By Tracy Morin

In today’s increasingly digital world, customers crave a dining experience that engages all of their senses. As a pizzeria, you’ve already got “taste” down pat, but how else are you thrilling customers, both inside and outside the restaurant? Are you merely serving food and drinks—or, like these successful memory makers, creating full experiences and memories that’ll last a lifetime? 

Case Study #1: Organ Stop Pizza

Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona, is home to the largest Wurlitzer theater pipe organ in the world, making it both a tourist destination and a local favorite. While most pizzerias don’t house this kind of attraction, they should take notes on the many ways Organ Stop creates a memorable experience through (and during) live entertainment. Assistant manager Linda Guthrie explains:

The experience we provide allows guests to unplug, slow down and recharge, giving them the ability to better face the realities of the world after they leave our doors. On some level, we provide a safe escape from the pressures of everyday life.

It’s a highly sensory experience: You can smell pizzas cooking in the oven and taste our cool salad bar or ice cream. Our live organ music is obviously a large part of the experience, but as you sit and listen to the music, your other senses are also engaged. Lighting effects all around the room chase, change color, and brighten or dim as the organist plays. Other lights show when percussion instruments, which hang from the ceiling, play. We have dancing cat puppets that periodically make an appearance, and bubbles fall from the ceiling. Some of our larger pipes actually shake the building, and you can feel that vibration while dining.

“Our live organ music is obviously a large part of the experience, but as you sit and listen to the music, your other senses are also engaged.”
—Linda Guthrie, Organ Stop Pizza

Our organists are experts who can easily change the tone of the room with just one song. One minute, it’s filled with excitement and energy as “Sweet Caroline” plays, then the organist can cater to a room filled with kids singing “Let It Go” and end with a more reflective tone as everyone stands for the National Anthem. Every night, our organists take requests and also announce birthdays and anniversaries, highlighting individuals and playing their special song.

We regularly post on all social media platforms to alert returning and new customers of promotions or events, and to share guest experiences to highlight the wonder our restaurant holds. We also partner with influencers so they can share the experience with their followers and encourage new customers to give us a try.

Regarding logistics, most of our staff/customer interaction happens outside of the dining room. Orders are placed in our service area, and when orders are ready, they light up on the number board in our dining room. This allows customers to enjoy their experience in the dining room with minimal staff interruptions.

You need to find your niche. Try different things and see what works. One of my favorite things at Organ Stop Pizza, which we haven’t always done, is our Christmas in July fundraiser. We decorate the restaurant and play Christmas music throughout the month. Santa makes appearances on weekends, and every evening the organist does Christmas trivia, giving away Christmas stockings filled with Organ Stop Pizza goodies. It’s a fun way to get to know our guests just a little bit better, and I love the Christmas-y excitement from our staff and customers, especially when the temperatures in Mesa are well over 100º! And I love that we get to support our local community with food donations. We wouldn’t have been able to enhance our experience without taking a leap and trying it out. 

Case Study #2: Mattenga’s Pizzeria

Co-owners Hengam and Matt Stanfield have grown Mattenga’s Pizzeria to eight locations in San Antonio, plus two more scheduled to open by the end of the year, by going above and beyond to provide the full guest experience. Because so many of their customers are made up of young families, events and special in-store touches help stamp their business as a welcoming part of the community, not just a place to order pizza. Hengam shares her many strategies:

As restaurants, we don’t want to feel transactional. That’s an asset that we have as a local pizzeria [versus chains]: creating experiences for people. Events are a great opportunity to meet people face-to-face and build that loyalty, while having fun as an owner and bringing people together. You can host a pizza-and-beer pairing event—just contact a local brewery, and they’ll bring beer samples, because they want to get in front of your customers. You can charge customers or do it for free. When you partner with local businesses, it’s mutually beneficial for both. We’ve also done pizza and pottery events, where kids build their own pizzas and work on pottery—charging $25 and splitting profits with the pottery painting company. We also host demos in the restaurant, like they have at food trade shows, with taste testing of two or three fun ingredients, like balsamic glaze.

We like to celebrate holidays and seasons. We ask: What’s on people’s minds, and how can we become part of those traditions? Like using seasonal flavors on a pizza of the month, or, for Halloween, getting people to come here before trick-or-treating. Also, October is National Pizza Month, so that’s an opportunity to tell a lot of stories and a great opportunity for PR. Local TV loves local restaurants; we’ve been on TV probably eight times in the last year! List what makes your pizzeria different—for example, we use unbleached, unbromated flour, and National Pizza Month is an opportunity to tell that story. 

On a Friday night, we’ll have team members who are good at dough tossing come out into the dining room, and customers want to try it for themselves. You don’t get that at other establishments, so it’s really memorable. We do build-your-own pizza events and birthday parties. And we sell pizza kits with dough, sauce and cheese. When local daycare centers visit us for field trips and tour the kitchen, we give kids a kit to take home to their families. People love something they can touch, and they love to be educated. 

“As restaurants, we don’t want to feel transactional. That’s an asset that we have as a local pizzeria [versus chains]: creating experiences for people.”
—Hengam Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria

We share our events through emails, text messages, in-store receipts, fliers, and personal visits to local businesses. When you have good relationships with local businesses—we drop off a lot of free pizzas—they’re happy to help out. Also, local Facebook groups are fantastic; people are always looking for fun events to do on weekends. We religiously post once or twice per week on pages like San Antonio Restaurants. It’s a noisy world, so just be everywhere to stay top-of-mind. 

One easy idea is to try fun decor, like a fall or Halloween theme for October. We create a little “photo booth area.” People are looking to take pictures and share on them on social, so give people a reason to tag you. Be creative. And plan early—by August or September, have a plan ready for October!   

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.

Experience Inspo

Need more inspiration? Here are some big and small ways pizzerias nationwide are creating unforgettable experiences, from one-off events and creative collaborations to quirky themed decor:

Adoro Lei in New York City went TikTok-viral with its Boozy Pizza Making sessions, now available every Sunday for brunch. The two-hour open bar with beer, wine and prosecco, paired with a chef demo for make-your-own pizzas and two additional courses served family-style, costs $89 per person, with private room and DJ options available for parties.

Stadz Pizzeria in Blacklick, Ohio, encourages a rollicking dining room atmosphere with open mic night on Mondays and live local bands on weekends. The pizzeria then posts professional-quality images from events on its blog page, driving guests to the website long after the night ends.

Mel’s Wood-Fired Pizzeria in New York City hosted Mel’s F.O.M.O. Pizza Series IV from July to September this year. Though FOMO here stands for Friends of Mel’s Oven, customers do get a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) if they don’t grab these limited-time “pizza collaborations with Philadelphia’s top chefs.” In a rotating lineup, each of the five chefs’ collabs graced the menu for about two weeks.

Grateful Head Pizza Oven in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, “inspired by the love and fellowship of Dead Heads” (Grateful Dead fans), creates a hippie haven designed to “share the experience of all the joy and fun of a live Dead show.” In an old abandoned school house in the Oauchita Mountains, the Dead-themed shop plays the band’s songs on loop. Yes, it’s a niche experience—but successful enough to have already spawned a second location, in Hot Springs, Arkansas.