By Brian Hernandez
Editor’s note: This is an expanded version of a Tips From the Team article that appeared in PMQ Pizza’s November 2024 issue.
In the pleasant little town of Pleasanton, California, a spark of inspiration, a stroke of genius, and a whole lot of hard work led U.S. Pizza Team members Kira and Mark Zabrowski to pursue their own midsummer night’s dream of pizzeria ownership. Their shared love for Shakespeare inspired the name for Much Ado About Pizza, but their soft opening, to hear them tell it, was a comedy of errors. Not to mention Mark thought it was all “a terrible idea” at first. And thereby hangs a tale. In this Q&A, PMQ caught the funny, engaging couple between acts to hear it and to learn what they’ve learned in two years on the job.
Brian Hernandez: How did Much Ado get started?
Kira Zabrowski: It all started with me. During the pandemic, I started baking a lot of sourdough bread, which led to curiosity about making pizzas as well. Mark got me the Ken Forkish book, Flour Water Salt Yeast, and learning about all the recipes and the levain process really helped get me through my days teaching online. After being in the classroom for 25 years, it was a hard transition and especially difficult to teach theater and English online. I would sneak downstairs to make bread as often as I could. I got to the end of the book and used all that knowledge on making pizza.
Mark Zabrowski: We started with the classic recipes like biga and poolish, then we continued down the rabbit hole. Once we hit sourdough, we decided we absolutely must try this with pizza. Then, one day, Kira just looked at me and said…
Kira: “I think I want to start a pizzeria.”
Mark: I said, “That’s a terrible idea.” I tested the waters and told her she needed a business plan before we went further—just to gauge her seriousness. We filed for an LLC…so we could attend [Pizza Expo] and met some amazing pizza people while we were there. The list of inspirational people we got to meet was insane.
Kira: The Women in Pizza (organization) caught my eye immediately. I said, “I want to be a part of that.”
Mark: We also met our Pizza Daddy, Don Damron of Barnstormers Pizza & More in Michigan. He took us under his wing and would always answer our calls and let me know how stupid I was being and that I should let her run everything.
Kira: The more people we met, the more I felt like we belonged here. I also competed [at Pizza Expo] and finished fourth. I was uber-inspired then! We got home, and I finished up the business plan and said, “Here we go.”
Mark: Well, she began the process of the pizzeria, and I helped, but I kept the job that actually paid the bills, for [the time being]. But after Expo, the switch was flipped for me too, and we committed to the world of pizza.
Kira: We were doing a lot of winery events and were eventually able to find our current location, which isn’t perfect. It’s not our forever home but a good home for right now.
Brian: With no restaurant ownership background, was it difficult to get a lease?
Mark: Working with an agent was helpful because they taught us what to look for and what not to do. I just wanted to show up at the landlord’s offices with pizza and convince them that way. With that said, when we found this place, the owner was impressed with the path we were taking, like attending Expo and the local events, and offered this spot. It was definitely harder not being a chain or franchise. They give you less consideration right away. So, we signed the papers and opened our doors on June 11, 2022.
Kira: Yes. June 11. We don’t talk about the hot mess soft opening on Labor Day. We just don’t.
Mark: Yes, that taught us a lot. We were more worried about what the pizzas tasted like than the actual organizational operations of the pizzeria, but we found out the hard way, when he had 10 pies stacked on top of each other waiting to go in.
Kira: We’re a smaller operation, and we learned from that experience. We’re a little slower since it’s just the two of us, but we’d rather be a little slower than set unrealistic expectations, and the customers understand and appreciate that. Just recently, we were selected as one of five finalists in the Perfect Pitch Competition at the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Denver. We’ll pitch our brand to a panel, and if we are chosen, we get a cash prize, but we also get a consultant to come in for six months. That would be so helpful, but, either way, this experience is going to help us grow.
Mark: We’re not going to tell them about the “day of one pizza sold.”
Hernandez: Being a two-person operation, what has your experience with online ordering been like?
Mark: The advantage online has over the phone is, when you’re on the phone, it’s very hard to concentrate on taking the order, making pizzas and dealing with in-store customers. Whether on the phone or in the store, the customer expects that the employee’s sole job is to talk to them and take their order. We all know when you’re small, you have all the jobs. Online ordering takes care of that for us. The disadvantage is that everyone gets hungry and orders at the same time, without fail.
Kira: But by accepting preorders, we can set up the schedule, and we’re conditioning our customers. They’re learning to be a little flexible or plan ahead. And it’s easy when they walk in and just show me their order. Boom. Done. I don’t have to mess with the register or anything.
Mark: But there are still times when we get busy and have to pull the phone briefly to catch up. But the voice on hold now has a British accent, so that’s calming at least. Right?
Kira: Yeah, she’s great.
Hernandez: What are your thoughts on third-party delivery?
Mark: With third parties, you don’t have control of the product all the way to the door. That can be problematic in a lot of ways. Insert your own horror story here. The problem was all that was done by what we call the fourth party. You have the POS, the online platform, the third-party delivery, and then the customer. The layers of accountability get muddled, and it’s hard to correct any problems, regardless of whether they’re your fault or not. The customer doesn’t typically get mad at the delivery party, they get mad at the pizzeria.
Kira: With insurance laws in California and, for our size, it still makes sense to use them, though. And they do allow pickup orders, and they market you with their money.
Mark: It’s nice to have the option, but I think we could spend those marketing dollars better elsewhere, but baby steps.
Brian: How did you settle on the Shakespeare theme?
Kira: Originally, we were going to call ourselves Pizza Love and make nothing but heart-shaped pizzas. We even did a test gathering with our family to test recipes and the dough, and it turns out the name was taken. Not just taken but copyrighted. So I went to bed very sad that night. The very next day, I woke up very early, and I looked at Mark and exclaimed, “Much Ado About Pizza!” It was like fireworks in my brain, and the ideas just started flowing: the pizza names, the picture of Shakespeare eating a pizza, everything. Plus, he’s also an artist, and I truly think of pizza as art.
We created a tongue-in-cheek faux backstory for Shakespeare’s lost years, and it kind of went from there. You’d be surprised how many people believed the backstory up until the point we say he settled in Livermore, California. Our customers get into it too. The punny names, the theme, all of it. Some order in iambic pentameter or leave reviews in sonnet form. We are, as Tony Gemignani calls us, the place with the puns. We get people that are really excited about trying their first sourdough pizza, and then we get groups of people like teachers or people in the theater that grab on to those aspects of what we do. At any given time I’m talking about either pizza, Shakespeare, teaching, acting—it’s great.
Brian: What are your thoughts on being a part of the USPT?
Kira: It’s been so beneficial. Whenever we get down into the doldrums, we have a group of people there ready to lift us up.
Mark: Every week that’s a little down we were, like, “THIS IS THE END! What are we going to do?” And they were there to keep us level and strong. Wherever you can find it, find your group of people to support you. If you need to reach out to us at muchadoaboutpizza@gmail.com, we’ll do our best to help you stay in the crazy game of pizza pies.
Kira: And don’t be discouraged by the big chains. We are small, but we are mighty. The freedom that comes with our size allows us to get to know our customers better and build that relationship. That’s something the chains don’t have.
“What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?”
“Tis thine smell of pizza, my lady!”
