quality workers—of any age—over the long haul is to create a path to success for them. Here, those operators explain how they accomplish this crucial task, which helps ensure happier employees, guests and owners.
OUR EXPERTS
PMQ: How do you attract and select quality employees at the point of hiring?
RIC GRUBER: Pay is certainly one way. However, we have learned that pay is not always the No. 1 motivator— scheduling flexibility is generally the No. 1 need for younger team members. Moreover, we showcase growth opportunities and perks such as free meals and swag, as well as team contests. We highlight real-world skill development and an easy online application process. And we offer paid training.
SATCHEL RAYE: We struggle, like everyone, to find and retain great help. Because our pay structure is high, we tend to keep employees once they settle in, but when I need someone new, it’s a crapshoot. We often have a current employee who knows someone; that can work sometimes. But often we just interview by picking from in-house or online applications and hoping for the best. It’s so important to hire the right people, but you just don’t know who they are. We’ve had great interviews where the person turned out not so great. We’ve had people that seemed slow and like they would never learn, but later they turn out to catch on and be great.
PMQ: How do you create a career path for employees to help retain high-quality hires?
GRUBER: We highlight growth and mentorship opportunities, along with Billy Bricks success stories, but many are not industry “lifers.” We realize this is a stop on
their journey, but we acknowledge that at the outset with them and set clear expectations of what their role and responsibilities will be, as well as how that will benefit them going forward in whatever endeavors they choose along their next stops.
Our hiring materials put together timelines and advancement paths that show clear milestones and mastery that need to come with advances in both title/ responsibility as well as pay. However, the best way we can demonstrate the opportunities they have with us is to continue to grow and expand and tell the stories of some of our most successful team members over our 20-year history.
RIC GRUBER, CEO, Billy Bricks Restaurant Group, Lombard, IL
SATCHEL RAYE, owner, Satchel’s Pizza, Gainesville, FL
REBECCA RICHARDS, franchisee, Hungry Howie’s, Monroe, MI
Gen Z franchisee Rebecca Richards (left) ensures that employees have ample opportunities to ascend the ranks.
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“Our hiring materials put together timelines and advancement paths that show clear milestones and mastery that need to come with advances in both title/ responsibility as well as pay.”
Ric Gruber, Billy Bricks Restaurant Group
RAYE: A career path gets easier when you’re making good money. We also do matching funds for a retirement account, pay a week’s vacation every year on their anniversary, give a Christmas bonus and allow employees to get a massage every three months. We have monthly events on a day off. We are closed two days a week, so every employee gets a “weekend.”
REBECCA RICHARDS: We’re always letting our store and company employees know that opportunities are available. When we see employees who are excited, have a good time and get the job done, we want to push them forward and get them more involved. Two partners here worked their way up to ownership. We have supervisors who started as regular employees and now are overseeing
a lot of our stores. That’s why we look into opening more stores—not just for ourselves, but to make sure we have those opportunities for people, so we can build something together.
PMQ: Do you have any other recommendations about how to keep employees happy and thriving in the pizzeria environment?
GRUBER: These are the steps I take (in no particular order of importance):
1. Set clear expectations and structure to reduce anxiety and confusion.
2. Implement a reward/bonus program.
3. Schedule flexibility to encourage work-life balance.
4. Provide feedback and recognition.
5. Encourage a fun, team-oriented work environment.
6. Give them a voice to share their thoughts and opinions.
7. Provide technology and tools (we have a mobile scheduling app).
8. Celebrate milestones.
9. Connect this job’s training and skill development to their personal future goals.
10. Articulate a clear pathway to advancement if that is the route they would like to take.
BILLY BRICKS
A team-oriented work environment that’s fun and flexible, with measures in place for recognition and work-life balance, helps retain happy employees at Billy Bricks.
“We paid out $1.75 million in wages and did $3.5 million-plus in sales [in 2024]….So, while my ideas are unconventional and very hard to comprehend, they are working for me.”
Satchel Raye, Satchel’s Pizza
their hard work and dedication to this job will allow our leaders to be a reference for them if they stay for a significant period.
RAYE: I like to hire a diverse team—young and older, all races, men and women and in between. But I don’t know if my methods can help anyone. I’ve had other owners ask me how I keep my staff so long, and when I tell them my labor percentage, you can tell the conversation is over. They aren’t going to do that!
