The International Pizza Expo offered its usual variety relevant seminars and demos. The show was made more exciting than ever by the growth of its competition program and interactive features like the jazzy Glambot photo station. From what we heard at the Canadian Pizza booth, operators love the result. Here we share two stories of operators who are great pizza makers, and above all, smart entrepreneurs driven to succeed.
Engineering success: Mattenga’s Pizzeria
What if you brought an engineering, problem-solving approach to running your pizzeria?
We learned the answer to that at an inspiring keynote talk by Matthew and Hengam (Enga) Stanfield, the power couple behind Mattenga’s Pizzeria, an award-winning San Antonio-based business and Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year.
The business is known for its community focus, delicious fresh pizzas and innovative approach to marketingEstablished in 2014, the business has seen ups and downs and now has seven locations in the San Antonio metropolitan area, generating annual sales of more than $7 million, we learned.
It’s never been easy. Matt described feeling frustrated at one point with the challenges of running the business. Determined to succeed, they asked themselves three questions:
- Is there a system problem?
- Is this a training issue?
- Do we have a management problem?
Developing their GRR method (Gradual Release of Responsibility) helped set them on the path to success. In 2017, when they were expecting their third child (they now have five), Enga found the interviews, hiring and related tasks took too much time and set out to create a training system. Managers ask employees for help and work together to complete tasks. The manager then asks their own supervisor to check the work, a way of holding everyone accountable and making sure things are done right.
It may not surprise you that Enga and Matt both trained as engineers, quit their jobs in 2014 to open their dream business based recipes created with the help of Enga’s parents.
Four years in, they opened their second location, “Why Not Pizza.” Opening a third location would mean that, as two people, they couldn’t physically be in all places at once. They knew they had to devise a practical system.
They progressed from a period of low sales and high labour needs to one of high sales and low labour needs. In order to end the vicious cycle and achieve consistency and balance, Matt said, “It was time to take the pedal off of marketing and step back to focus on operations.”
In addition to the training strategy, in 2019 they started and continue to swear by a marketing strategy that sent out two consistent messages at the same time each week: “Hump Day Special” at 4 p.m. on Wednesdays and “Feed the Family Deal” at 4 p.m. on Fridays. Two emails and two text messages about these features went out “rain or shine” weekly, a task that took two to four hours.
“It’s about creating habits,” Enga said, adding that, to speed up the task, they created a template ready to plunk in text, images and video.
The business was making money, but at great cost to the owners and their growing family. “At two stores, we made an average of $120,000 in profits with both of us heavily involved in the business. This was not sustainable,” Enga said.
What they did in 2019 highlights how you define success. They decided to sell the business.
In February 2020, while expecting their fourth child, they received an offer to sell for $550,000 and planned to accept it. But then they made a “Why not sell” list and high on that list was creating a legacy for their family and community. They decided to go all-in.
Growth and accolades followed. In 2022 they were named the third-fastest-growing business in their region. They bought a food truck. In 2023 they were voted best pizza in San Antonio. By 2024 they were operating four more businesses. Podcaster Dave Portnoy visited their pizzeria, prompting a 60-per-cent bump in sales.
Then, after a shooting incident at one of their locations, they took stock, closed two stores and, while attending Pizza Expo, planned out the next four years, including developing a policy for when a shooting incident occurs.
They’ve since added a commissary, operate seven locations and are in a good place.
They applauded their team, some of whom were there with them at Pizza Expo and stood up to be recognized. A favourite strategy is to ask employees to post and share photos of teachable moments. “This is how they build leadership and skills,” Matt said.
Driven to run create and run businesses
Frank Zabski, a pizza marketing expert and founder of the New Haven Pizza School, shared his inspiring story, marketing ideas and words of encouragement in the session “The Importance of Running Your Pizzeria with an Entrepreneurial Spirt.”
Zabski’s story is inspiring and it might sound familiar to pizzeria owners who don’t always conform to other people’s definitions of success. A resident of Milford, Conn., Zabski had a successful IT business. He learned to make pizza fritta (fried pizza) from scratch at 12 years old from an Italian immigrant and family friend.
His mother died suddenly when he was 15. Following that, things were not great financially for the family. They lost their house and he vividly remembers that white foreclosure sign on the front lawn.
Zabski mowed lawns, shovelled snow, and put himself through college by working three jobs. “You have to have something that drives you,” he said. “For me, it was that white sign.”
As an adult, after working for IT companies, he started and ran his own successful IT and computer business and also taught adult computer classes. In 2012, he launched Fired Up Pizza Truck and made pizzas on a grill. He did well, but the work was demanding and his wife gave him an ultimatum: ‘It’s me or the truck.” He sold the truck.
Ever the entrepreneur, in 2022, he opened a pizza school aimed at teaching members of the public how to make New Haven-style pizza. Zabski leads the classes at local pizzerias at off times of the day when the business is closed.
He encouraged others in the business to run classes, which help people appreciate the work pizza makers do and offer an opportunity for pizzerias to sell their pizza dough to take home, gift cards and other merchandise.
Frank Pepe, who operated the renowned Pizzeria Napoletana, is widely credited with inventing New Haven style in 1925. Called “apizza” (pronounced “ah-beets”) by locals it is thin, charred, chewy, crispy, baked in a coal-fired oven and lighter on cheese than a New York-style pizza.
Zabski shared marketing ideas he’d had success with.
“Smell sells,” the entrepreneur said. “If you can get the smell of your pizza out there, do it.” Make your pizza available for people to taste at every opportunity, he added.
Another tip is to create urgency for your customers. For example, get the message out on social media that you have 100 doughs, then 50 doughs, then 30 doughs left by Saturday night. This strategy reliably drove sales for him at the pizza truck.
