They Told Him This Location Would Fail. Now He Sells 275 Pizzas in 4 Hours.
What if everyone told you your pizzeria would fail because of its location — and you proved them wrong by selling 275 pizzas in just four hours?
In this episode of What’s Good Dough, we sit down inside Fired Pizza in Stockton, CA — a pizzeria that broke nearly every “rule” people swear by in the restaurant industry.
From being told their location would never work, to transitioning from a mobile pizza trailer to a full brick-and-mortar restaurant, this conversation goes deep on resilience, smart compromises, and building a business that customers choose to go out of their way for.
We talk pizza philosophy, Neapolitan vs expectations, pricing challenges, build-out realities, and what it actually takes to survive (and thrive) in today’s pizza landscape.
Highlights:
0:00 – Why this pizzeria “should’ve failed”
1:00 – Selling 200–275 pizzas in a single night
1:55 – From food truck muscle memory to restaurant survival
2:20 – Keeping the menu simple on purpose
3:25 – Oven temps, bake times, and “send it straight to hell”
3:55 – Educating customers on Neapolitan pizza
4:50 – Ranch on pizza (yes, proudly)
5:30 – Less cheese, more balance
6:30 – Why pizza was always the end goal
7:10 – Betting half their savings on a mobile pizza trailer
8:10 – The worst first catering event imaginable
9:00 – Why beer and wine drive ~30% of revenue
10:00 – Pricing reality: $18 pizzas and customer pushback
13:25 – Building out the restaurant themselves
14:30 – A full year to open the doors
15:05 – “What’s Good Dough?”
Follow Fired Pizza:
https://www.instagram.com/fired_pizza/?hl=en
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Topic:pizza podcast, pizzeria success story, opening a pizzeria, restaurant startup story, pizza business, Neapolitan pizza, wood fired pizza, pizza shop owner interview, food truck to restaurant, small business success, restaurant location myth, pizza entrepreneur, pizza industry, artisan pizza, independent pizzeria, California pizza, Stockton pizza, fired pizza, pizza oven cooking, pizza margins, restaurant pricing, pizza menu strategy, pizza education, craft beer and pizza, restaurant build out, DIY restaurant build, pizza trailer business, mobile pizza business, how to start a pizzeria, pizza business mistakes, pizza passion, pizza culture, food entrepreneurship
