By Charlie Pogacar
Though it may pain some pizzeria operators to admit it, social media has become a must-have marketing tool in modern-day foodservice. It’s free, effective and it can drive sales.
Scroll through your feed, and you’ll see operators experimenting with pizza shots, highly produced videos, giveaways and influencer collaborations. All of those things can be effective. But one common theme we’ve heard at PMQ Pizza lately is that it’s easy to overthink social media. Three experts with proven results on social media have recently told us, in some form or fashion, that instead of trying to dream up ways to go viral, operators should instead stick to the basics.
When Pizza-Cutting Became a Million-View Phenomenon
Take Erica D’Arcangelo. She grew up at D’Arc’s Pizza in Windber, Pennsylvania, and went on to a thriving career in digital marketing. When her father needed help with the family shop, she took over the neglected Facebook page and started experimenting. Out of all the content she tried, the breakout wasn’t a glossy ad or a clever campaign. It was pizza-cutting videos.
“They make like 100 pizzas a night,” she told PMQ Pizza. “So I just stood back there and started recording. I went to bed one day, woke up the next day and it had a million views.”
D’Arcangelo leaned into what worked. The videos snowballed into tens of millions of views, collaborations with major accounts, and—most importantly—quadrupled sales for her dad’s small-town shop in two years. Her advice to operators is almost laughably straightforward: claim your Google listing, post consistently and don’t overthink it.
A Smartphone as a Growth Engine
The same pattern shows up at Burattino’s Brick Oven Pizza in California. Emil Chiaberi took the reins when sales were languishing around $200,000 a year. Instead of pouring money into ads or professional equipment, he pulled out his phone. He filmed what he had—pizzas being made, slices being served the daily rhythm of the shop.
Prior to owning the pizzeria, Chiaberi had enjoyed a highly successful career as an entrepreneur in the women’s supplement space. His company had been built on radio ads that sought to stir up desire in its target demographic—a cause and effect he monitored with laser-like efficiency behind the scenes.
He took the same approach in building Burrattino’s social media reach. “I analyzed everything—every frame of every video, every caption, every word,” Chiaberi said. “If that sounds obsessive, it was. But it was also undeniably rewarding.”
What his obsessiveness uncovered was eerily similar to what D’Arcangelo had learned: People really liked watching his pizzas being cut and the crunch noises that came along with it. That, and they loved pepperoni pizza. So he posted a lot—and we do mean a lot—of videos of pepperoni pizzas being cut.
In just 18 months, revenue soared to $1.5 million. He’s since added three more locations and has been inundated with franchising inquiries, thanks almost entirely to the shop’s dynamic social media content. Chiaberi’s story underscores the same lesson: success doesn’t require a polished studio or endless creative reinvention. What matters is showing up consistently with content that feels authentic and repeatable.
The 1.7 Million-Follower Playbook
And then there’s Frank Kabatas of East Village Pizza in New York City. His Instagram account has amassed 1.7 million followers, turning his shop into a bucket-list destination for tourists around the world. When asked what most pizzeria owners get wrong, he doesn’t hesitate: “They don’t spend enough time [on it].”
Kabatas has been at it for over a decade, and his approach is the opposite of high-production gimmicks. He films his pizzas as they are—gooey garlic knots, double-stacked slices—and edits with minimal fuss. “No lighting changes, nothing like that,” Kabatas said. “People come in and say, ‘It’s exactly like what I saw on the video.’ That’s very important to me.”
For Kabatas, the formula is clear: find what resonates, double down and keep at it. He spends around two hours a day capturing and posting. That time commitment—not fancy editing—is what he believes separates his account from the crowd.
Stop Overcomplicating It
What ties these three stories together is not just their success but the philosophy behind it. Each operator found a simple content type that clicked—cutting a pizza, serving a slice, showing a signature item—and then stuck with it. They didn’t chase every trend, hire professional crews or try to reinvent their image every week.
The takeaway for other operators is hard to ignore: you might be trying too hard. Customers aren’t looking for polished commercials. They’re looking for a peek behind the counter, a sense of what it feels like to be in your shop and reassurance that the food they see online will match what they get in person.
That doesn’t mean social media is effortless. Kabatas is right when he says, “Social media wants time.” But it doesn’t want complexity. It wants consistency, authenticity and the discipline to repeat what works—even if that’s as simple as a steady stream of pizza-cutting clips.
So before you plan your next elaborate campaign, ask yourself: What’s the one thing people love seeing from my shop? Chances are, the answer is right in front of you, happening dozens of times a day. All you have to do is record and post it.