We paid out $1.75 million in wages and did $3.5 million-plus in sales [in 2024], in one location, with only beer and wine—no liquor—and open only five days a week. So, while my ideas are unconventional and very hard to comprehend, they are working for me. My focus on building the restaurant and team as my priority has ended up making me money, but it’s not the way people usually go about it.
PMQ: How do you get the best out of employees who aren’t considering a career in the restaurant industry?
GRUBER: Many of the skills learned in a restaurant apply to all of life and other opportunities. It’s our job to show our younger team members how those skills—such as customer service, communication and teamwork—will help them in their future career path. Our example also teaches them about leadership and makes it clear that
RICHARDS: Our team members learn pizza skills, service, and how to deal with customers and stressful situations. They can use those skills in everyday life. In this business, you learn how to control what you can, pay attention to detail and work well with everyone.
PMQ: Why is it important to invest in your team for long-term success?
RAYE: Every time I pay people more, my restaurant gets busier—not overnight, but over time. Investing in my team is what makes my business so successful. You can almost hire anyone, pay them well enough so they feel appreciated and respected, and they can learn to perform at a high level. I like to pay them more than they deserve so they have something to prove. It’s weird, right? I like to give them raises before they expect or ask.
My employees aren’t all perfect, and sometimes I can be frustrated to pay them so much and they still mess up things or have bad attitudes. But, overall, my team and culture are better because they have a better paycheck. This has been a long-term vision that has now begun to pay off for me, because I can work less and the food and service do not suffer.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
Satchel’s Pizza owner Satchel Raye maintains a philosophy of paying employees more than expected in order to get the best performance from them—a crucial part of his long-term vision for creating a winning company culture.
When in ROME
Crisp, airy and packed with flavor, Roman-style pizza has infiltrated the States—and Vitangelo Recchia says it’s only starting its ascent.
BY TRACY MORIN
ROMAN PIZZA IS A FANTASY—A CANVAS TO SHOW OFF WHAT YOU CAN DO,” says Vitangelo Recchia, owner of Bella Napoli Pizzeria & Restaurant in Port Charlotte, Florida. “You can be creative, making different styles with the same dough. It’s very versatile.” Indeed, “Roman style” may describe a few options: Roman-style pan pizza, baked in a rectangular or square metal tray; pizza alla pala, formed in an oblong or oval shape and served up on a long wooden board; or pinsa, served on a smaller-size pala and made with different flours, like rice and soy.
If you’re used to making traditional round pies, such as the New York style, Recchia admits that Roman pizza might be a bit more challenging to tackle. But he believes the painstaking (and, traditionally, multiple-day) process gives the finished product an unforgettable flavor that’s worth the effort.
Roman Rules
Recchia, a U.S. Pizza Team member who studied the Roman pizza style under master pizzaiolo Massimiliano Saieva, nabbed second place with his Roman pizza (in the Pizza in Teglia category) in Parma, Italy’s World Pizza Championship in 2022. He prescribes a three-step baking process for this style, allowing the oven to progressively dehydrate the dough.
First, he cooks only the dough for 8 to 10 minutes, then bakes it another 4 to 5 minutes with the toppings, and finally finishes the slice in the oven (when ordered) for 1 to 1.5 minutes. “The final product you get is crispy, airy and flavorful, with an abundance of tastes and smells,” Recchia says. “When you work this style properly, it’s perfection from A to Z.”
That signature flavor may end with the baking process, but it starts with the ingredients and fermentation. Recchia recommends using 0 or 00 Italian flour, fresh or dry yeast, sea salt and a quality extra-virgin olive oil. After mixing (see Recchia’s full recipe on page 47), the dough can be stored in the cooler for 24 to 48 hours, after which the dough balls are formed. Rechhia makes each ball 1.2 to 1.4 kilograms, then lets them rise for 30 to 45 minutes and places them back in the cooler (at 42° to 45°) overnight. The next day, he removes them from the cooler and leaves at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes,
“It’s one of the most fun—and most difficult—pizzas to make. The fun part is the look on people’s faces, which is very rewarding. The difficulty is in learning the technique.”
Vitangelo
Recchia, Bella Napoli
Pizzeria & Restaurant
after which they’re ready to stretch. He then stretches the dough into oiled pans and cooks his pizzas in 620° electric ovens—ideal for baking, he explains, because you can control the top and bottom heat. “Roman pizza is all about time and temperature,” Recchia says.
