Type of Food: Pizza and Pasta

Interesting Fact: Sbarro is located in more than 65 airports worldwide from Holland to New Zealand.

History: In 1956, Gennaro, Carmela, and their sons Mario, Joseph and Anthony, left Italy and settled in New York City. The family opened their first Salumeria (Italian grocery store) in Brooklyn. The success of the Sbarro Salumeria led to the opening of more locations throughout the New York City area. In 1967, Sbarro opened its first mall-based restaurant in Brooklyn’s Kings Plaza Shopping Center, marking the birth of the modern Sbarro concept: delicious, fresh and authentic Italian food in an open kitchen that allowed for fast self-service. Currently Sbarro is the largest mall-based Italian restaurant chain in the world, with some 1,000 locations across more than 30 countries. The company has grown to include mall locations also restaurants in airports, hospitals, travel plazas, universities, rest stops, train stations and casinos.

Website: www.sbarro.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Sbarro here

Name: Pizza Hut

Type of Food: Pizza

Interesting Fact: The true reason it was called ‘Pizza Hut’ is because when Dan and Frank Carney got the sign to put in front of their first restaurant in ‘Wichita, Kansas’ there was only enough room for a three letter word after Pizza.

History: Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 by two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, in Wichita, Kansas. A family friend gave them the idea of opening a pizza parlor, and while the concept was relatively new at the time, the brothers quickly saw the potential of this new enterprise. Borrowing $600 from their mother, they purchased second-hand equipment and rented a small building on a busy intersection in Wichita, Kansas. The result of their efforts was the first Pizza Hut and the foundation for what would become the largest and most successful pizza restaurant in the world. Today Pizza Hut chain has nearly 34,000 restaurants, delivery-carry out units, and kiosks in 100 countries.

Website: www.pizzahut.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Pizza Hut: in the USA here in Canada here

Specials:
-Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons (USA)
-Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons (Canada)

Name: Papa John’s Pizza

Type of Food: Pizza

Interesting Fact: Papa John’s Pizza is the third largest take-out and delivery pizza restaurant chain in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza.

History: In 1983, “Papa” John Schnatter delivered his last campus pizza, picked up his business degree from Ball State University, and went back to Jeffersonville, Indiana. There, at age 22, he knocked down the broom closet in his father’s tavern (Mick’s Lounge), sold his prized 1972 Z28 Camaro, purchased $1,600 worth of used restaurant equipment, and began delivering pizzas out of the back of the bar. In 1985, the first Papa John’s restaurant was opened. Today, there are more than 3,300 Papa John’s stores worldwide including over 2,600 in the U.S., and more than 500 worldwide in over 30 different countries.

Website: www.papajohns.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Papa John’s Pizza in the USA here and in Canada here

Specials: -Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons

Type of Food: Pizza, submarine sandwiches, pasta

Interesting Fact: Papa Gino’s Pizzeria is the official pizza of the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox.

History: Papa Gino’s began in 1961 as a single East Boston pizza shop. When the family of Papa Gino’s founder, Michael Valerio, sailed from Italy to Boston in 1936, they brought with them authentic Italian family recipes handed down through generations. These were the recipes Michael and his wife, Helen, used when they opened their first pizzeria, Piece O’ Pizza in 1961

In 1968, the owners, Helen and Michael Valerio, changed the name to “Papa Gino’s” and began expanding the business to multiple locations. Papa Gino’s has been established as the leader of New England pizza chains.There are over 200 Papa Gino’s locations in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Website: www.papaginos.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Papa Gino’s Pizzeria here

Specials: -Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons

Name: Mike’s Restaurant

Type of Food: Pizza, Pasta and Hot Submarines

Interesting Fact: There are more than 3,000 employees on the MIKES® team, and sales total more than $127 million.

History: Mike’s Restaurant was originally founded in 1967, in Montreal, as a sandwich shop by the Marano Brothers. The menu has grown to include pizzas, pastas, steaks, salmon, brochettes and more. There are over 100 Mikes in four Canadian provinces: Quebec, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick. Since 2000 it has been owned by Imvescor Inc (previously Pizza Delight). From its humble beginnings in Shediac, New Brunswick four decades ago, the company has solidly established itself in the restaurant industry and today ranks as a regional leader, with a growing presence across the country in the moderate/casual family dining segment. Imvescor Inc. also operates the Pizza Delight, Scores, and Bâton Rouge brands.

