In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Sonia Barajas-Najera, vice president of franchise administration for Shakey's Pizza. Shakey's began franchising in the 1950s shortly after it was founded.

After a number of ownership changes, the brand currently has 43 units. There's a new flagship in Culver City that took two years to design and create, Barajas-Najera said, and has been well received by consumers who enjoy the restaurant's retro vibes, warm colors and 1980s memorabilia. Shakey's also did a rebrand, but at the core of the company is its food, which remains the same. Shakey's is known for its thin-crust pizza, as well as its pan pizza and proprietary items like its chicken and its iconic Mojo potatoes.

With an 80s throwback style at its core, how does Shakeys keep the brand feeling cool for Gen Z while still being a home base for the Gen Xers who grew up there?

"There's the Gen X, there's Gen Z. Everyone is in there," Barajas-Najera explained. "We've created a place that has allowed people to come in and just be themselves and disconnect from everything that we're always doing, rushing. We're coining it as slow, casual, because we're not fast, we're not casual. We're just a slow casual. Come in, have a good time, be entertained."

When looking for franchisees, Barajas-Najera said they seek people who are passionate about the Shakey's Pizza brand. The Shakey's team gives its franchisees lots of support before, during and after opening.

Barajas-Najera suggests potential franchisees do their due diligence and really research a brand before signing on the dotted line. Shakey's is a brand with 70 years of experience behind it, but it's going through an exciting chapter.

"We feel like we're restarting," Barajas-Najera said. "We're just relaunching."

To learn more about Shakey's and Barajas-Najera's role in its expansion plans, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Jamie Cecil, vice president of franchise development for Mellow Mushroom.

Mellow Mushroom started in 1974 and has grown to 160 units. The brand is known for its cool vibes. Each store is unique.

"I like to call them kind of unicorns. There's not one store that looks alike, which is kind of fun, but it makes it a challenge as well. But every store has phenomenal pizza and great service. That's the goal," Cecil said.

Cecil brings more than 30 years of restaurant industry experience to the table.

"There's not a day that's like any other, I like that," he said. "So one call, I'm talking to a person that wants to do five stores. Next, I'm talking to a city about getting some variances. Next, I'm talking to a construction guy about some issues on a construction site. So it really has taken everything I've done throughout my career and kind of packaged it in one role. And I enjoy it. It's a fun, fun role to be a part of."

Finding the perfect piece of real estate is the greatest challenge for the brand. That's changed over the years, and a standalone building in the right location sets the tone for a town.

"Today's franchisee is more sophisticated than they were in the past. They're a lot more educated and they they've done a lot of footwork or groundwork on their own before they reach out to you," Cecil said. "So they kind of already have an idea of what they want to do. Whereas back then, they would just reach out and, let's do this. And that cycle was pretty quick. Now they want to visit with franchisees. They want to talk to franchisees. Obviously, Discovery Day is critical in our world, too. And they want to meet the executive team. They want to meet with the CEO and ask them questions about where they see this potential business going in the next five to10 years."

To learn more about Mellow Mushroom's franchising and how the brand plans to grow in a tight market, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Bryan Ketelhut, vice president of franchise and business development for Little Caesars.

Ketelhut has been with the company for years and now heads up domestic franchising. He's also a former franchisee himself.

Little Caesars is known for its streamlined operations. From a development perspective, that simplicity makes the brand more attractive to prospective franchisees compared to more complex QSR models.

"We focus on value, quality and convenience. That is our is our big messaging, right? We created Hot-N-Ready over 20 years ago, and we've always been a value brand. We cater to that value consumer," Ketelhut told Detwiler during the interview.

The brand has its own supply chain with more than 20 distribution centers around the country.

"Having that controlling the distribution channel as well is very important to a lot of franchises. When we're able to purchase food products or equipment wise more in bulk, we're able to keep those costs lower for our for our partners," Ketelhut added.

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

In episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Joe Carlucci, founder and owner of Valentina's Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Alabama. Carlucci, who has dozens of years in pizza, is a member of the World Pizza Champions and a leader in the industry.

Carlucci opened Valentina's, named after his daughter, in the midst of COVID. Prior to that, he'd owned a pizza food truck and would take it to neighborhoods to provide pizzas to neighborhoods during the COVID lockdowns. He would sell more than 500 pizzas a week, and saved every dime to open his brick-and-mortar restaurant.

What started in a 1,500-square-foot space with 12 employees has turned into a 196-seat, 50-plus-staffed full-service restaurant. The original location was across the street from a cotton field. Carlucci would arrive at 4:30 a.m. and make pizzas throughout the day. He's since moved to a larger location and has trained a handful of pizzaiolos whom he trusts to make the brand's signature pies. He sources as much as he can locally.

Carlucci has entered and won several awards at the International Pizza Challenge at International Pizza Expo. When he creates a new pizza, though, it isn't with judges in mind — instead he thinks about the customers first. But when his pizza creations win awards, he puts them on the menu. It's been a great advertising outlet for Carlucci.

Carlucci hired a mixologist to pair signature cocktails with his artisan pizzas, so there's a craft cocktail list, and curated beer and wine lists.

"I want to elevate this place. I don't want it to just be a pizzas place. ... It's not a pizza place. From the hostesses dresses to the bartenders in bow ties, to every single server, looks the exact same way," Carlucci said. "The standard is the standard here. We're not worried about what everybody else is doing. We're worried about what Valentina's is doing. How Valentina's could be better."

To learn more about how Carlucci is changing the pizza game, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Genero Perez, chief marketing officer for Peter Piper Pizza, a legacy brand with more than 50 years in the industry.

The brand has about 115 restaurants in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and the northern part of Mexico.

The restaurants all have a lunch buffet Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Peter Piper "is an interesting concept because we target different demographics at different times of the day," Perez said. "So (the) lunch buffet is for those workers or families or a lot of construction workers, nurses, officers, people that need to grab a bite and obviously they don't want to break the bank. So our lunch buffet in the Arizona market is $10.99 for all you can eat. And we have pizza, pasta, salads, desserts and literally there's people that stack their plates with like 15 slices of pizza. Hey, no one's judging, right?"

Perez, who was born and raised in Mexico City, moved to the U.S. about 25 years ago to further his education. It's important for Peter Piper Pizza to understand the cultures and values of the communities in which they are situated.

"One of the things that I noticed being truly bilingual and native in Spanish is that a lot of brands translate. And with Peter Piper Pizza, we don't do that," Perez said. "We truly trans-create our programs and our campaigns. We want to make sure that we are using the cultural nuances from the community and that what we're trying hard to truly understand the different, you insights and holidays and traditions. So it's not only about the language, but understanding the cultural values."

The brand creates all of its PR in both English and Spanish.

"Obviously the Spanish language is integrated in everything we do — our website, our app, our campaigns, our messaging," he said. "Even when we reach out to media, we reach out in both languages. So it's really important for us to meet the consumer where the consumer is at, because a lot of the Hispanic consumers also may not necessarily speak Spanish, but consume news in Spanish."

To learn more about Peter Piper's community involvement, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

Riko's Pizza is redefining America's love affair with pizza, and with five corporate stores and seven franchised units, the full-service pizzeria sells thin crust, tavern-style pizza.

The pizza is what drew Carl Bachmann, president and COO of Riko's, to the brand. They're taking over the East Coast one bite at a time.

"That's really what enticed me to join the brand was the uniqueness of the product and the process of how we make the product and certainly the founder himself who is so passionate about this product," Bachmann said. "This process was one of those I couldn't say no kind of opportunity. So that's how I ended up here."

Rico Imbrogno, founder and CEO of Riko's Pizza, loved thin-crust pizza, and so he made it the centerpiece of his brand. It's an artisanal pizza — one Imbrogno and Bachmann have worked hard to replicate over and over as the company grows.

To learn more about this classic style of pizza and how Bachmann plans to growth the company, listen to the podcast in its entirety above.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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