When making Roman pizza, he adds, toppings are applied to the edge, so there’s no raised crust like with a traditional round pizza. He makes his pies in 60-by-40centimeter pans, which produce 12 slices, ideal for feeding groups of four or five. “It’s a street food,” Recchia says. “You can cut it in half or fold it like a New York slice, or you can put it on a tray and make it gourmet. It’s one of the most fun—and most difficult—pizzas to make. The fun part is the look on people’s faces, which is very rewarding. The difficulty is in learning the technique.”
Can All Roads Lead to Rome?
While Roman-style pizza traditionally involves a highhydration dough, a lengthy fermentation and high-quality Italian ingredients, Recchia believes in bringing the style to the modern day with new interpretations. Now a bestseller on his pizzeria’s menu, his second-place Pizza in Teglia entry was a white pie, which is called “Crostino Romano” in this style. Dubbed Heart of Parma, the pizza is topped with lardo, three types of mushroom (royal trumpet, oyster and maitake), porcini mushroom dust, local sausage, stracchino cheese, arugula and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This year, he made a bigger splash at an Italian competition with a pie featuring a tomato base, cupand-char pepperoni, stracciatella, Mike’s Hot Honey and basil—all atop a four-hour-fermented dough. “Italians would never do that, but Americans would,” he says with
Vitangelo Recchia, who learned how to make Roman pizza with master pizzaiolo Massimiliano Saieva, embraces a three-step baking process and lengthy fermentation to create a crispy, airy crust.
VITANGELO RECCHIA
a laugh. “Italians may follow the rules of Roman pizza, but Americans are meant to break them. I like to give people an experience—and even if the Italians look at you like you’re crazy, they can’t stop eating it!”
Perhaps more importantly—at least for his bottom line back home—is that Recchia’s customers are similarly bowled over by the Roman style, even though he also offers Sicilian pan, New York round, Detroit, stuffed and grandma pan pies on his menu. “It’s hard to do only Roman style; I’ll spend more time explaining it than people spend enjoying it,” he says. “But when people try our Roman pizza, they say they’ve never had anything like it. And they come back here because we have different styles of pizza.”
Moreover, Recchia emphasizes that Romanstyle pizza—already spread significantly in recent years—is currently “blowing up” in the United States. He predicts it will only grow further, thanks to a combination of improved education, more flour companies from Italy entering the U.S. market, and even manufacturers selling premade Roman pizza bases that operators can buy frozen and simply add toppings.
“People are learning new techniques to make the dough quicker, too,” Recchia adds. “Angelo Iezzi of the API [Associazione Pizzerie Italiane, or Italian Pizzerias Association] developed a system in the ’90s to make Roman pizza in 96 hours. Now you can do it in four hours, or 24 hours, as long as you know how to work with it. In today’s world, Americans don’t have time to wait three or four days for Roman pizza—they want it now.”
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
How to Make Roman Dough
Vitangelo Recchia shares his recipe for an 80% hydrated Roman dough:
Ingredients
• 25 kg 0 or 00 flour (Italian recommended, with a W-Index of 360-400)
• 125 g active dry yeast or 250 g fresh yeast
• 9.75 kg water
• 6.5 kg ice
• 625 g sea salt
• 1.875 kg water
• 1.875 kg ice
• 750 g extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Directions
Note: This recipe uses a spiral mixer. All numbers are based on estimates, which can vary according to the environment of your location.
1. Combine the flour and yeast. Mix for 1 minute on speed 1.
2. Add 9.75 kg water and 6.5 kg ice and start to mix on speed 1. Mix for 3 minutes; let the gluten form on this slower speed. Then switch to speed 2 and mix for up to 8 minutes.
3. A pumpkin shape should begin to form. Stop the mixer, add 625 g sea salt, 1.875 kg water and 1.875 kg ice. Start mixing on speed 1 for 1 minute. Switch to speed 2 for the remaining 3 minutes.
4. Slowly add 750 g EVOO on the outside of the dough. At this point, the dough should resemble a pumpkin shape. Mix for 5 minutes longer, until the total time of mixing is 18 to 20 minutes. Listen to the “slap.” When the dough continuously makes a “slap” sound for 3 to 4 minutes, the dough is complete.
5. Use a thermometer to check the dough temperature, making sure the temperature is 70° to 72°. Let the dough sit in the mixer. At the 10-minute mark, start on speed 1 for 2 to 3 revolutions to de-gas the dough. Break apart into 7-kg dough balls and place into dough containers, leaving the dough exposed to cool down the dough before closing the containers. Place in the cooler at 42° to 45° overnight.
