Pizza Market Podcast
&pizza CEO Mike Burns discusses how the model misplaced its id, discovered it once more and commenced franchising.
Might 14, 2025
On this episode of the Pizza Market Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Market, talks to Mike Burns, CEO of &pizza primarily based out of Washington, D.C.
The model was based in 2012 by Michael Astoria who’s nonetheless concerned with the model at this time. Astoria traveled the nation and located D.C. was a clean slate and ripe for a connoisseur pizza model.
“Actually, there wasn’t a staple pizza right here in D.C.,” Burns stated within the podcast. Astoria constructed one store, unsuspecting that it might take off.
Burns stated the model received “too company” and misplaced the edginess it was identified for after Astoria stepped away from &pizza in 2018. He got here again into operations, however then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Astoria wished to remain because the creator and founder, however did not need to run it every day.
Enter Burns, who joined a few yr and a half in the past.
“It has been every part I assumed it might be,” Burns stated. “It is a actually enjoyable model and we’re simply attempting to form of deliver it again to its roots of the enjoyable, urban-centric school campus model when it first began.”
The model has begun franchising. Burns stated &pizza wished to remain company for a very long time pondering it may develop quicker and the management group may management the model.
Burns stated he believes &pizza ought to have franchised six or seven years in the past when it was at its peak. “It is such a cool, enjoyable model,” he stated. “Everyone loves it. There is a want for it available in the market. Potential franchisees have been reaching out for years attempting to franchise this model, and to me to be at 45 eating places, or 46 with a few airport items, is a disgrace.”
To be taught extra about &pizza’s franchising efforts and the way it has elevated enterprise hearken to the podcast above in its entirety.
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