PMQ Pizza October 2026 by Arrowfly

E L E VAT I N G

THE

BUSINESS

OCTOBER 2026

Raising the Bard Kira and Mark Zabrowski traded lesson plans for pizza pans— and built a family business where Shakespeare, sourdough and silliness share the stage. PAGE 24

PIZZA

PMQ.COM

INSIDE:

5 Keys to Loyalty

PAGE 19

Unique Selling Propositions PAGE 34

Go Fish With Anchovies PAGE 40

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PEEL: A PMQ PODCAST

C H ATG PT/A I G E N E R AT E D

Pizza Drones and Motherships Is pizza delivery by drone actually the future, and how far away is it? In episode 60 of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast, Arthur Erickson, CEO of drone company Hylio, said drones are already up to the task. What’s slowing things down are regulations, infrastructure and the investment required to prove the system is safe for neighborhoods. At the inaugural xPizza Day event, held at The Columbia Inn in Montville, New Jersey, earlier this year, Dexa provided the first drone pizza delivery of its kind in the Northeast. Little Caesars and Papa Johns are also testing drone delivery in partnerships with, respectively, Flytrex and Wing. But Erickson doubts pizza brands will eventually operate their own drone fleets. Instead, he anticipates the development of delivery networks, with large logistics providers building the infrastructure and restaurants plugging into their networks. “I don’t think it’ll just be individual drones flying single orders across town,” he says. “You’ll probably see larger drones acting almost like motherships, transporting smaller delivery drones into neighborhoods where they can complete individual deliveries. Combined with advances in mapping, automation and autonomous navigation, you end up with a delivery ecosystem capable of handling far more orders than today’s systems.” Listen to Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast on Apple, Spotify and SoundCloud.

Scan this code to subscribe or renew your subscription to PMQ! Or visit PMQ.com/subscribe.

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ELEVATING THE BUSINESS OF PIZZA

An Arrowfly Publication Volume 30, Issue 8 | October 2026 888-543-2447 ISSN 1940-2007 | Permit #5040

Arrowfly

Content Studio

CEO Matt Logan mlogan@arrowfly.com

Vice President Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@arrowfly.com

Content

Writer Drew Filipski dfilipski@arrowfly.com

Editor in Chief Rick Hynum rhynum@arrowfly.com Associate Editor Tracy Morin tmorin@arrowfly.com Associate Editor/ USPT Coordinator Brian Hernandez bhernandez@arrowfly.com VP, Editorial Director Danny Klein dklein@arrowfly.com Art & Production

Writer Ya’el McCloud ymccloud@arrowfly.com Writer Davina van Buren dvanburen@arrowfly.com Sales & Business Development Senior Vice President, Food, Retail, Hospitality Sales and Account Management Matt Waddell mwaddell@arrowfly.com

Art Director Eric Summers esummers@arrowfly.com

National Sales Manager Tom Boyles tboyles@arrowfly.com

Senior Art Director Tory Bartelt tbartelt@arrowfly.com

Customer Service Representative Brandy Pinion bpinion@arrowfly.com Customer Service Representative Tracy Willingham twillingham@arrowfly.com Founder Steve Green

PMQ PIZZA Issue 8 October 2026 (ISSN 1940-2007, Permit #5040) is published monthly in January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by Arrowfly, 1111 Superior Ave #1120, 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 #1120, 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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OCTOBER 2026 19

5 Keys to Loyalty A strong loyalty/rewards program won’t solve every problem. But if you follow these tips, it can pull guests back through your doors again and again.

One-Off Wonders In tough economic times, establishing your pizzeria’s unique selling proposition can make the difference between a sale and a skip (or a scroll-by).

DAV

ID SOLUM

Go Fish

Flower Power Chefs around the world have turned squash blossoms into a culinary darling, thanks to their mild flavor, tender texture and versatility.

Raising the Bard

The Next Labatte Up Giovanni Labbate discovered there’s one thing more nerve-racking than competing in an event like the REAL California Pizza Challenge: watching your son compete.

Z A L AT P I Z Z A

Kira Zabrowski awoke from a midsummer night’s dream with an idea: the Shakespearethemed Much Ado About Pizza. Since then, she and husband Mark, both former teachers, have been learning—and earning rave Yelp reviews— as they go.

BY RICK HYNUM CO V E R P H OTO CO U RT E SY MUCH ADO ABOUT PIZZA

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: 10 Pizza Pulse 13 Moneymakers 54 Resource Guide 58 Pizza Hall of Fame 8

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

MUCH ADO ABOUT PIZZA

Anchovies face a negative perception among pizza lovers these days, but that just means the classic ingredient is ripe for a modern-day revamp.

HE T

ORIGINA

SINCE 1986

NDIM

M T CO

Dress up your subs.

Available in convenient 32oz foodservice size, 8oz retail, and co-pack

PIZZA PULSE

SHARE YOUR STORY WITH THE PIZZA COMMUNITY PMQ Pizza’s best pizzeria profiles often come directly from subscribers to our free e-newsletter, Pizza Pulse. So if you want to get your story told, sign up at PMQ.com/pizza-pulse to get our attention! Behind every print issue is a growing digital universe, and Pizza Pulse is the gateway. Print can only hold so much, but we can go bigger online: deep-dive profiles, videos, podcasts, social posts, webinars, reader surveys and more. Here’s a look at the latest:

Subscribe to Pizza Pulse for free at PMQ.com/pizza-pulse!

CEO Todd Penegor: A “Transformation” Is Underway at Papa Johns

Working separately but harmoniously, Alexandra Mortati and Christy Alia sparked a transformative movement. Download this report to learn how women have emerged as our community’s true changemaking champions.

After flirting with potential buyers, the chain did an 18-month strategic review and came up with a turnaround plan instead. That includes a focus on loyalty, smarter discounting and more personalized promotions powered by AI.

Read at PMQ.com/pizza-women-on-the-rise

Read at PMQ.com/sbarro-comeback

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

USA Today Shouts Out Best—But Lesser Known— Pizza Shops

It’s always a joy when bestpizza list makers venture to less glamorous cities— like Ames, Iowa, and Want to Get PMQ’s Montgomery, Alabama—in their quest for Attention? Try this! the world’s greatest food. That’s exactly what Create a Reel on Instagram, USA Today did this year.

tag @pmqpizzamag and tell us why we should feature your pizzeria.

Read at PMQ.com/usa-today-best-pizzerias/

W AY FA R E R TAV E R N / U S A TO D AY

In this exclusive deep-dive interview, Sbarro CEO David Karam explains how he engineered one of the pizza industry’s most remarkable comebacks, opening 100 new stores annually for five years in a row.

Read at PMQ.com/papa-johns-transformation SBARRO

How Sbarro’s Growth Exploded After Two Bankruptcies

PA PA J O H N ’ S

LUI S CH AVE Z, SCENE LAB PRODUCTIONS

A PMQ Industry Leadership Report: Pizza Women On the Rise

a zz i P

get a biggeR Every town has pizza. Not every town is a Pizza Town. That’s where Margherita® comes in.

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e c i Sl

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of consumers want more premium pizza toppings.*

*Technomic Pizza Consumer Trend Report, 2025

That’s some serious pepperoni.

MONEYMAKERS

Bradley Alvelo says he averages $12,000 a month in gross sales from his Smart car pizzeria. P I Z Z A P O D N YC

NEW YORK CITY’S SMALLEST PIZZERIA?

HEN BRADLEY ALVELO lost his corporate foodservice job, he found himself at loose ends. He had a baby on the way and was living off his savings. But he didn’t want to return to corporate America. So he took a crazy risk: baking and selling pizzas out of the trunk of his car. Not a truck or trailer, mind you, but a tiny green Smart car he’d purchased several years earlier to score better parking spots. Now Pizza Pod NYC, which Alvelo touts as “New York City’s smallest pizzeria,” has become a street-corner sensation

and a pop-up favorite at breweries and wine bars. He makes his 72-hour-fermented dough in a commercial kitchen, then fires up the pies in portable ovens mounted in the car’s rear space. Numerous influencers have shared his story on social media, doing much of his marketing for him. As Alvelo explained in an August article he wrote for CNBC, “If you’d told the teenager peeling potatoes after school that one day he’d have his own pizzeria—and operate it out of a Smart car, no less—I’m not sure he would have believed you.” OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

MONEYMAKERS P R I N C E ST. P I Z Z A

PRINCE ST. CRANKS UP THE CRUST Prince St. Pizza, the New York City-born chain known for its Sicilian-style squares, opened its 21st location this year in Nashville, but it’s a rock-and-roll brand at heart. Prince St. cranked up the volume this summer in a partnership with Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte in celebration of the bands’ joint 2026 North American tour. The collaboration featured two custom pies and collectible 10” pizza boxes inspired by each band. Avenged Sevenfold served up A Little Pizza Heaven, built with smoked mozzarella, spicy vodka sauce, beef pepperoni, Pecorino, pepperoni bites and Calabrian hot peppers. But the kicker was an activated charcoal-infused dough that yielded a head-banging black crust sure to appeal to metal fans. Good Charlotte, meanwhile, offered its own colorful twist with the Deserve You Pie, featuring a garlic cream base, mozzarella, mushrooms, crumbled sausage, basil pesto, basil leaves, grated Parmesan, whipped cream and—for a blue finish—borage flowers. Pizza shops and live music “have always shared the same energy,” says Prince St. Pizza CEO Lawrence Longo. “We wanted these pies to feel connected to the personalities behind the music and create something fans could experience beyond the concert itself.”

CAVIAR AND PIZZA WEDDINGS

When Palm Beach Mobile asks the bride if she wants caviar at her catered wedding, “I do” is often the answer. PA LM B E AC H MO B I L E

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Prince St. Pizza’s partnership with Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte included collectible boxes and specialty pies inspired by the bands.

Caviar isn’t unusual at posh events, but guests typically have humbler expectations for a pizza wedding. Not so when Palm Beach Mobile in Palm Beach, Florida, is the caterer. Owners Mike Dansak and Allen Dalton have elevated their menu with roving caviar service— specifically, caviar blini, tiny Russian pancakes topped with a dollop of crème fraîche, lemon and savory fish roe. Guests can also dig into freshly shucked oysters with mignonette and, for dessert, Nutella calzones and cannoli piped to order with chocolate chips, maraschino cherries or pistachios. “These are designed to complement the pizza and give clients the ability to create a more complete food and hospitality experience while keeping everything mobile and interactive,” Dansak says. Dansak launched his first mobile pizza business, Mikey’s Pizza Co., in 2023 before meeting Dalton at one of his events. Together, they conceived Palm Beach Mobile and set out to “build something together that went beyond pizza,” Dansak says. “Pizza remains at the center of what we do, but these additional offerings allow us to…create a more intimate experience.”

A day here can

CHANGE YOUR WHOLE YEAR. If one day could HELP you run a more profitable pizza business… would you take it?

At the Pizza Tomorrow Summit, you’ll find real solutions to the every-day challenges you’re facing right now:

REDUCING food and labor

COSTS

Discovering new menu ideas that

DRIVE PROFIT

FINDING SUPPLIERS that fit your business

LEARNING

from operators who are

DOING IT RIGHT

Built for busy operators! You’ll walk away with practical ideas you can put to work immediately.

oct 25-27, 2026 Orange County Convention Center // Orlando, FL

PIZZATOMORROW.COM

FRESH STRATEGIES SERVED HOT! This isn’t just an event — it’s the East Coast’s leading trade show for pizza operators and restaurant professionals ready to grow, adapt, and stay ahead. Over three high-impact days, you’ll discover fresh ideas, smarter solutions, and real opportunities to improve your bottom line. Whether it’s a conversation with a supplier, a live demo, or a breakthrough you can take straight back to your shop, this is where momentum starts. Now in our 5th year serving the pizza community, Pizza Tomorrow Summit brings together: Hundreds of LEADING SUPPLIERS AND SOLUTION PROVIDERS— all under one roof. FREE EXPERT-LED EDUCATION to help increase margins and streamline operations.

40+ HOURS OF SESSIONS covering social media, trends, leadership, new revenue streams, and more. The LATEST MENU TRENDS AND INNOVATIONS shaping what’s next in pizza.

LIVE COMPETITIONS featuring the U.S. Pizza Team. THOUSANDS OF OPERATORS investing in the future of their businesses.

Whether you run a single location or a growing chain, this is your opportunity to connect, source, learn, and move your business forward. Rediscover your spark. Re-focus your strategy. Return with ideas that drive real results.

Plus – your registration includes access to the co-located Florida Restaurant Show.

Attend two shows with just one badge!

THE TEXT THAT WORKS AFTER THE ORDER Turn SMS into loyalty, feedback, reviews, and repeat orders. ADOBE

ST O C K

Sponsored by PizzaCloud

or most pizzerias, text messaging has traditionally been a straightforward transactional tool.

It confirms an order, signals that a driver is on the way, or delivers a promotion to a broad list of customers. Those functions still matter. But the most valuable SMS conversation may begin after the order is complete. That post-order moment gives operators a chance to learn what guests thought, recover a poor experience before it becomes a public complaint, invite happy customers to share a review, and create another reason to order. It can also help a 18

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

pizzeria build a permission-based marketing list, encourage customers to use digital ordering, and generate demand during a slow period. For independent operators, the opportunity is not to add another complicated marketing program. It is to use a channel customers already see quickly and make it relevant correctly to the guest, the daypart, and the immediate needs of the business. “Text messaging is 90 to 95 percent read rate in 10 minutes,” says John

Scully of PizzaCloud. “If I send you a text message, you tend to look at it right now.” That immediacy distinguishes text messaging from email, where an operator may wait days to learn whether a message was even opened. It also changes how campaigns should be designed. A message that reaches a guest quickly should be sent with a purpose, not simply blasted to every contact at the same time. PizzaCloud helps pizzerias use SMS, MMS, and RCS messaging across that broader customer journey. Its platform can support order-status notifications, opt-ins, marketing outreach, postorder surveys, review requests, and targeted ordering prompts. It can

By Drew Filipski | Sponsored by PizzaCloud

S H U T T E R STO C K

also send messages from a store’s existing phone number rather than an unfamiliar number generated by a third-party messaging provider. When a customer recognizes the number, a message feels more like communication from the pizzeria they chose and less like an anonymous marketing interruption. For operators, it also creates a more unified way to manage customer communication across phone, ordering, and marketing workflows. The period immediately following an order is a critical point of contact. The guest remembers whether the pizza arrived on time, whether the order was right, and whether the experience met expectations. Without a direct feedback channel, an unhappy customer may take that frustration to Google, Yelp, or social media before an operator knows there is a problem. PizzaCloud’s post-order survey tools are designed to give guests an easier path. After a purchase, a customer can receive a text asking for a simple rating of the experience. A guest who selects a poor rating is directed up to a page that asks how the restaurant can improve. That feedback is emailed to the restaurant’s designated contact.

If a guest reports a fantastic experience, the same workflow can direct the guest to a public review platform selected by the restaurant. The objective is straightforward: resolve concerns privately when possible, while making it easy for satisfied customers to share positive feedback publicly. “The goal is to simultaneously get ahead of people who might be flaming you on social media, while vastly increasing the number of fivestar reviews,” Scully says. A pizzeria cannot fix a problem it does not know about, and a simple post-order question can give the business a chance to listen while the experience is still fresh. An effective SMS strategy starts with an audience that has agreed to hear from the restaurant. PizzaCloud offers several ways to invite guests to join a text club or loyalty program, including automated prompts during phone or purchase interactions, dynamic opt-in web pages, and oneclick QR codes. For pizzerias, the QR code can fit naturally into the operation. It can appear on a box topper, a label applied to every pizza box, or a tabletop sign. When a guest scans the code, the phone’s messaging

app opens with a preloaded opt-in message addressed to the store’s phone number. The customer taps send to join. The placement is simple, but the timing is powerful. A customer who has just received a pizza is already thinking about the brand. Giving that guest a frictionless way to join the list can turn a one-time transaction into a direct relationship that supports future digital orders and repeat visits.

For some operators, SMS has become a real-time demandgeneration tool. Instead of sending one message to a list of thousands, an operator might send the offer to 400 customers, with that message being able to generate eight to 10 orders. PizzaCloud’s dynamic opt-in pages include the required terms and privacy information. Those details are important because application-to-person messaging is regulated. Before a restaurant can send automated marketing, account, or status messages, the business and its intended messaging uses must be registered and approved through the applicable campaign-registration process. Some point-of-sale providers include the necessary opt-in language, but others may not give operators the ability to add it. PizzaCloud created its own opt-in

pages to help restaurants meet those requirements and move forward with text messaging. Pizzerias have long relied on deals to trigger orders. SMS gives operators another option: stay memorable without always giving something away. “Half your messages, even maybe three out of five messages, can be a non-offer message,” Scully says. A timely message tied to weather, a game, a local occasion, or an ordinary Tuesday can put pizza back into the customer’s consideration set. The call to action is simple: an order link and a reminder of what the customer likes about the restaurant. This message can drive engagement while preserving the value of an offer for the moments when one is needed. PizzaCloud also allows operators to pace campaigns. A pizzeria can schedule a lunchoriented message for customers who tend to purchase around midday and a different message for dinner customers. It can distribute a campaign across several days and time windows instead of creating an operational rush all at once. “There is no universal best time to send a message,” Scully says. “Each pizzeria serves a different customer base.” PizzaCloud works with operators to understand those patterns and give examples of how

other pizzerias use the platform. For some operators, SMS has become a real-time demandgeneration tool. Instead of sending one message to a list of thousands, an operator might send the offer to 400 customers, with that message being able to generate eight to 10 orders. At a message cost of 1.5 cents, sending 400 messages costs $6. PizzaCloud is developing a mobile-app feature that will let operators create a generateorders campaign. When the dining room is quiet or delivery orders slow down, the operator can choose how many customers should receive the campaign. This tool allows for on-demand order generation. For an independent pizzeria, the promise of a new tool can be undermined if it requires more logins. PizzaCloud is designed to reduce that friction by integrating with available point-of-sale, loyalty, and ordering systems. When the platform is integrated with a point-of-sale system, post-order surveys can be automated. The operator selects the survey and turns on data integration. PizzaCloud pulls the relevant information and sends the message based on the established workflow. The platform can support singleunit and multi-unit operators.

A multi-unit brand can build a message template, select locations, and choose the appropriate audience for each store. The system customizes the message and sends it from each location’s phone number. PizzaCloud’s SMS rates start at 2.2 cents per message and decline with volume, according to Scully. The company does not charge a different rate based on whether a text is an order-status notification, a marketing message, an opt-in, or a survey. That usage-based model appeals to budget-conscious pizzeria operators that want to test messaging without adding a large fixed fee for multiple platforms. Scully recommends that operators new to the channel begin with a bulk messaging campaign, monitor the results, and avoid overcommunicating. Once a pizzeria understands the basics, it can add surveys, review requests, segmented daypart campaigns, opt-in QR codes, and real-time order generation. The pizza order may be complete, but the customer relationship is not. With a more strategic approach to SMS, pizzerias can use that next message to protect their reputation, invite feedback, create demand, and give guests another easy reason to order again. 

To learn more about PizzaCloud, visit www.pizzacloud.net.

Keys to Loyalty

A D O B E STO C K /A N D R E W_S H OTS | P H OTO I L LU ST R AT I O N BY E R I C S U M M E R S

A powerhouse loyalty program won’t fix every problem, but it will help bring back lost customers, drive repeat business and encourage bigger spends. BY MATT PLAPP

HE NO. 1 MARKETING lever you can pull inside your pizzeria’s four walls is your loyalty program. Not a billboard or radio spot—the program sitting right there in your point-of-sale system that most owners treat like an afterthought. As I’ve said before, you can’t out-footprint the chains. I’m sitting in Northern Kentucky right now, and every single route out of my office runs past a different Chipotle. On a drive to downtown Cincinnati, I might pass 10 of them. Your brand will probably never have 10 locations in the same metro area, and you can’t match Chipotle’s marketing budget.

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

A D O B E STO C K / S U PATM A N

But the average consumer opens their phone 144 times a day for social media, email, texting and browsing the internet. You, me, your employees, your customers—we all live on that device. So while you can’t win the physical footprint, you can absolutely dominate on your customer’s phone. That’s where loyalty lives. You attract attention, you build a database, and you leverage a loyalty program to pull those guests back through your doors again and again. Loyalty won’t fix everything. It’s not going to win you a ton of brand-new customers. But it crushes the other three ways to grow sales: by bringing back lost customers, persuading guests to spend more when they visit, and driving repeat visits. Here’s how to do it.

Key No. 1: Build a System to Constantly Gain New Members

a system. If your employees have to wash their hands every time they leave the bathroom, you can have an SOP for how every single guest gets asked to join your loyalty program. Then let your graphics do the work your team forgets to. Here’s the cheat code: Build three sets of loyalty-program graphics up front, a different look for each quarter—pink in July, blue in August, red in September. Because that same black-and-red poster your regulars have walked past 10 times has already become wallpaper. After that, layer in auto-enrollment for online ordering where your POS allows it, and use digital ads as a fourth traffic source. Just know that loyalty ads convert softer than an acquisition offer, because someone seeing you for the first time doesn’t feel loyal yet.

Every loyalty program launches with a honeymoon. You get Key No. 2: An Opt-In Offer That Makes People Feel two or three months of momentum, and then it falls off a Stupid Saying No cliff. Why? Because you’ll quickly burn through your early I saw a restaurant the other day offering $5 off to join their adopters. Every restaurant has die-hards who’ll take any offer rewards program. Come on. I could have the best meal of you put out, even a bad one. Once they’re in, however, the my month in your dining room, and when your server says, well runs dry—unless you “Scan this for five bucks keep filling it. off,” I’m not exactly fired Papa Kelsey’s Pizza & up. Language matters. “Your If you’re adding 20 to 50 new loyalty Subs in Mesa, Arizona, next visit is on us” hits program members a month and losing has run the same loyalty completely different than program since 2010. From “$5 off.” Alternatively, “50% that many out the back door, you’re March 2024 forward, they off ” sounds like you’re standing still. So build a system. went from $33,000 in halfway to free, even when monthly loyalty sales to $10 off is the bigger number. more than $40,000. They Your job is to find the offer added five to 10 grand per month. They didn’t do it by raising that makes people feel stupid for not taking it. It may be prices or by squeezing existing members, but by adding a free entrée, a free birthday reward or a free appetizer— members. More people, more chances to sell. something with real gravity. Most restaurants don’t grow because they don’t outpace And your staff has to believe in it, too. If your cashier the leak. Every month, people divorce you, move away or die. thinks the offer is weak, they’ll pitch it like it’s weak. Give If you’re adding 20 to 50 new members a month and losing them something they’re excited to hand over, and you’ll get that many out the back door, you’re standing still. So build more sign-ups without begging. 20

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

AUTHENTIC SAUCE HAS NEVER BEEN THIS EASY

CIAO FROM ITALY IN EVERY CAN CIAOTOMATOES

ORLANDOFOODS.COM/CIAO

Key No. 3: A Win-Back Program Built Around the Customer’s Cycle

profit and rewired their best customers to spend more in the future.

Most win-back programs are shallow. Your customer misses a visit, they get one reminder, and then the software gives Key No. 5: Survey First, Five-Star Review Second up. That’s a miss. The good ones track the missed-visit cycle Restaurants don’t ask for reviews nearly enough, and the around each customer’s actual rhythm. If Mike usually hits ones that do often go about it backward. They email every your shop every seven days and doesn’t show up on day seven, guest a “leave us a review” link. But what if the visit stunk? he should hear from you on day eight. But if he comes to You just handed an unhappy customer a megaphone on your your restaurant every 14 days, reminding him on day eight Google profile. makes no sense. He hasn’t fallen out of his routine yet. Conduct a survey first. After a visit, your loyalty program So ask your system: How are missed visits tracked, and should send a short survey: “How was your experience?” If how many win-back cycles can you run? Three to five they rate it five stars, then you send the review link—and attempts in a 60- to 90-day send it for one specific window is a strong effort. platform, not three. Pick Then make the offers the one platform where Language matters. “Your next visit is on escalate. If Mike hasn’t come you need the most love. us” hits completely different than “$5 in for 50 days, your offer for However, if they give you off.” Alternatively, “50% off” sounds like week five needs to be much four stars, thank them and move on, because a stronger than your offer for you’re halfway to free, even when $10 four actually drags down week one. off is the bigger number. And do not lean only on a profile that you’re trying the software. The phone in to push toward five. If they your pocket makes calls. If give you a three or below, a guest came 30 times last year and then vanished for two call them and fix it. One restaurant I knew sat at 4.8 inside their loyalty system while their online review rating lagged. months, give them a ring. Ask, “Hey, did we do something Once they funneled only the five-star crowd to the right wrong? Haven’t seen you in a bit.” Half the time, they moved. For the other half, you just might save a regular. platform, the public number climbed.

Key No. 4: Smart Offers That Change the Spending Habit

Ten years ago, LaRosa’s Pizza, a Cincinnati-based chain, ran a promo where you downloaded the app and got three free cookies. I took the bait, figuring the cookies would be nothing special. They were fire. Now, I still buy cookies there every single time I go. That’s the whole idea behind a smart offer: Give someone an excuse to spend a little more and try something they’d never have tried. Here’s a breakdown with real numbers from one restaurant I worked with. One segment of customers was averaging about $31 per ticket. A campaign went out: Spend $48 or more and get double points—no free food, no discount, just points. Those guests jumped to around $80 per visit. Yes, it’s a really big leap, but we see that from time to time with these kinds of programs. To hit the threshold, customers added wings and a dessert and discovered new favorites, which reset what “normal” looked like on their next trip. Across all 10 customer segments, that one campaign drove 106 orders and a total spend bump of $5,257. That’s five grand these guests would not have spent without the nudge. The only cost is food; at 30% food cost, that’s roughly $1,500. So that business just cleared around $3,000 in incremental 22

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Do the Math, Then Do the Work

I talked to a Dominate-level client this morning. Three years in, his loyalty program accounts for 29% of monthly sales—it’s humming. But 70% still comes from everything else, which is exactly why loyalty is one piece of a bigger plan, not the whole plan. And it compounds. One client did $16,222 in loyalty sales in January of 2022. They got serious about growing the database in 2023, leaned in harder in 2024, and three years later that same program does more than $40,000 a month— it’s almost tripled. This comes not from raising prices, but from adding members and pulling the right levers. Here’s the one thing to do today: Go pull your restaurant’s Google rating and your review count and do the math on what it will take to move the needle. If you’re at 4.3 and you stacked 15 five-star reviews per month (one every other day), you’d be climbing toward a 4.5 within the year. Then build the SOP to actually ask for reviews, starting with your loyalty database and the guests who already love you. Matt Plapp is the CEO of America’s Best Restaurants and a contributor to PMQ.com.

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Pizza meets pedagogy at the Shakespearethemed Much Ado About Pizza, where two former teachers offer delightful touches that engage— and educate—customers of all ages. BY TRACY MORIN

IMAGES COURTESY MUCH ADO ABOUT PIZZA

HEN TWO FORMER TEACHERS found themselves elbowdeep in pizza dough—and ready to open the doors of their pizzeria—they returned to what they know best: education. For Kira and Mark Zabrowski, managing partners of Much Ado About Pizza in Pleasanton, California, that academic attention infuses everything from their extensive pre-opening research on sourdough to their in-store customer experience, complete with a mini library and Shakespearean insult posters.

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble (Macbeth)

The Zabrowskis admit they knew little about opening a pizzeria when they started on their path to pizzeria ownership. Mark had a business degree, and Kira’s background was in theater. Both were teachers in a private school, where the closest they got to “foodservice” was orchestrating massive charitable drives to help locals in need. “We didn’t know what we needed to know,” Mark says with a laugh. “You don’t know what you don’t know.” What they did know was that they wanted to build a family business—one in which the couple and their two kids, Mark Jr. and Zoe (now 18 and 16), could spend time together while also continue giving back to their community. They envisioned four pillars of contribution: feeding the hungry, supporting education, supporting the arts and supporting entrepreneurship. Baking initially started as a hobby for Kira, who delved into bread making during the pandemic. “I’d always been a baker; Mark’s always been the chef,” Kira says. “Teaching online [during COVID], I would come downstairs and bake between classes, and I got a huge passion for sourdough. I read books like Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. I 26

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Theater, Shakespeare and education unite in the small but mighty interior of Much Ado About Pizza, a carryout-focused shop that offers visitors plenty of reading material to enjoy while they wait.

started growing my starter using his recipe and having success with my starter and my bread skills. I had the idea: If we could be a family business, what would be a good family business? And pizza just came to me.” After experimenting with pizza dough at home, the couple attended a pizza trade show in 2021, gathering information for their dream business, and drummed up a 50-page business

plan. They started serving pizza at local wineries and found a former Papa Murphy’s location to house their pizzeria—meaning they’d be confined to a carryout-focused business. Despite the space’s limitations, the Zabrowskis took the plunge. They signed the lease on April Fool’s Day 2022, opened their doors on Memorial Day, closed their last grade books as full-time teachers on June 10, and held

“We were like, ‘Let’s just open the doors and see what happens!’ It was a mess. It was a disaster…. We had to shoo [people] away!” Kira Zabrowski, Much Ado About Pizza

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“When we first opened, we did the mailers, the receipt ads, the local magazine ads. People didn’t come in from any of those. What brings them in are the press releases and social media [about] USPT competitions.” Mark Zabrowski, Much Ado About Pizza

So We Grew Together (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Mark and Kira Zabrowski’s teenage daughter, Zoe, pitches in at the pizzeria and was named Young Pizza Maker of the Year in a 2025 competition.

a grand-opening ribbon cutting on July 22. “We were like, ‘Let’s just open the doors and see what happens!’” Kira says. “It was a mess. It was a disaster. The restaurant could hold maybe 10 people and feel full. We had 15 or 20 people waiting, and people wanted to stay. We had to shoo them away!” While Mark admits their first year was “really challenging,” the couple had opened their doors on a shoestring—and they were determined to succeed. A major breakthrough arrived when Yelp reached out with the news of their 28

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glowing online reviews, landing Much Ado About Pizza on the Yelp Top 100 in 2024 (an achievement they would repeat the following year). Unfortunately, they weren’t quite staffed to handle the extra attention. “We scrambled to hire a bunch of terrible people,” Mark says. “We figured out what hiring was, figured out defining our roles more. A lot of it’s been learning on the fly and—” “Being thrown into the fire—like, completely,” Kira finishes. “We learned by failing.”

What they lacked in experience, the Zabrowskis made up for in sheer willingness to learn and remain hands-on in every aspect of their business. And, as they’ve found their footing, Mark Jr. and Zoe have developed their own unique skills to improve the pizzeria. Mark Jr., who drew the Much Ado logo, is “a great assistant manager,” Kira says. Zoe, meanwhile, relishes the culinary side, even winning Young Pizza Maker of the Year at the 2025 Pizza Tomorrow Summit. “Mark [ Jr.] likes to run the oven, build the dough balls and handle the back of house,” Kira says. “Zoe can be at front, talking with the customers, or making pizzas. So they’re kind of like us—she’s like me, and Mark [ Jr.] is like Mark.” “It’s funny how the kids sort of fell into those roles,” Mark adds. “When we first started, they were like, ‘Why are you making us do this?’ But they’re starting to see value [in the work].” Family members remain the sole employees, other than a couple of high school students helping out with dishwashing a couple of hours each week. Meanwhile, they’ve built an extended family through the pizza

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Much Ado About Pizza’s interactive pizza boxes come with detachable pizza bibs, ideal for playful photo ops— another “surprise and delight” element that’s also social media-friendly.

Much Ado co-owner Kira Zabrowski is a vegetarian, so the couple maintains a healthy balance of both veggieforward and carnivore-friendly specialty pies.

community, including joining PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team (USPT), networking with members who are happy to help the relative newbies. And though they may be former teachers, the Zabrowskis are also lifelong students. “I think that was a huge turning point for us: discovering the competitive world of pizza,” Kira says. “My first competition was a virtual one—I sent in my recipe and met [USPT coordinator] Brian Hernandez. Then Brian introduced us to Lars Smith [of State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria], and he opened his doors to us—another turning point, where we got to spend three hours with him, talking about what it’s like to own a pizzeria, and things we should know. These moments confirmed: ‘Hey, this is really cool. I think we can do this.’ [There’s a lot of ] camaraderie behind the scenes...90% 30

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“We love a good pun. That’s been so much fun. Now our customers will come in and pitch an idea for a pizza, and they’ll have a funny name for it.” Kira Zabrowski, Much Ado About Pizza

of these people want to talk to you and share their knowledge.” As a bonus, the competitions they’ve joined as USPT members have generated invaluable local attention. “When we first opened, we did the mailers, the receipt ads, the local magazine ads,” Mark says. “People didn’t come in from any of those. What brings them in are the press releases and social media [about] everything we do in competitions.”

All the World’s a Stage (As You Like It)

Much Ado About Pizza almost didn’t happen—at least, in name and concept. The Shakespearean theme was a happy accident, formed by necessity when the couple found out their original name, Pizza Love, was already copyrighted. “It was a midsummer night’s eve, and I woke up, and it popped out of my brain,” Kira recalls. “I could see the logo: a cartoon

Mark and Kira Zabrowski recently got matching tattoos that incorporate pizza slices—with their typical humorous twist.

Shakespeare eating pizza. What about Much Ado About Pizza? And Mark was like, ‘Huh?’ I said, ‘We could have a pizza called Hamlet! Then, if they want to build a pizza, it’d be called As You Like It!’ I was like, ‘That’s it. That’s it. Boom!’” Kira, after all, had a degree in theater and worked in Shakespearean productions—The Bard had long been a big part of her life. “And we love a good pun,” she adds. “That’s been so much fun. Now our customers will come in and pitch an idea for a pizza, and they’ll have a funny name for it.” Kira even wrote a fictional backstory for the pizzeria, emblazoned on its website and pizza boxes—explaining that Shakespeare spent his “lost years,” around college age, searching for the perfect pizza crust around the world (think New York, Detroit and, yes, even Missouri). Much Ado, of course, stumbled upon and “decoded” this secret Shakespearean recipe for 21st-century customers. “Thy melody of this crust, paired with mine own special sauce and premium cheese, will be truly poetical!” the tongue-in-cheek backstory explains. A second crust option, the Marlowe, is a rectangular pan style—also invented out of necessity while catering at wineries (square slices were easier to juggle with wine glasses). After the Zabrowskis opened the carryout business, customers requested

the same style in-store. “Sometimes your customers help you write your menu,” Mark says. “Marlowe is Shakespeare’s friendly nemesis,” Kira adds. “We figure the crust is inflated because Marlowe was the blowhard. People don’t always get it, but I don’t care if they don’t.” Fortunately, for the uninitiated, the entire pizzeria serves as a Shakespeare learning lab. “We just went into teacher mode,” Mark says. “We’ve got posters with Shakespearean insults, a picture of [Shakespeare’s theater]

the Globe, a small library of different plays and sonnets in the corner, and Yorick [from Hamlet]—a Halloween skull that’s sitting around the shop in different places. It was important to us to immerse people in [Shakespearean lore], because I knew not everybody was going to get it right away. We also wear [Renaissance-era] hats, and we try to always use the language.” Kids love the space for its delightful touches, like retro arcade games, stickers and coloring sheets. Even the pizza boxes are interactive, creatively

What started as a pandemic-era hobby for Kira Zabrowski—baking sourdough—creates the foundation of Much Ado’s award-winning pizzas today.

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

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Miniature games in-store inject a bit of retro fun into the Shakespearethemed Much Ado About Pizza.

designed with rotating Shakespeare themes (such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the summer months). The Zabrowskis encourage people to take pictures of their dogs with the boxes and send them in. The menu, of course, also relies heavily on the Bard, with punny pizza names like Fowl-Staff and Taming of the Chew. Social media pages and events further reinforce the pizzeria’s focus on creativity, humor and community—underscored by the couple’s continued focus on giving back to local charities.

What’s Past Is Prologue (The Tempest)

While they have realized significant success in their first five years in business, the Zabrowskis have only begun their pizza journey. At the same time, they remain realistic about their limitations, since the four family members handle almost every task in the business. (“Some days, I need roller skates,” Mark jokes.) But, just as they’ve done all along, they expect to figure it out as they go. “Our goal when we started was to replace our teacher salaries, and that’s pretty much where we’re at,” Mark says. “But in order to hire more, you have to be able to produce more, and the system that we have in place has a cap. The demand’s there, and you want to meet the demand—so will we

stay here and just figure out what the model looks like? Is it going to be a bigger location? Or a second location, which we don’t like? The whole idea was for us to hang out together and be together, but if you open another location, somebody’s going to be at the other location. So we’re on the fence. “The thing about Kira and me is, we’re both kind of restless souls,” Mark continues. “We’re kicking ideas around. But we’re the boots on the ground. I’m not directing kids to make pizzas; I’m stretching the pizzas, I’m cooking the pizzas. And 90% of the time, we’re doing everything. So once we hit the shop, nothing happens with business growth. All that stuff goes out the window; we’re just [focusing on] orders today. Some things take us a month. Some things take us six months. Some things we revisit from last year or two years ago that we wanted to do. That’s just the way it goes. A lot of things are a slow burn. But you’ll hear more noise from Much Ado.” “We’re going to noise it up,” Kira promises. “We’re noisy. Shouting from the mountaintops. I’ve always been a firm believer: If it’s meant to be, it’s going to come and it’s going to be so obvious, and we’re going to know what to do.” Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.

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One-Off

Wonders From a scorching-hot “Reaper Roulette” challenge to offering 60-plus regional pizza styles, unique selling propositions are building buzz—and sales— for these three operators. BY TRACY MORIN

USTOMERS WILL ALWAYS APPRECIATE THE BASICS— memorable food, thoughtful customer service—but in these tough economic times, establishing points of differentiation is increasingly important. From social media-friendly gimmicks to over-the-top menu items, unique selling propositions (USPs) can make the difference between a sale and a skip (or a scroll-by). TAY LO R S’ P I Z Z A H O U S E

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

“Different from branding or marketing, a USP is basically what you have that the other guy doesn’t,” says George Taylor, co-owner of Taylors’ Pizza House in Endwell, New York. “What are you selling that’s unique to you?” Here, Taylor and two other creative operators share how their USPs attract customers and keep them coming back.

Reaper Roulette

Grown to 30-plus locations since its 2015 launch, Zalat Pizza is on fire—in more ways than one. For CEO Khanh Nguyen, it was his Vietnamese pho concept, DaLat, that inspired his pizza brand’s Reaper Roulette challenge. “We put one drop of a 5-million-Scoville sauce into a bowl of pho—what we call a ‘transcendent’ spice experience,” he explains. “I wanted to bring that idea to Zalat, but pizza has no broth to dilute the heat, so we had to dial it back. That eventually became Reaper Roulette, which we developed in 2020 during COVID as something fun for people stuck at home together.” Nguyen put a team member in charge of the program, and the group tested about 50 hot sauces over six months. “I remember those tasting sessions—imagine a room full of people tasting 10 nuclear-level hot sauces in one sitting and then trying to rationally discuss flavor and heat,” Nguyen says with a laugh. “They were unforgettable and a lot of fun. I insisted it be authentic: If we say it’s hot, it has to actually be hot. One customer described Reaper Roulette in a Google review as ‘licking the surface of the sun.’ That told me we got it about right.”

Logistically, it’s an easy add: For $2.50, the customer can request Reaper Roulette on any pizza. The staff member hides drops of Reaper sauce on a single slice (after cutting the pizza, so the heat stays contained to that slice). “We’ve developed some tricks over the years to make it difficult to spot,” Nguyen says. “Everyone grabs a slice and finds out who loses.” This popular offer no longer requires a constant marketing push, but about once a year, Zalat will run a promotion around the challenge. Last January, for example, courageous customers could add the option for free. And now it’s customers themselves who spread the news like wildfire. “Since we’re primarily delivery and takeout, people do it at home or work with friends, family and co-workers, and we’ve seen tons of customer videos over the years,” Nguyen says. “Six years in, we’re still selling about 2,000 Reaper Roulettes a month, systemwide. “It’s just cool,” he adds. “We’re very serious about our pizza, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re irreverent. We want our customers to have fun with our brand. Reaper Roulette turns ordering a pizza into a shared experience— everybody grabs a slice, somebody gets blown up, and everyone else gets to laugh.”

“Six years in, we’re still selling about 2,000 Reaper Roulettes a month, systemwide. It’s just cool.” Khanh Nguyen, Zalat Pizza

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“The [unique selling proposition] is what you have that the other guy doesn’t; the branding is how you project that image; and the marketing is how you get that message to customers.” George Taylor, Taylors’ Pizza House

House of Style

Taylors’ Pizza House complements its USP—offering three different styles of pizza, using toppings that customers can’t find anywhere else in the area—with memorable branding: a ’90s grunge-themed restaurant built in a former house. “It’s funny, I would not call having a dining room a USP, but I think that it won’t be long before it will be,” says George Taylor, co-owner with his wife, Patti. “Many pizzerias are choosing to downsize and get rid of their dining rooms, which allows for better labor costs and margins. But, at some point, things are going to swing so far the other way that you might be the only person in town with a dining room. Then it becomes a unique selling proposition!” On the menu, the Taylors offer New York-style, Detroitstyle and tavern-style pizzas. Specialty pies use ingredients such as Peppadews, juices and artichoke hearts, and they’re all named after ’90s grunge and alternative bands. “We tie everything together in our social media and direct mail marketing,” Taylor says. “Our dining room is filled with band posters from that era, and we play ’90s grunge music in the restaurant. One might say that exclusivity could be a USP as well. The USP is what you have that the other guy doesn’t; the branding is how you project that image; and the marketing is how you get that message to customers.”

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Most other pizzerias in the area offer only New Yorkstyle pizzas. Only one offers Detroit-style, and no one else is tackling the tavern style. “If we can get them hooked, especially on the Detroit and tavern pizzas, then they have to come back to us,” Taylor says. “If we can get them to come in for what they know they like—New York-style pizza—and then offer great food and service so that they want to come back and try the other styles, then we’ve done our job. That’s why we have different styles and ingredients: It helps us stand out. The branding of our pizzas and restaurant theme as a ’90s grunge and alternative place adds to the vibe. I am selling the experience, and it does become a part of the USP in that sense.” For other operators seeking a standout USP, Taylor recommends looking for a gap in the local market—what will give you an edge over the competition? “And the competition isn’t just pizzerias anymore,” Taylor says. “With the advent of DoorDash Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc., you have to compete against a lot of other different types of food, so having something that they can’t get anywhere else is imperative. And just having a USP isn’t enough—you have to let people know that you have it. Social media is a great way to do that, and cheap as well, especially if you can find a way to get not just followers but get your actual customers to follow along with you and translate it into sales.”

“We have brought more than 60 different styles of pizza to our customers….so many people living here are from all over the lower 48, it only makes sense to offer a comfort food that…reminds them of home.” Mike Wagner, Wagner’s Pizza Bus

Legions of Regions

Working from a remote location outside Fairbanks, Alaska, in a nontraditional format (a mobile operation), Mike and Diana Wagner, owners of Wagner’s Pizza Bus, are used to doing things differently. Their pizza journey started in 2007, when they decided to leave their home region of Northeastern Pennsylvania for a major life change. “We sold most everything we had, packed up our three little kids— our youngest was only two years old—and our nine husky sled dogs, and drove to Fairbanks, Alaska, chasing snow,” Mike recalls. After a successful run in a brick-and-mortar shop— “selling pizzas, hoagies, wings, milkshakes and 16 flavors of ice cream, all foods we knew growing up in Pennsylvania,” Mike says—the building owner decided to sell to someone else. “We took our last bit of savings and bought a school bus I spotted sitting along the road that just had an old sign on it that said ‘pizza bus for sale,” he continues. “With the owner’s permission, we set up shop about 10 miles down the road at another empty, out-of-business store. Over the next couple of years, we did all the local events, fairs and carnivals. At that time, there were only a few food trucks in the area.” While Diana home-schooled their three kids, she handstretched every pizza. Eventually, the Wagners realized there were few regional styles sold in the area, so they

added Chicago deep-dish and Detroit-style pizzas, then the Sicilian and pan-fried styles they grew up with. Soon, Pennsylvania’s Old Forge pizza made the menu. “My interest in other regional styles of pizza was growing,” Mike says. “So, with a lot of research and trial and error, we grew to 10, then 20, then 30, different regional styles of pizza—even one of the most controversial pizzas, known as the Altoona Hotel pizza from Altoona, Pennsylvania. We have brought more than 60 different styles of pizza to our customers.” Unsurprisingly, such an approach has spread the word about the Wagners’ operation far and wide. “Tourist customers come in, telling us they heard about us at their airport in Texas or California, or in a travel brochure in London,” Mike says. “What we do works for us and might not work for others, but if you stand behind what you do and are happy, that’s what matters. We were the first to bring most of these styles of pizzas to Alaska. “We’ve never claimed to be perfect or the best, but since so many people living here are from all over the lower 48, it only makes sense to offer a comfort food that, even for a little bit, reminds them of home,” Mike adds. “When people are missing a taste of their home, they can come to us for the pizza they remember.” Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

GO FISH

With smart sourcing, proper preparation and attention to balance, you can transform anchovies from a customer turnoff to a premium-priced luxury upgrade. BY TRACY MORIN

A D O B E STO C K / N E W A F R I C A

NCE A MUST-HAVE ON PIZZERIA MENUS, anchovies now face a negative perception among much of the pizza ordering public. But that only means this classic ingredient is ripe for receiving a modern-day revamp. With umami richness, a long shelf life and versatile applications, anchovies may be your next secret-weapon ingredient for pizzas, pastas, salads and more. Here, three award-winning members of PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team explain how.

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

David Jacobson, owner, Cheezy’s Artisan Pizza, San Francisco, CA

LO G A N + W O O D W A R D

C H E EZ Y ’ S A RT I S A N P I Z Z A

In our Caesar salad, we use anchovies in the dressing like everyone, but we use white anchovies as a garnish, too. For events with the catering arm of our business, we also wrap them around stuffed olives, tapas-style. I’m especially a fan of Spanish boquerones. They offer a completely different sensory experience than the old-school oil-packed anchovy—the pickling process changes the protein structure, reduces harsh salinity, and creates a bright, acid-forward flavor profile. Pickled and brined flavors are having a major moment right now, and boquerones fit perfectly. Anchovies also align with the premium tinned fish trend. When I developed the pizza program at Acre Kitchen & Bar in “From a culinary science standpoint, anchovies are one of Oakland, one of the most popular orders was the most efficient umami delivery systems we have.” a curated selection of high-quality tinned fish served with housemade focaccia. Diners treated it like a premium experience. When David Jacobson, Cheezy’s Artisan Pizza anchovies are framed in that same conservas context—thoughtful sourcing, Spanish how anchovies interact with acid, fat and aromatics to create provenance, clean flavor—they stop being a a cohesive flavor system. polarizing topping and start being a luxury ingredient. Honestly, anchovies are a polarizing ingredient. People From a culinary science standpoint, anchovies are one of are either pro-fish or anti-fish on pizza. You can’t persuade the most efficient umami delivery systems we have. When someone to like them—you can only create genuine you emulsify them into something like bagna cauda, you’re excitement and give customers a way to experience anchovy dispersing glutamates throughout the sauce, which amplifies flavor in a controlled, modern format. On the operational savory depth without requiring the guest to commit to a side, they’re incredibly practical. You can buy a few kilos, whole fillet. It’s a way to use anchovies as functional flavor keep them for a long time, and use them across multiple rather than a visual topping. applications without worrying about waste. Anchovies pair best with ingredients that either complement their umami structure or help balance their salinity. Anything acid-forward works beautifully—lemon, David Solum, general manager, vinegar, pickled peppers, capers—because acid sharpens Logan + Woodward, Watertown, SD the anchovy’s brightness. Aromatics like garlic, shallots At Pizza Expo last year, I competed with a pizza that had and caramelized onions are natural partners, because the anchovies, with a champagne cream sauce, lemon, capers, Maillard reaction reinforces anchovy parsley and black pepper. For the most umami. Tomatoes, mushrooms and part, we don’t offer specific pizzas Parmesan are also ideal, because they’re featuring anchovies at the shop, but glutamate-rich, so you get a layered savory I have suggested them as an upsell. profile instead of a single salty note. By conversing with our customers, I For diners who do love the full salty can feel them out and figure out if canned-anchovy experience, I lean into anchovies would be something they it with a puttanesca-style pizza—garlic, would be interested in trying. tomato, anchovy, red peppers, oregano and I keep about five cans on hand at a lot of olive oil. It’s a great example of any given time, just in case. Personally, 42

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selenium. Because cured anchovies can be high in sodium, however, the chef needs to balance the seasoning throughout the rest of the dish. Anchovies work beautifully with garlic, olive oil, butter, tomatoes, capers, olives, lemon, fresh herbs, chili peppers and many vegetables. They are especially good with bold Mediterranean flavors. Their salinity also benefits from something bright or acidic, “Depending on how they are such as lemon or tomato, and prepared, [anchovies] can provide something rich, such as butter or either a delicate, meaty texture olive oil. We use two different styles of or virtually disappear into a sauce anchovies. One is packed in olive while leaving behind tremendous oil and has a fresher appearance, depth of flavor.” with the skin visible on one Salvatore Trupiano, CEO, side and the meat on the other. We also use the classic cured Mangia e Bevi, Oceanside, CA Salvatore Trupiano, Mangia e Bevi Growing up Italian, I learned early anchovy fillets packed with salt how incredibly versatile anchovies and olive oil. They have different can be. The key is to stop thinking of them only as whole intensities and should be treated differently in cooking. fillets placed on top of a pizza. They can be blended into True, many customers’ first reaction to anchovies is, “Ick!” butter, sauces, dressings or spreads, where they melt into the They imagine an intensely fishy whole anchovy sitting on dish and create a deep, savory flavor without overwhelming it. top of a pizza. In many cases, however, they have already One of our most popular dishes is angel hair pasta served enjoyed anchovies without realizing it—in Caesar dressing, with an anchovy-butter sauce. It is amazing. We also have puttanesca or another savory sauce. The challenge is usually some fun with our salad presentation—we garnish our salad perception rather than flavor. When anchovies are used with plate with anchovies as a playful nod to the fact that many restraint and proper technique, they become a seasoning that people do not even realize anchovies are a classic ingredient enhances the entire dish. in Caesar dressing. Our anchovy dishes sell very well. The most important We also prepare puttanesca, a beautiful combination of thing is knowing how to cook with them. Anchovies should garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, capers, olives and anchovies. be balanced with the other ingredients rather than added On the pizza side, anchovies appear on our quattro stagioni, without thought. For modern-day diners, I recommend or “four seasons,” pizza. They can be incorporated into introducing anchovies in approachable preparations such tomato sauce, paired with vegetables or used sparingly as a as anchovy butter, a blended sauce or a small amount finishing ingredient. paired with familiar ingredients. Menu descriptions Anchovies are a wonderful way to add umami, saltiness should emphasize words such as “savory,” “umami-rich” or and complexity. When used properly, they melt into sauces “Mediterranean” instead of focusing only on fishiness. Once and enrich the other ingredients rather than making the guests taste anchovies prepared correctly, they are often entire dish taste fishy. Depending on how they are prepared, pleasantly surprised. they can provide either a delicate, meaty texture or virtually Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor. disappear into a sauce while leaving behind tremendous depth of flavor. They also offer nutritional benefits, including protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12 and minerals such as

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

MANGIA E BEVI

I like them on pizza because of the added depth, umami and saltiness they add. A few customers come to us specifically because they know we carry anchovies. I’ve added them to red-sauce pies as well as white-sauce pizzas. The toppings we pair them with are widely varied, so I feel that those little fish can be very versatile, if people are into them. Still, most people are hesitant to try anchovies on pizza. While working on my competition pizza that featured anchovies, I found that most people had not ever tried them. Luckily for me, my staff and other guinea pigs were open to trying—and often learned that they liked them!

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Elevate the guest experience with these 10 outside-the-box ways to use squash blossoms on pizza. BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ

OU KNOW THE OLD SAYING, “STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES.” What if we took that advice a little more literally— grabbed the nearest flower and slapped it on a pizza? Enter the squash blossom. It’s exactly what it sounds like: the vibrant, edible flower of the squash plant—delicate, trumpetshaped, and often bright yellow or orange. Squash blossoms look like the kind of flower you’d see on a kid’s drawing of the sun, not necessarily on your dinner plate. But chefs around the world have turned them into a culinary darling, thanks to their mild flavor and tender texture. Their big break in the culinary world probably came when someone in Italy decided they were too pretty to throw away. Italians started stuffing them with cheese, frying them or baking them into dishes, and—voilà—they were suddenly food. Today, they’re used in everything from tacos to pasta and, yes, pizza.

OCTOBER 2026 | PMQ.COM

A D O B E STO C K (2)

Fl wer P wer

Flavor and Texture: How Do They Hold Up?

Squash blossoms have a light, slightly sweet, almost vegetal flavor that pairs well with just about anything. Texturally, they’re velvety and delicate. But any good pizzaiolo knows that preparation can change these key factors for any ingredient. Here’s an idea of what happens to them in several scenarios: • Fried: Batter these bad boys up, fry them to golden perfection, and you’ve got crispy, savory bites that might make you forget mozzarella sticks exist. The crunch contrasts beautifully with their soft, creamy interior, especially if they’re stuffed with ricotta or goat cheese. • Baked: Tossed into the oven, squash blossoms become tender and slightly caramelized. They’ll soak up the flavors of whatever they’re paired with (think olive oil, garlic or even a hint of truffle). That makes them perfect as a pizza topping! • Raw: A fresh squash blossom adds a light crunch and garden-fresh flavor. Think of it as the flower world’s answer to arugula. • Boiled: Skip it. They’ll lose their structure and become a sad, soggy mess. Nobody wants to eat wet petals.

10 Ways to Use Squash Blossoms On Pizza

Trying new things is scary—I get it. But don’t fret. I’m not going to throw you into the wide world of “flowers you can munch on” without a road map. Here are a few suggestions to get those creative synapses firing:

2. Stuffed and Baked: Fill with goat cheese and herbs, bake them, then scatter on the pizza post-bake for a luxurious touch. 3. Squash Blossom Oil Infusion: Gently simmer squash blossoms in olive oil with a hint of garlic and lemon zest to create a fragrant infused oil. Drizzle the oil over a finished pizza or brush on crusts before baking for a golden, flavorful finish. This pairs especially well with pizzas featuring delicate toppings like burrata, arugula or prosciutto. 4. Fried Garnish: Deep-fry stuffed blossoms and use them as edible centerpieces for your pizza. 48

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6. Squash Blossom Pesto Base: Blend squash blossoms with basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic and olive oil to create a vibrant, floral pesto. Use this as your pizza’s base sauce instead of traditional tomato sauce for a light and fragrant alternative. Top with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and a drizzle of balsamic glaze for an elegant finish. 7. Charred and Layered Under Cheese: Lightly char squash blossoms on a grill or cast-iron skillet for a smoky depth of flavor. Layer them directly under the cheese so they meld beautifully during baking, adding a hidden floral surprise with each bite. Complement with smoky ingredients like bacon or smoked Gouda. 8. Pickled Squash Blossoms: Create a tangy pickled version by soaking squash blossoms in a vinegar brine with spices like chili flakes and garlic. Use them sparingly as a topping to add a burst of acidity and contrast to rich cheeses and sauces. This is ideal for pizzas with fatty toppings like sausage or pepperoni. 9. Squash Blossom Butter Drizzle: Whip softened butter with roasted squash blossoms, honey and a pinch of salt to create a sweet-savory compound butter. Melt and drizzle this butter over a finished pizza, especially one with a crust featuring Parmesan or sesame seeds. This adds richness and a glossy finish to every slice. A D O B E STO C K

1. As a Topping: Lay raw or lightly roasted blossoms on top of a white pizza for a striking visual and a subtle flavor. Pair with ricotta and lemon zest.

5. Blended in Dough: Puree blossoms and mix them into your pizza dough for a subtle flavor and a golden hue.

10. Infused Cream for White Pizzas: Simmer squash blossoms in heavy cream with garlic and thyme to create a subtle, aromatic infusion. Use this cream as the base for white pizzas, topping it with mushrooms, caramelized onions and a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano. The infused flavor is subtle but luxurious, giving the pizza a sophisticated twist. Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s test chef, associate editor and coordinator of the U.S. Pizza Team.

B R I A N H E R N A N D EZ (2)

U.S. PIZZA TEAM NEWS

Rocco Labbate stepped into the winning family tradition at the REAL California Pizza Challenge, taking first place in his first-ever competition.

The winning pie featured brick and mozzarella cheeses, pesto, chicken cutlets, cherry tomatoes, red onions and burrata, finished with citrus-dressed arugula, balsamic glaze and Parmesan, all resting on the signature Tievoli Detroit dough.

