By Charlie Pogacar | Photos by Hellen CO Photos @hellencophotos
Prior to the pandemic, not many in the pizza world knew Alessio Lacco and Sofia Arango, the owners of Atlanta Pizza Truck in Atlanta. But, thanks to tireless ambition and an unstoppable work ethic, the pair of lovebirds has risen to become a change-leading pizza power couple in the American South, although neither was born there—or even in the United States.
Together, they launched Atlanta Pizza Truck in March 2020. Lacco then founded the Atlanta branch of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) and became its director. Arango created Latinos en Pizza, a nonprofit that amassed more than 17,000 Instagram followers in a little over a year. They’re also in the midst of rolling out QuikZa, a pizza vending machine, and will be featured speakers at PMQ’s upcoming Pizza Power Forum, taking place September 4 and 5 in Atlanta.
And to think it all started because Arango, then single, just needed a place to live.
Rom-Com Vibes
Lacco and Arango’s story sounds like something out of a romantic comedy—“Love at First Bite” without the vampires. Perhaps that’s apropos, considering Atlanta Pizza Truck has become the go-to caterer for Atlanta’s burgeoning film and TV scene, drawing customers like Nicole Kidman, Neil Patrick Harris, and cast members of Max’s Doom Patrol and Netflix’s Cobra Kai.
Arango, who was born in Venezuela and came to the U.S. due to political repression in her home country, lived with her mother in Atlanta. She found herself peeling potatoes and washing dishes in her first of several restaurant jobs. Eventually, she began looking around for her own place.
Lacco grew up in Italy, where he learned to make Neapolitan pizza. He immediately took to the pizza making process. “I’ve always loved the fire,” Lacco says. “I love working in a good wood-fired oven. I like to feel the heat, see the flame on the cupola. That’s what I’ve always really loved about making Neapolitan pizza.”
Lacco came to the U.S. when his father, a dental technician, took a job in New York in the mid-2000s. Lacco relocated to Dallas for a while, where he worked at a pizzeria, before eventually moving to Atlanta to take a sous chef position at a restaurant his friend was opening.
Arango and Lacco first crossed paths working at the same restaurant in Atlanta, and Lacco, aware that Arango was looking for her own place, invited her to stay in the spare room at his apartment. But they were just friends. Friends who planned to live together in order to save money. Friends, as it turned out, who would enjoy a Hollywood-approved happy ending: Arango and Lacco got married in 2019.
The Pizza Power Forum: Power Players
Master pizzaiolo Alessio Lacco and marketing wizard Sofia Arango, owners of Atlanta Pizza Truck, will be featured panel speakers at PMQ’s Pizza Power Forum, taking place September 4 and 5 in Atlanta. Here’s a look at the topics they’ll address:
Alessio Lacco
- Perfecting Your Dough: Tips and Tricks
- Leveraging Technology to Build the Pizzeria of the Future
Sofia Arango
- Marketing Masters: Making Your Brand Stand Out in a Crowded Field
A Joint Venture
When the pandemic began, Arango and Lacco were laid off, but Lacco saw that as an opportunity to launch a pizza pop-up business. He acquired a blue 1982 Piaggo Ape and hitched a trailer with a wood-burning pizza oven to the back of it. He initially named the mobile-pizza business Scialla, an Italian word that roughly translates to “YOLO,” as in “you only live once.” But, in Italian, it’s pronounced “sha-LA,” and his customers kept getting it wrong.
“Americans really wanted to say it like ‘sky-la,’” Lacco says. “And I didn’t like that, like, at all. So I said, ‘You know what? This is too complicated.’” He pivoted to the more basic Atlanta Pizza Truck, a brilliant move for online searches. When a potential customer searches “pizza truck Atlanta” or even “pizza truck” while in the city, the Atlanta Pizza Truck website is one of the first hits.
When he launched the pizza truck, Lacco had been cooking Neapolitan pizza and consulting for other pizzerias for more than a decade. He also began teaching classes on proper Neapolitan cooking techniques. And with so many pizzerias shuttered weeks into the pandemic, Atlanta Pizza Truck was, arguably, serving the best pizza in the city. Lacco showed up at breweries, weddings and film shoots, with Arango as his enterprising assistant. She worked the register at events and started contributing to—and growing—the truck’s fledgling social media presence. “I was getting more and more involved,” Arango recalls. “At first, it was like, ‘OK, Sofia, can you help me set up a [catering] agreement?’ And I would say, ‘I can do my best.’ And then soon he was asking me to find where to do the pop-ups, so I did that.”
Initially, Lacco paid Arango a flat fee. Then, somewhat playfully, Lacco negotiated a percentage of sales. Finally, he made Arango a 50-50 partner: It was all going to the same bank account anyway. “At some point it got out of hand,” Lacco says. “I was like, ‘You’re making more money than me!’ But you know, that’s what I love about her. I saw this person who really understood the challenge of it. We were both learning together, trying to figure out everything that goes into being successful in the catering business.”
