Pizza Today - February 2016 - 68

KEYNO TE

A Minute
With
Tony
Gemignani

A

s an owner in 13
pizzerias currently and with
three more in the works,
Tony Gemignani still says
he's in the learning phase
of his career in pizza, which
enters its 25th year in 2016.
He'll be giving Pizza Expo's
first-ever Thursday keynote

at this year's show and plans
to relate his views on the
state of the industry and the
lessons he's learned along
the way. "I'm really going
to try to touch every area of
our business," he says. We
chatted with Tony recently
about his career, including a
short stop at McDonald's.
Pizza Expo: Your stores
are in casinos, ballparks,
fast casual and fullservice settings. Why
haven't you focused on
one concept to fast-track
growth?
Tony Gemignani: There's

been a lot of opportunity
to go different directions,
and I'm kind of still seeing
what works and what doesn't
work. The Chipotle model
was approached to me several times at the beginning

6 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 6

stages by a lot of big boys.
I never did want to go that
route. I've always been
conservative. It took 17
years for me to go from my
brother's restaurant to Store
One, and it's taken seven
years to go from Store One
to Store 13. So I was conservative at the beginning and
I'm still conservative. I've
been testing the market to
see what really works. I've
been testing and testing.
PE: You grew up on your
grandfather's farm, helping bring apricots and
cherries to market in the
summer and fava beans
in the winter. What was
your first job off the
farm?
TG: My first job was when I

was 15 years old at McDonald's. I lasted probably three
and a half hours. They put
me on the hamburger line
at a crazy busy place. I get
trained once.
You're on this line and
you see this sea of people
coming in. I'm a half-hour
in, and then the guy next
to me who's on the Quarter
Pounder line, says to me,
"Hey man, I'm going to take
off. I gotta go. This is how
you make them."
I had 80 burgers in front
of me and I had to dress the
buns. And I'm just gone.
My manager comes in to
me and he says, "Tony! You
see these 12 burgers! They're
overdone!" And he throws
them all in the garbage right

in front of me.
It was basically like
getting a guy who's never
been in the pizza business
and taking him to
Lombardi's and saying, "All
right, you work the coal
oven. Catch you later."
PE: You're giving away a
free trip to Italy at your
keynote. What will the
lucky winner see there?
TG: They're going to be

able to come with me to
Parma for the World Pizza
Championship. There are
competitors from over 30
countries - very much like
the Pizza Expo competition.
You get to see how pizza
is made in Italy. If you're a
pizza operator it's the trip of
a lifetime.
You're right in Parma.
There's prosciutto di Parma,
you're right in the area for
Parmigiano-Reggiano, the
wine in that region, like
Lambrusco, is great to have
with pizza. You're literally
in the mecca of some of the
best food in the world.
PE: What are the traits of
a great pizzaiolo?
TG: I think it's a breed that

we're either born into or we
realize sometime in life that
it's where we're going. You
see it at Expo. You find the
independent guys who want
to learn. There's a camaraderie there, and I feel it's very
much of an independent
camaraderie.
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Pizza Today - February 2016

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