The Next Labbate Up As Giovanni Labbate’s son Rocco steps into the family trade, his first competition win—at the REAL California Pizza Challenge—becomes a family milestone. BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ

IOVANNI LABBATE KNOWS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE to compete on a big stage. Over the past 15 years, the U.S. Pizza Team member and owner of Tievoli Pizza Bar in Palatine, Illinois, has put his own pizzas in front of judges plenty of times—and heard his name called among the winners. But last August at the REAL California Pizza Challenge in Anaheim, California, Labbate discovered one thing more nerve-racking than competing yourself: standing on the sidelines while your son does it for the first time. At only 21 years old, Rocco Labbate entered his first pizza competition with modest expectations. “I just wanted to do my best and hoped to come in the top three,” he says. Entering wasn’t entirely his decision, either. Asked what made him decide he was ready, Rocco gives an answer familiar to anyone raised by a strong-willed pizza dad: “I didn’t. My father signed me up and said, ‘You’re ready.’” 50

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Dad was right. Rocco won Pizza in the Pan on his first trip to the competition floor. But while the stage was new to him, making pizza certainly wasn’t. “I honestly do this every day I work, so I practice every day,” he says. Giovanni’s biggest contribution was helping his son think through the build, particularly how to layer the toppings so everything stayed where it belonged. Watching from outside the competition area, Giovanni was having a considerably different experience. “I’ve definitely competed many times over the last 15 years, but watching your son go on the big stage and do what I do and come out with a win is better than winning myself,” Giovanni says. “It’s a true testament to what Tievoli is for me and my family.” That showed on his face. When Rocco’s name was announced, there was a tear in Giovanni’s eye, and Rocco’s

The 2026 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup

Your road to Italy starts here. Whether you’re an experienced competitor or entering your first event, the 2026 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup is your chance to compete for championships, cash prizes and a trip to Italy. Join PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team in Orlando and prove your skills against some of the best pizza makers in North America. Two Champions Will Win Trips to Italy! The champions of Pizza in the Pan and Freestyle Acrobatics will each earn a trip to Italy to represent themselves and the United States while competing on the international stage.

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October 25–27, 2026 Orange County Convention Center | Orlando, Florida HOSTED BY THE U.S. PIZZA TEAM Competition registration includes FREE admission to both the Florida Restaurant Show and Pizza Tomorrow Summit. Register today and start on your road to Italy!

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my boys the option to go to college mom was definitely momming with and find another love if pizza wasn’t pride. Their son had stepped into for them,” he says. the family trade and proved on his For Rocco, that decision became first attempt that he belonged there. clear after high school. “I figured “I was so super proud of him to do this is what I wanted to do for the it for his first time,” Giovanni says. rest of my life,” he says. Now he can “I know he wanted to win so bad. He “definitely” see himself owning or believed in his pizza, and so did I.” operating Tievoli someday, and he Giovanni admitted he was nervous already knows where he wants to be watching Rocco in action—more when that happens: in the kitchen, nervous than he felt in his own like his father. competitions—but he thought his And he envisions maintaining son handled the pressure admirably. much of what the previous “He really impressed me with how generation built. “I might not composed he was and how well he change much, because we have a cooked his pizza.” great product and many awards for Rocco showed more evidence that it,” Rocco says, although he can see he has spent plenty of time working Father-and-son duo Giovanni and Rocco swept the event with five podium appearances, including four first-place finishes. himself adding menu items and in the family business by winning pursuing new product innovations. both rounds of the Fastest Box Tievoli isn’t something Rocco feels Folder event. He credits the skill to trapped into inheriting; it’s something he wants. his regular job as Tievoli’s pizza oven expediter. Asked what “I think we built a brand our kids will be proud to his son already does better than him, Giovanni didn’t need continue,” Giovanni says. Along with the brick-and-mortar much time to think: “Fold boxes,” he says with a chuckle. business, the family operates two mobile units, giving the next generation room to evolve while maintaining what “I’ve definitely competed many times Giovanni has built. His biggest request for whenever Rocco and his generation over the last 15 years, but watching your take the wheel isn’t that every pizza remain unchanged. He son go on the big stage and do what I do wants his son to protect the reason Tievoli exists in the and come out with a win is better than first place. “When he does take over, I hope he doesn’t change the winning myself.” passion that I bring into the business,” Giovanni says. “I do this each and every day because I love what I do, and I love Giovanni Labbate making moments for people when they have our pizza. Pizza brings people, family and friends together unlike anything else in this world.” The competition also taught Rocco something that the In Anaheim, pizza did exactly that for the Labbates. controlled environment of his father’s restaurant kitchen This time, Giovanni wasn’t standing center stage. He was couldn’t. “You learn to improvise on what products or tools watching his son take his turn and discovering that seeing you may need to finish your pizza, because sometimes you the next generation succeed at the family trade might feel don’t have everything you need,” he says. That ability to adapt even better than winning himself. is useful on a competition floor, but it’s arguably even more valuable for someone who intends to spend his life in the restaurant business. And Rocco does. Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and director of the U.S. Pizza Team. For some children of restaurant owners, growing up in the business provides an excellent education in what they never want to do for a living. Long nights, weekends at work and the countless little emergencies required to get food onto For more information about the U.S. Pizza Team, its the customer’s table can make plenty of other careers look members and sponsors, visit USPizzaTeam.com. more appealing. With that in mind, Giovanni didn’t want his sons inheriting Tievoli simply because their last name was Labbate. “I always hoped they would, but I gave all three of 52

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

The 2026 REAL California Pizza Challenge

The Champions Have Been Crowned! Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 International REAL California Pizza Challenge! Pizza makers from across the U.S. and abroad came together in Anaheim for three days of culinary competition and pizza athletics. Congratulations to everyone who stepped up to compete! NON-TRADITIONAL 1st — Boris Berard, ORA - 1929 2nd — Charles “Ray” Cullison, Charlie and the Pizza Factory 3rd — Mark Zabrowski, Much Ado About Pizza Boris Berard - Winner, Non-Traditional and a trip to Italy!

REAL CALIFORNIA 3-CHEESE CHALLENGE 1st — David Solum, Logan & Woodward 2nd — Juan Robles, Triple Beam Pizza 3rd — Kira Zabrowski, Much Ado About Pizza

David Solum - Winner, REAL California 3-Cheese Challenge

GLUTEN-FREE 1st — Sean Dempsey, Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant 2nd — Giovanni Labbate, Tievoli Pizza Bar 3rd — David Solum, Logan & Woodward PIZZA IN THE PAN 1st — Rocco Labbate, Tievoli Pizza Bar 2nd — Rick Panaro, Wildcard Pizza 3rd — Dominic Tedesco, River Rick’s PIZZA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONS Largest Dough Stretch & Fastest Pie Maker: Giovanni Labbate Fastest Box Folder: Rocco Labbate Want to see how it all went down? Visit USPizzaTeam.com and follow the team on social media for complete results, winner interviews, photos and video from the 2026 International REAL California Pizza Challenge.

Sean Dempsey - Winner, Gluten-Free

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Business partners Ray McConn and Bruce Storm (who just passed away last June) scored a dream location at the edge of Indiana University in 1973 and grew Mother Bear’s Pizza to three thriving locations.

S TAT E O F I N D IA N

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Mother Bear’s has found success with a something-for-everyone menu, giving back to local causes, and all delivery handled in-house. Every day, the pizzeria sells 200 to 300 Munchie Madness deals—a 10” one-topping, breadsticks, two-liter soda and two brownies—while wing nights and drink specials also attract the college crowd. Still, McConn isn’t afraid to try new things. “Advertising used to be so easy—put an ad in the college paper, and they came,” he says. “Now, we’ve hired a local marketing company, and they’ve done wonders. They create skits in the store [for social media videos], and it’s made a big difference. “You also have to keep in touch with the staff, because the attitude of the staff is what helps sell your business,” McConn continues. “You have to be aware of what the business is doing and how it’s doing it. And you have to keep stirring the pot; you never know what’s going to work. It’s amazing, this journey—through a lot of ups and downs, it’s been very gratifying. I feel blessed.”

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Ray McConn, owner of Mother Bear’s Pizza in Bloomington, Indiana, admits he didn’t have much of a plan when he opened a bar, Bear’s Place, with his friend Bruce Storm in 1971. “Young and dumb would be an overstatement,” McConn says with a laugh. “I always wanted to have a college bar and wanted to serve pizza, but the kitchen wasn’t big enough.” McConn was only 26 when Mother Bear’s opened in 1973, scoring a prime location in a former pizzeria at the edge of Indiana University’s (IU) campus. “The recipe for the first three to five years was a hodgepodge,” McConn says. “Different managers threw in their own styles. Then we got a good guy in there, and he solidified it. It was a hit.” By 1979, Mother Bear’s was hailed as the best pizza in Bloomington by IU’s student-run newspaper. Then business doubled overnight in 1982, when People magazine named it one of the top nine in America. Today, the original rakes in $5 million annually. A more spacious second location, with patio seating, opened in 2016 and was soon clearing $100,000 a week. Two years ago, Mother Bear’s ventured to Columbus, Indiana, where its third outpost is still growing.

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Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.

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