Latinos en Pizza
Arango took to the pizza industry like a fish to the Amazon River. “It’s not only about the pizza. It’s also about the people behind the pizza, who are so special to us,” Arango says. “We have friends that have become almost family. It’s been a really rewarding journey.”
She also realized that much of that community was built around organizations like AVPN, which showcases Italian and Italian-American pizza makers and their craft. But who was spotlighting Latino pizza makers? As Arango developed relationships with other Latinos in the industry—both on social media and at trade shows—a WhatsApp group was started. It became so active that she decided to launch an Instagram account, simply called Latinos en Pizza. “At so many restaurants in the U.S.—and in Latin America, obviously—there are lots of Latinos in the kitchen,” Arango says. “Most of the kitchen staff in a lot of restaurants is Latino. But, normally, the face of a restaurant is not that of a Latino person.”
The Latinos en Pizza page quickly attracted a following. In six months, it had 2,000 followers. It grew exponentially from there, reaching 17,000-plus followers by June 2024. Arango and Lacco—who plays a supportive role with Latinos en Pizza—realized the movement was bigger than just an Instagram account. In Fall 2023, they recruited sponsors to send them and other Latino pizzaioli on a tour of Latin American countries. The selling point was the increasing number of pizzerias that were owned by Spanish speakers—why would a sponsor not want to reach a whole new demographic?
The sales pitch was successful, and for six weeks between late December and early February, their group traveled to Panama, Chile, Colombia and other countries. They met people they’d interacted with online and offered Neapolitan cooking classes to aspiring Latin American pizza makers. It was a milestone moment for the global pizza industry, furthering their belief that Latinos en Pizza had potential for growth far beyond their wildest dreams.
It’s now a nonprofit with huge goals both stateside and abroad. For example, it will offer a bilingual Neapolitan pizza making course on September 2 and 3, leading up to PMQ’s Pizza Power Forum in Atlanta. The organization will also launch Latinos en Pizza Day, an annual fundraiser for their nonprofit, on September 15. The more money that can be raised each year, the more Latinos en Pizza can continue to spotlight—and inspire—Latinos in the pizza space.
“The growth has been really amazing,” Arango says. “When I started the Instagram page, I thought it was just an Instagram page. But the more we gain attention and momentum, it gives us this platform and the possibility to showcase people that maybe don’t usually have that possibility in their life.”
The Pizzeria of the Future
The next chapter of Arango and Lacco’s pizza journey might be the most ambitious yet: the rollout of Quikza, their pizza vending machine franchise. Impressed with the power of automation in the pizza space, Lacco saw an opportunity. “And I was like, we don’t have much else going on,” he recalls, tongue in cheek. “So I figured we would give it a shot.”
Lacco acquired a prototype, installed it in Atlanta Pizza Truck’s shared kitchen space and began talking to investors. The machine has two ovens, holds up to 90 9” pizzas and can cook two pies at once, each in about three minutes. Lacco sees it as a logical next step for an industry seeking new ways to meet customers’ needs. It can either be used as a standalone moneymaker or as a way to augment an existing pizza business. For example, during peak traffic times, a walk-in customer could simply order a pizza from the vending machine instead of waiting in a long line. “The problem right now,” Lacco admits, “is the price point is high. But we are all about partnership and finding out what works for everyone. It’s all about finding the right people….But it’s something we’re really excited about, to see how it all plays out, and we are optimistic for the future.”
No matter how big Latinos en Pizza, QuikZa or any of their other ventures become, Arango and Lacco say Atlanta Pizza Truck will be their primary business, possibly with additional trucks. They’ve even fielded franchising inquiries for the concept.
Others in their shoes might want everything to just slow down for a minute. But that’s not the way they roll. That’s not how they got here, and it’s not how they will proceed into the future. “Honestly,” Arango says, “some things are not going as fast as we wish they would go. For us, it’s all about taking care of our businesses that are up and running right now. And then we have to try and build on top of whatever else is coming.”
Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s senior editor.
The Pizza Power Forum: Save the Dates
Don’t miss these special events leading up to PMQ’s Pizza Power Forum in Atlanta!
Location: 2000 Cheshire Bridge Road NE, Suite J, Atlanta
Neapolitan Pizza Making Class
Monday and Tuesday, September 2-3
Presented by Latinos en Pizza, this full-immersion course will be taught in English and Spanish, making it the first of its kind in the U.S.
Instructors:
- Alessio Lacco, co-owner of Atlanta Pizza Truck, director of AVPN-Atlanta and Pizza Power Forum panelist
- AVPN-certified pizza chef/instructor and Pizza Power Forum panelist Alexandra Castro of Pizza With Ale
- Renowned pizza chef/influencer Juan Gabriel Perez (@juang on Instagram) of Posto in Boston
Pre-Event Pizza Party
8-10 p.m., Tuesday, September 3
Hosted by Atlanta Pizza Truck and Latinos en Pizza, this special event will feature Neapolitan pizzas baked by master pizzaioli and is open to all Pizza Power Forum attendees.
