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Editor’s note: This article is part 5 of the Pizza Power Report 2025. You can scroll down to the bottom to navigate to other sections of the report.
By Rick Hynum
So-called “smart” technologies, like computerized pizza ovens and dough presses, are slowly transforming the pizzeria industry, but they don’t come cheap. Fortunately, success in 2025 doesn’t necessarily hinge on shelling out big bucks for the latest technologies. Freezers aren’t all that smart, but look at what independents are doing with them nowadays.
Perhaps 2024’s most exciting development in the frozen frontier was St. Louis restaurateur Katie Lee’s breakthrough deal with Walmart. Lee, the owner of Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria, which has three locations, journeyed to Bentonville, Arkansas, in late September for Walmart’s Open Call product pitch day for a shot at the coveted Golden Ticket—and scored.
Lee’s frozen pizzas and pasta bakes had already emerged at St. Louis grocers like Dierbergs Markets and Straub’s before moving into retailers including Fresh Market, Fresh Thyme, Kings, Balducci’s, Mother’s, Whole Foods and others. “We dreamed big and expanded into local grocery outlets, nationwide shipping, then moved into wider retail distribution, and now Walmart,” Lee says. But she makes it clear that there’s only one difference between the pizzas and pastas served at her elegant, high-end restaurants and her frozen items at retail stores: The latter are, well, frozen.
Lee started freezing her dishes for sale during the COVID-19 lockdown. A true believer in fresh, clean ingredients, she didn’t want to sacrifice quality with her frozen line. “People want to cut costs and think they need to use different cheeses and different processes to make [frozen] food,” she says. “So what you find in the grocery store is overly processed food with a lot of science and junk behind it. Because we had to pivot so quickly, we made our exact same pizza and sealed it and froze it. And then we realized that’s the best way to do it. That’s the most innovative way to do it. And it’s what everyone is afraid to do.”
It’s also what shoppers want, Lee believes. “Consumer demands are changing, which is why we see grocers trying to make this product in-house, and they can’t seem to do it.”
Social media is also spurring demand for higher-quality offerings on the frozen pizza shelves. “Food is, like, No. 2 on TikTok right now,” Lee says. “It’s up there with music and celebrities. People are just very interested in food, and they understand food much better than they ever have, really, in history. They want to try really great food, and the retailers are taking notice. And if there’s a demand, they’re going to put attention toward it.”
Anthony Mangieri, the celebrated pizzaiolo behind New York’s Una Pizza Napoletana, would likely agree. His single-unit restaurant was rated the best in the U.S. and the world this year by 50 Top Pizza, but many of us can try his pies in our own living rooms, thanks to the growing success of his frozen brand, Genio Della Pizza, in retail stores. Mangieri and a growing number of independent pizzeria owners have been elevating a segment that Technavio projects to grow 5% annually between 2024 and 2028.
Atlanta restaurateur Brian Lewis wants a piece of that pie, too. After opening Bocado Pizza this year in Sandy Springs, Georgia, he introduced his wood-fired sourdough pizzas to a wider audience through nationwide shipping. They boast flour from a small Italian farm, a dough that’s naturally leavened over 72 hours, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes from Italy’s Campania region.
Like Lee, Lewis wants to replicate the restaurant dining experience as closely as possible. “Our biggest challenge has been changing the ready-to-ship pizza industry’s mindset,” he says. “We’re moving away from the conventional methods that rely on fillers and additives for extended shelf life. Instead, we’ve created a simple, high-quality pizza where we control every ingredient, from the dough to the sauce to the cheese. This approach allows us to offer a premium product without unnecessary additives, challenging the 180-day shelf life common in the freezer section. We’re proving it’s possible to make authentic restaurant-quality pizza accessible to consumers at home without compromising on ingredients or taste.”
Mind you, frozen pizza isn’t the only innovative route to go if you’re an independent operator looking to get your pizza in more mouths via supermarkets in the coming year. Rocco Pifferetti, owner of Rocco’s Pizzeria in Youngwood, Pennsylvania, opened his second shop—this one called Rocco’s Slice House—inside a Shop ‘n Save in nearby Greensburg. For about $1,200 a month, he’s leasing a 500-square-foot space that formerly housed a pharmacy. “Over the years, I’ve been looking for ways to branch out,” Pifferetti told PMQ earlier this year. “I thought about a food truck and things like that. One day I was eating lunch and saw something for lease inside of a Shop ‘n Save, and I was immediately intrigued.”
His mind immediately went to the guaranteed foot traffic in a grocery store. “It’s a boardwalk, basically,” Pifferetti said.
Regardless, frozen pizza looks to be the next frontier for independents. “Pizza is universally beloved,” Lewis adds. “Coming out of the pandemic, we have a new expectation for convenience and accessibility. Just as services like UberEats, DoorDash, HelloFresh and Goldbelly have transformed how we’re able to access restaurant-quality food with the click of a button, nationwide pizza shipping from restaurants like ours meets the demand for convenience without sacrificing quality. Our goal is to maintain a consistent Bocado experience, whether you’ve had our pizza at the restaurant or only know us from online orders.”
Editor’s note: This section of the Pizza Power Report 2025 includes additional material about Rocco’s Slice House that did not appear in the January-February 2024 print edition due to limited space.
NAVIGATING THE PIZZA POWER REPORT 2025
How Independents Keep Learning to Win vs. the Big Chains
Major Chains Lean into Value in So-Called ‘Pizza Wars’
Good Help Can Be Easier to Find With Some Creative Strategies
How Smart Technologies Can Ease Pizzerias’ Labor Problems
Venturing into the Frozen Frontier to Build a National Pizza Brand
C-Stores Are Taking ‘Gas Station Pizza’ to a New Level
America’s Most Popular Independent Pizzerias (Per Crowd-Sourced Reviews)
America’s 25 Most Critically Acclaimed Independent Pizzerias
The Top 30 Pizza Chains in the U.S.
The Top 10 Trending Pizza Styles for 2025
Most Popular and Fastest-Growing Pizza Toppings for 2025