6. Regenerate the dough by folding and placing the dough on its seams. The dough is now ready to stretch.
VITANGELO RECCHIA
From Dough to Dominance: The Trupiano Family Saga
This three-generation pizza powerhouse has turned pizza making competitions into a family sport.
BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ
THE TRUPIANO FAMILY, A THREE-GENERATION PIZZA POWERHOUSE, has a legacy thicker than marinara and a passion as fiery as a wood-burning oven. Their prowess spans decades and turns every kitchen showdown into a culinary spectacle.
It all began with Dominic “The Godfather” Trupiano, who laid the foundation of a pizza empire. Fast forward to today, and Dominic’s son, Tore, has stepped up to the plate (or the peel?) with the same fire in his heart and an impressive resume to boot. And he’s bringing Damiano, his son and protege, along for the trip.
“My dad was obviously the first one to start a pizzeria,” says Tore, owner of Mangia e Bevi in Oceanside, California, and a dedicated member of the U.S. Pizza Team since 2015. “He started Trupiano’s back in Chicago
in ’71. Then, in 2000, he opened Dominic’s Italian Restaurant on the harbor. In 2018, we opened Mangia e Bevi—that’s where we stand today.”
You might wonder if Tore was destined for a life in pizza. But his story takes a humorous twist. Growing up, his mother warned, “You can do anything in life— just don’t go into this industry!” Not only did Tore and his siblings defy that maternal decree, but they also embraced the pizza world with open arms. Today, both Damiano and Tore’s daughter, Vittoria (featured in this column in 2023), are poised to continue the tradition.
“As long as the restaurant’s there, I want to keep competing and making pizza,” 18-year-old Damiano says. His early love affair with pizza started at Mangia e Bevi, where he spent countless hours perfecting his
Tore (left) and Damiano Trupiano prep for competition against some of the best pizzaioli in the country—and each other— in the ’24 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup at the Pizza Tomorrow Summit.
craft, eagerly absorbing every tip and trick—especially his dad’s persistent reminder: “Use more flour!” (Nothing sticks to a peel like stubborn dough.)
A Family Sport
For the Trupiano clan, competition isn’t just a pastime— it’s practically a family sport. Tore reminisces about his and his father’s first competition in 1995 at Pizza Festiva (Pizza Expo, before it was Pizza Expo) in Las Vegas. “That was our initiation,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been in and out of competitions, winning as often as I can. Most recently, I clinched first place in the Pan Division of the California Pizza Challenge in L.A. this past August.”
Dominic has his own tales of triumph in Vegas, where he bagged awards for both a nontraditional creation and a breakfast pizza. He even boasts of a triumphant barbecue pizza win as well as participation in the prestigious Galbani Cup. “We take the top three— supremo!” he often jokes.
Not to be outdone, young Damiano made his competitive debut in Atlantic City’s junior division in October 2023, quickly moving on to test his skills against the pros at the 2024 California Pizza Challenge in Los Angeles. His performance at the 2024 Galbani Pizza Cup in Orlando was nothing short of impressive—missing third place in the nontraditional category by a mere three points. “I plan on heading back to Vegas this year, now that I can sit at the big table,” he says.
Family Dynamics
One might assume that a family so deeply immersed in the pizza business would create a kitchenful of rivalry and fiery disputes. But the Trupiano trio shares a bond that’s as warm as freshly baked ziti. “We’re definitely a team,” Damiano says. “If any of us spot a winning tweak in someone’s recipe, we share it. It’s all about lifting each other up, even when we’re competing head-to-head.”
Tore adds, with a mischievous grin, “I’d love to see a father-son showdown someday—maybe even a grandfathergrandson clash. But let’s be real: I don’t see a scenario where I’m not in the finals.”
Dominic, ever the optimist, chimes in, repeating his family’s rally cry: “Or we take the top three—supremo!” The underlying
message is clear: While competition on the stage is fierce, the Trupianos’ kitchen is a place of camaraderie, shared passion and a relentless pursuit of pizza perfection.
Beyond the competitive arena, the Trupiano clan is also committed to giving back. Their philanthropic ventures with Slice Out Hunger and Pizza Across America underscore a simple truth: Pizza isn’t just a meal; it’s a community.
From Dominic’s old-school charm to Tore’s high-flying competition antics and Damiano’s rising-star swagger, each generation brings its own flavor to the table. It’s a testament to the fact that passion, family and a relentless drive to innovate are the secret ingredients to success in the pizza world. These contests are more than just events; they’re a chance to showcase decades of tradition, innovation and the sheer joy of making great pizza. And the Trupiano trifecta (or fourfecta, when you count Vittoria) is taking full advantage.
Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and coordinator of the U.S. Pizza Team.
For more information about the U.S. Pizza Team, its members and sponsors, visit USPizzaTeam.com.
Dominic, no stranger to competition, is relatively new at competing against his grandson. But like a true nonno, if Dominic triumphs, he plans to give the trophy to his grandson.
Facing fierce competition at the ‘24 Galbani Cup, Tore states, “Win or lose, the best part is just being here and competing alongside my family.”
Watch as our nation’s top pizzaioli spin, stretch and sizzle at the World Pizza Championships!
The U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) is packing its dough and heading to Parma, Italy, on April 4 to 13 to take on the world at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza—the biggest and baddest pizza competition on the planet!
Twelve passionate pizzaioli, both USPT and World Pizza Champions alike, will battle for glory across 37 categories—from Pizza Classica to Gluten-Free, Pizza for Two, and the always-thrilling Freestyle Acrobatics, Largest Dough Stretch and Fastest Pizza Maker contests!
Special shoutout to our 2024 USPT event winners— the culinary and acrobatic champions of the Galbani Pizza Cup and the California Pizza Challenge—who earned their shot to compete on the world stage!
None of this would be possible without all of our amazing sponsors! Huge thanks to Platinum Sponsor Galbani Professionale and Gold Sponsor REAL California Milk, whose support fuels our quest for pizza greatness.
Follow the action LIVE! Catch every spin, stretch and spectacular save starting April 4 on social media: @uspizzateam & @us_pizza_team.
The U.S. Pizza Team is ready. Is Italy?
more info and pics visit www.uspizzateam.com.
Platinum Sponsor Silver Gold Gold+
Giovanni Labbate Tievoli Pizza Bar
Patt Miller Pizza Patt’s
McKenna Carney The Nona Slice House
Michael Testa Jersey Pizza Boys
(Clockwise from left) Pietro Recchia (left) hangs with a co-worker in the 1970s; Pietro spins dough at the pizzeria; the 1976 purchase of a location in Altoona, Pennsylvania, kicked off the expansion of the Recchia empire.
BY TRACY MORIN
Dino’s Italian Restaurant
With $3 in his pocket and no English-speaking skills, Pietro Recchia arrived in the United States from Italy in 1970, just before his 17th birthday. After his first job working at a pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York, his life would change course when friends took him to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to work at a shopping-mall pizzeria in 1973. Owned by Frank Luca and called Luca’s Pizza upon its 1972 opening, it was renamed Dino’s a couple of years later.
In 1976, Pietro entered the ownership game himself by purchasing a pizzeria in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which is now operated by his brother’s family. By 1987, he bought Dino’s. “I first got [financial] help from my two brothers and father, because I was crazy about cars,” Pietro says with a laugh. “But I realized I gotta work and save money, and I started opening some on my own.”
Ultimately, Pietro contributed recipe and business development to seven pizzerias that could support his extended family. Today, his sons Angelo and Peter run Dino’s, while his son Vitangelo carries the Recchia pizza legacy down south as owner of a pizzeria in Florida. “You work 75,
STATE O F PENNSYLVAN I A
ATEOFPENNS YLVANIA
80 hours a week—you’re never home,” Pietro recalls of his decadeslong grind at Dino’s. “Back in the day, we were busy with lines all day, doing 600 pies a day. And customers have been coming back since I started there, ones who still remember the name Luca’s. Fifty years ago, we had plain and pepperoni pizzas and sodas. Today, we wouldn’t survive with that, so we’re a full restaurant, with a little bit of everything.” Employees, too, have stuck around for 25 and 30 years—though today it may take two workers to do the work of one dedicated family member in decades past. While Pietro technically retired two years ago, he still swings by Dino’s to taste-test the food and ensure a smooth operation. The pizza business, after all, became more than a job—it’s a passion that’s sustained his family, including his adopted family of customers and employees. “The best advice I can give is, if you do this, you gotta like what you’re doing,” Pietro says. “It takes a lot of patience and love. If you don’t like it, don’t do it. Do something else.”
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