Website: www.mikes.ca

View the menu here

Find your local Mike’s Restaurant here

Specials: -Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons

Type of Food: Pizza

Interesting Fact: After founding Little Caesar in 1959 and growing it into one of the nation’s top three pizza firms, family patriarch Mike Ilitch purchased the Detroit Red Wings hockey team in 1982 and the Detroit Tigers baseball team a decade later.

History: On May 8, 1959, the dynamic husband and wife team, Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first Little Caesars Pizza restaurant in Garden City, Michigan. In 1962, the Ilitches sold the first Little Caesars franchise. Today Little Caesars has about 2,000 pizza outlets on five continents.

Website: www.littlecaesars.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Little Caesars in the USA here in Canada here

Specials: -Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons

Name: Pizza Donini

Type of Food: Pizza

Interesting Fact: Pizza Donini was the first pizza chain in the Montreal area to develop and use a state-of-the-art computerized one-number central telephone system to process customers’ orders.

History: Founded in 1987 by Mr. Peter Deros, Pizza Donini Inc, started business in early 1987. Original operating delivery counters with only 3 sizes of pizza. Donini, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation was established in 2001 when the company acquired control, by way of a reverse merger, of Pizza Donini, a Canadian company that has been operating and licensing Italian style restaurants specializing in pizza and related products within the Greater Montreal Area in province of Quebec for over 20 years.  The Company has recently completed a consolidation of its operations by establishing two Subsidiaries, Donini Group Inc. and Pizzacorp Franchises DTC Inc., whose purposes are, respectively, to hold and control the intellectual property of the Company and to license the trade marks and oversee the licensed franchisees of the marks.   The Company plans to expand its operations into the United States and the rest of Canada. Through its Canadian Subsidiaries, the Company is a full-support franchise management company in the Greater Montreal area, Quebec, Canada that currently supports nine (9) Pizza Donini delivery restaurants with limited seating of between 25 to 50 seats and one (1) 120-seat fully licensed Italian restaurant with delivery operating under the name “Donini Resto Bar”. Besides pizza, the menu includes pasta dishes, a variety of hot submarines, chicken wings, salads and desserts.

Website: www.pizzadonini.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Pizza Donini: here

Specials: -Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons

Type of Food: Focus on Pizza, but also offers buffalo wings, sandwiches, breadsticks, mozzarella sticks, cinnamon sticks, and salads.

Interesting Fact: Chuck E. Cheese specializes in birthday parties for those 1-12 years of age.

History: The business was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as the Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, and featured singing animatronic characters. As of January 1, 2006, The company operated over 500 restaurants in the United States and other countries.

Website: www.chuckecheese.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Chuck E. Cheese’s: here

Specials: -Newsletter - Gift Card – Coupons

Type of Food: 25 varieties of gourmet pizza as well as pasta, baby back ribs, chicken, seafood

Interesting Fact: Despite its name, Boston Pizza was not founded in Boston, and as yet has no locations in Boston or even Massachusetts. The company is Canadian! The name Boston was chosen because it was a considered a recognizable and established name.

History: The Boston Pizza concept began in Edmonton, Alberta in 1964 when Greek immigrant Gus Agioritis opened “Boston Pizza and Spaghetti House”. Although he lacked any significant restaurant experiences, Agioritis achieved success by combining hard work with a business strategy that included a focus on growth through franchising.

The company started franchising in the 1960s; Gus’ two younger brothers, Nino and Trifon helped found the first restaurant in Edmonton and each started a franchise in Saskatoon and Regina, respectively. When the company and its franchise rights were sold, Nino and Trifon established pizzerias under new names: Nino’s Pizza and Trifon’s Pizza still exist in these cities. Six years after opening, Gus had 17 locations (two corporate and 15 franchised) in operation across Western Canada. In 1978 Agioritis sold the company to Ron Coyle.

In 1983, Jim Treliving, a former RCMP officer who was one of the original franchisees (who had opened his first restaurant in 1968 in Penticton, British Columbia), along with business partner George Melville, bought the chain. By 1995, the company boasted 97 restaurants in Western Canada.

The first U.S. restaurant opened in 1998 under the name “Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza”. Today there are over 350 restaurants in North America and Mexico combined. Jim Treliving, Chairman and Founder of Boston Pizza Restaurants L.P. is looking towards expansion into Australia, the United Kingdom and eventually Asia.

Website: www.bostonpizza.com

View the menu: here

Find your local Boston Pizza in Canada here and Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza here

Specials:
-Newsletter – Gift Card – Coupons Boston Pizza

-Newsletter – Gift Card - Coupons Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza