&pizza Serves Up a Fresh Slice of Innovation

In this episode of Fast Casual Nation, brought to you by Chepri, host Paul Barron sits down with Michael Lastoria, the founder of &pizza.

Founded in 2012, fast casual restaurant chain &pizza specializes in personal, custom-made, stadium-shaped pizza. The chain now boasts more than thirty locations throughout the East Coast.

“I thought the big pizza businesses looked internally more like FedEx than a restaurant company,” says Lastoria. “I really wanted to do something creative and build a cool, innovative brand.”

For Lastoria, the goal of &pizza is to reimagine and reinvent what a pizza restaurant can be. The chain has even made its own craft sodas to enhance the pizza-eating experience. “Our sodas have all natural extracts, and we use pure cane sugar,” notes Lastoria. “So while it’s still soda, and it still has sugar, it’s a little bit healthier for you.”

Make sure to watch the full episode above to learn more about &pizza’s branding, concept development, and its most popular menu items!

This post is sponsored by Chepri, which provides custom guest experience software development and builds frictionless web UI/UX, e-commerce, mobile, and kiosk apps for restaurant brands, chains, and franchisors.