About

Our Story

Does the world need another pizza brand?  No.

Does the world need a better pizza brand?  Absolutely.

With that simple-yet-audacious premise in mind, I decided to send a shot across the bow of corporate pizza mega-chains.

But how?  With these brands so dominating the market, what possible angle could I leverage to make a niche of my own?

This story started a few years ago, but in one sense, the journey actually began nearly 30 years ago when I first entered the restaurant industry at the tender age of ten, working at restaurants my family owned.

I inherited my family’s passion for running restaurants, later helping them operate different concepts.  But throughout my varied restaurant experiences, the fun and variety of pizza always held a special place in my heart.  I decided that when it was time to launch my own venture, I would focus on this wildly popular food.  But good food and good service wouldn’t be enough.  To succeed, I knew I must devise a strategy that played to my strengths.

Over a period of weeks, I rolled around a number of promising ideas, but the overall plan wouldn’t coalesce.  Finally, after an exhausting day of planning, I decided to unwind by watching a pirate action movie. As a climactic scene unfolded when a smaller ship outmaneuvers a bigger but slower ship, the answer hit me with the thunderous boom of cannon fire.

The answer lay in not being bigger, but in being better. I decided my pizza concept would set itself apart within the crowded marketplace with four strategic differences?

First, the restaurant would use better ingredients; made-from-scratch marinara, garlic cream sauce, and meat sauces, premium Boar’s Head meats, superior grade cheeses, and cooked-to-order Italian sausage.

Second, bigger portions. Generous amounts of hand-tossed dough in each pizza that make for a bigger pie.  Toppings that cover the entire surface of the pizza.

Third, this restaurant would offer a wide ranging menu of quality, big-portioned foods that complemented pizza: sandwich rolls, pasta dishes, salads, buffalo wings, and desserts.

Finally, this pizza joint would have a fun, themed atmosphere whose edgy branding appealed to a youthful market and whose quality and portions appealed to families.

But what to name this new upstart brand?  This time, the answer came immediately:  Buccaneer Pizza.