By Brian Hernandez
Brian Weavel was a high schooler when he began washing dishes and making pizzas for a family-run shop. Even then, he knew he was onto something. That early job eventually turned into a lifelong career that included restaurant ownership—to this day, people in Winnebago, Illinois, talk fondly about Anna’s Pizza & Pasta, even though it’s been closed for years—as well as community leadership, judging pizza competitions, speaking engagements and, more recently, helping indie pizzerias improve delivery with Perfect Crust Pizza Liners and Incredible Bags.
In our conversation for the latest episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast, Weavel looked back on how he got started, why failure mattered early, what he learned from running a small-town pizzeria for 24 years, and why community involvement still matters just as much as the food.
Brian Hernandez: How did you first get into the pizza business?
Brian Weavel: I started when I was 16. I worked for a family as a pizza maker, dishwasher, whatever they needed. I worked for that family for years, and even when I went off to college, I would drive back two hours every weekend just to work for them. I think I was making like $4 an hour back then, but I loved the business.
Hernandez: When did you realize pizza might become more than just a job?
Weavel: After college, I had a good job in human resources at a hospital, but I was still going back on weekends and working in pizza. Finally, the owner I worked for told me, ‘You need to open your own pizza place.’ So I did. I opened my first place in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994.
Hernandez: How did that first shop go?
Weavel: It failed miserably. And, honestly, that was important. I was working fulltime at the hospital during the day and fulltime in pizza at night, and you just can’t do both well forever. That experience taught me one of the biggest lessons of my career: You either go all in or you go home. You can’t half-do this business.
Hernandez: What came next?
Weavel: In 1995, I moved back closer to home and opened Anna’s Pizza & Pasta in Winnebago, Illinois. That turned out to be the right move. I ran that restaurant for 24 years, and it gave me an opportunity to do a lot of great things in the pizza industry and in the community.
Hernandez: What made Winnebago the right place?
Weavel: At the time, it was a small town, around 1,000 people, and there really wasn’t any competition after a certain hour. I had somebody I trusted encouraging me to come back and open there, and I had support close to home. Once we opened, it took off pretty quickly. Sometimes being in the right small town at the right time can make all the difference.
Hernandez: What were some of the biggest lessons you learned as an operator?
Weavel: The biggest one is you have to give this business 100%. If you think it’s glamorous or easy money, you’re going to be disappointed. It takes blood, sweat and tears. The other huge lesson is community involvement. You can have great pizza, but if you don’t know your community and become part of it, you’re not going to last. Because a pizzeria should be more than just a place to pick up food. We sponsored sports teams, supported schools, gave back however we could. I always believed that if you invest in your community, they’ll invest in you. That’s not just good business. That’s being part of where you live.
Hernandez: Did those sponsorships truly pay off?
Weavel: Absolutely. I sponsored baseball and softball teams for years. Maybe I’d spend $1,000 on a team, but then you’ve got 15 to 20 families who know you support their kids. They come back after games, they bring relatives, and they keep coming long after that season is over. It pays off over and over again.
Hernandez: You also did school reading programs, right?
Weavel: Yes. If kids read a certain number of books, I’d give them a free small pizza. Families loved that because it supported the schools and encouraged kids to read. Then those families would come in together, and it created another connection between the business and the community.
Hernandez: What were some of the biggest challenges of running an independent pizzeria that long?
Weavel: Work-life balance was a big one. If you don’t find some kind of balance, this business will drive you insane. I was lucky to have strong employees and my brother helping as an assistant manager, so I could get away sometimes and be with family. Staffing also changed a lot over the years. In the beginning, filling schedules with high school and college kids was easy. Later on, it became much harder. That’s when treating people well and paying them fairly became even more important.
Hernandez: How much do employees shape the customer experience?
Weavel: A ton. Customers are often seeing your employees before they ever see you. I might be in the back making pizzas, but they’re the ones answering phones, taking orders and interacting with guests. If you don’t invest in your employees and train them right, you’re going to have problems. If you treat them well, they’ll take care of your customers.”
Hernandez: You retired from Anna’s before the pandemic. What did that transition look like?
Weavel: I retired in 2019, but I didn’t leave foodservice behind. I worked in a school district as director of community outreach and director of foodservice. I was still doing podcasts, still judging pizza, still involved in the industry. Pizza kind of stays in your blood.
Hernandez: How did you end up with Perfect Crust and Incredible Bags?
Weavel: I got a call from Eric Bam at Perfect Crust. He basically said, ‘What are you doing? Put that stuff down. We’re hiring you.’ I believed in the product, so it was an easy decision. I joined Perfect Crust in 2022, and now I also work with Incredible Bags. It’s been a great fit because I understand the operator side.
Hernandez: How does your background as an operator help you in that role?
Weavel: It helps because I’ve lived it. I’m not just trying to sell somebody something off a script. I know what it’s like to fight for food quality, customer satisfaction and delivery consistency. When I talk to operators, I’m talking from experience.
Hernandez: How important is packaging in maintaining pizza quality during delivery?
Weavel: It’s huge. Operators work too hard on the product to have it ruined in the box on the ride to the customer. Packaging affects texture, heat retention and overall presentation. Delivery can either protect your brand or hurt it, and packaging plays a major role in that.
Hernandez: What keeps you passionate about pizza after 40 years?
Weavel: It’s still the people. It’s the operators, the communities, the relationships and the fact that pizza places really matter in people’s lives. I’ve seen that firsthand for decades. That’s what keeps me going.
After 40 years in the pizza business, Weavel has seen just about every side of it, from washing dishes and making pizzas to running his own shop for nearly a quarter-century and now helping operators protect quality in the delivery age. Through all of it, his perspective has stayed grounded in the realities of independent pizza: work hard, know your community, treat your people right, and never stop learning. For Weavel, the tools may change, but the heart of the business still comes down to serving people well.
Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and coordinator of the U.S. Pizza Team.
Listen to the full episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast with Weavel at one of the following links:
