From Projects to Pizza

Owner George Philbrook has been working in the pizza business since 1985.

Starting at a national pizza chain at the age of 17 and living in Everett’s low-income housing projects since an early age, he was determined to better his life. By the age of 18, George realized that he wanted his own pizza shop but it took 12 long years for that dream to come true. Working for over a dozen different pizzerias in the area ranging from big chains to small independents, George learned everything he could from each location. In 1995, he began working as a delivery driver at the recently opened Revere pizza shop.

By spring of 1997, the failing restaurant was for sale. Wanting to own his own pizza shop for years, George literally rolled coins and sold what he could to buy the business.

The shop in 1997

Experience and Hard Work Paid Off

With 12 years of experience and a combination of the best recipes learned over his career, he was able to create one of the highest quality, best tasting pizza around.

Ariane our 1st employee checking the old oven - 1997

Within the first year, sales had doubled through word of mouth. Sales continued to increase due to a better product and faster service.

George with his delivery drivers - 1999

Business increased so fast that by early 1999 they had to double the oven capacity to keep up.

In 2001, after years of handwriting orders, they invested in a POS system, which is faster and more accurate at order taking and also has mapping software to aid drivers on deliveries.

With a steady growth in business, it was getting increasingly difficult to handle the Friday night rush. So in the summer of 2004, the shop was completely rearranged and now 200 pizzas can be baked per hour without difficulty.

The new oven - 2001

The Decision to Change

Wanting to possibly open more locations, George realized early on that keeping the original name was a mistake and struggled with the decision to rename for years.

There were four non-affiliated locations with the same name already in Massachusetts. Each had different recipes and menu items than our Revere shop, so it just didn’t make sense to keep the name. In 2005 after years of customer confusion between locations, the decision was made to rename.

The Origin of Nonni’s Pizza

In our search for a new name, we turned to our customers and Nonni’s was one of the more popular requests.

Our customers had come to know us by a grandmother style name for over 10 years. So when we asked them for advice in selecting a new one, it did not surprise us that they chose Nonni’s.

In Italian, “Nonni” means grandparents but it is also used as a nickname for “grandmother”. With Nonni being the Italian version of Nana it was an easy name to transition into and it properly represented our Authentic Italian pizza. In winter 2006, one year after the decision to rename and with strong customer support, we became Nonni’s Pizza. Now in 2007, our single store has gone from 3 employees to a staff of 30 with plans to open future locations.

Celebrating our new name in 2006