What happens when a serious car accident forces you to start over from scratch?

In this episode, Bruce talks with Chuck Rozay, owner of Uncle Chuck's Pizza in LaSalle, Illinois. After helping build a successful pizza business and recovering from a life-threatening accident, Chuck took a chance on himself and opened his own pizzeria with no investors, no partners, and a limited budget.

They discuss building a pizza shop for around $30,000, running multiple pizza styles from one dough recipe, using DoorDash, creating a word-of-mouth business, and what it's like opening a shop in an area where most customers have never experienced true New York-style pizza.

In this episode, John from Johnny’s Pizza shares how he transformed an existing pizza shop in the Philadelphia suburbs into a modern, highly respected pizza brand. We talk about learning from New York pizza shops, experimenting with ovens, managing growth, opening a second location, hiring staff, social media, cheesesteaks, pizza trends, and the reality of running a successful pizza business.

This session, brought to you in partnership with Women in Pizza, explores Independent ownership and how the industry relies on people who bet on themselves.

"How Women Are Shaping Independent Ownership" highlights the women who are doing exactly that, and what their experiences reveal about where the industry is headed.

Host:
Anna Crucitt // Mercurio’s https://mercuriosgelatopizza.com/

Panelists:
Giorgia Caporuscio // Don Antonio https://www.donantoniopizza.com/
Mary Ann Giannone // Paulie Gee’s https://pauliegee.com/
Julia Molinari // Molinari's https://www.molinarisrestaurant.com/

Slice founder and CEO, Ilir Sela, chats with Tomor Turkeshi (Argento’s by Tommy), Kemal Andican (Tabor Pizzeria), and Vito DeCandia (Angel City Pizza) about rising costs, shifting customer habits, delivery economics, and the growing gap between chains and independents.

Is your pizzeria set up to last? This episode of Shop Talk will leave you with the insights and takeaways needed for you to future-proof your shop.

Panelists:
Tomor Turkeshi // Argento’s by Tommy https://www.argentosbuckeye.com/
Kemal Andican // Tabor Pizzeria https://www.taborpizzeria.com/
Vito DeCandia // Angel City Pizza https://www.angelcityla.com/

More menu. More discounts. More promotions. Convention and tradition says do more to earn more. That’s not always the case. And for some, it’s actually the opposite.

In Operating a Profitable Pizzeria with a Smaller Menu (and No Discounts), we take a closer look at profitable shops that made more with less. This is about focus, margins, and why saying no to complexity is one of the best business decisions an independent owner can make.

Three pizza shop owners. One mic. Zero filter.

Tori T, Juan, and Gio get into with Bruce about what's actually moving the needle right now:
- small menus
- social media hot takes
- when discounts help and when they hurt
- why cutting items off your menu might be the best sales move you ever make.

In this episode, we sit down with Brandt Bishop, a former fine dining executive chef who completely transformed his career by launching a rural pizza pop-up business.

Brandt shares how he transitioned from high-stress kitchens to building a flexible and profitable pizza operation that supports his lifestyle and family. We talk about dough fermentation, pizza trailers, managing overhead, frozen pizza production, staffing, and why success in the pizza business means different things to different owners.

In this episode, Steve shares how he and his wife launched Leechburg Pizza Company from scratch, starting with homemade pizza experiments, used equipment, and a lot of trial and error. He breaks down what surprised him most, what nearly derailed the business, how they adapted their product to fit the market, and how they built the shop to run without him being there full time.