Pizza Today - July 2018 - 52

me and that believe in what GAPCo
is doing."

THE FOUNDATION OF GAPCO'S PRODUCT HAS REMAINED THE SAME AS GAPCO
EXPANDED. While new items have been

introduced, the core product mix has
stayed the course. Pizza is 70 percent
of the pizzeria's sales.
"The Supreme is the bestseller, and
the Mucho Meato," Sammy says. The
Mucho Meato is topped with pepperoni, ham, hamburger, sausage and
bacon. "Fan favorites are the Greek
and the Mexican, even though they
aren't necessarily the heavy hitters.
When we opened up the second
location we tried leave them off, but
people were like 'No.'"
A recent addition is the Pesto
Sciutto, which features a house-made
pesto, prosciutto, Roma tomatoes,
arugula, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes,
Parmesan and Pizza Crack.
GAPCo's trademarked Pizza
Crack is a garlic-based seasoning
with secret ingredients. Its recipe
is so secret that only a handful of
people know how to make it - and
Sammy requires them to memorize
the ingredients. Pizza Crack is bottled
and available for purchase at GAPCo
locations and through its online
ordering system.
The seasoning also takes other
menu items to another level, like
Pizza Crack Fries and the Crack
Fried Chicken Sandwich, with an
option of Buffalo, lemon pepper,
garlic Parm or BBQ sauce.

ONLINE ORDERING IS GAINING GROUND.
CURRENTLY AT 15 PERCENT OF GAPCO'S
BUSINESS, SAMMY SAYS HE WANTS MORE
WEB ORDERS AND LESS PHONE CALLS.
GAPCo also has contracts with five
third-party delivery service providers.
"Our current project is ... how do
you convert (third-party delivery)
customers to use your app?" he questions. "How do you develop an app
that makes people want to have it on
their phone? It has to do more than
5 2 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / J U LY 2 0 1 8

just be able to order pizza."
Venturing into uncharted territory
like third-party conversion is what
keeps GAPCo moving forward. Converting customers to use the GAPCo
in-house delivery service, Sammy
says, would help limit costly thirdparty fees and optimize the pizzeria's
delivery fleet.
Technology is essential to the pizza
company's growth. "It's this bigger
picture; that's where that entrepreneurship kicks in," he says. "It's about
breaking trend. It's about doing
something out of the box or, like I say,
'out of the pizza box.' For me it's that
reinvestment in the business. Over
10 and a half years, I've redone that
restaurant three times and there is a
fourth coming. If I'm not dumping
money into the façade or the build out,
I'm dumping it into the tech space."
GAPCo sets its sights on even
more growth in 2019 and the company is using video content to engage
with customers and add to its leadership team. "We're willing to take
the risks to figure out how to make
it work," Sammy says. "You're going
to see us take this content to other
avenues because it can't just exist on
Facebook. It's got to be everywhere."
In true entrepreneurial spirit, Sammy and his team are striving forward.
"My job is to keep raising that bar,
keep other pizza places around watching what GAPCo is doing. I think of
us as this idea machine that is going
to be doing so many things that are
so intense and so powerful that other
people will get to watch this and get to
see this and say, 'how do we do that?'"
Sammy has a determination that's
contagious to the whole GAPCo
crew, which allows him to spend
more time working on the continued
development of GAPCo, instead of
on the pizza line.
"I'm never going to stop coming up
with ideas," he says. n
DENISE GREER

Pizza Today.

is associate editor at

Pizza Slayer
[peet-suh sley-er] noun:
one who excels at the making of pizza, better than the rest. (Courtesy, GAPCo)
A GAPCo creation -- Version 7.0

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Unique personal style
Confident smile
Hip, sleek and fitted chef's coat
GAPCo Phoenix represented
Laser-cut acrylic holster
Adjustable shoulder and back straps
Dough knife
Pizza cutter

When Sammy Mandell created the Pizza
Slayer persona, he and the GAPCo team
worked to protect the vision. "I bought
everything I could to really try to protect the
identity we were creating," says Sammy.
"Because it deals with a person or people,
it becomes an identity, not just a brand. So
now we have to define this identity and protect the identity so we don't have somebody
saying 'that's a great idea. Let's jump on
board with this.'"
Three steps Sammy took to protect the Pizza
Slayer persona include:
* Trademarking "Pizza Slayer"
* acquiring PizzaSlayer.com domain
* patenting Slayer holster design
http://www.PizzaSlayer.com http://www.PizzaSlayer.com http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - July 2018

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