OC Business Journal

IRVINE:

By Christopher Trela | ctrela@offthemenuoc.com

The original Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza restaurant opened in 1976 on Bristol Street in Newport Beach, which makes it one of the oldest pizza palaces in Orange County. It was in danger of disappearing a few years ago until four friends with experience in the entertainment and food business purchased the pizza joint in 2013 and gave it a new lease on life.

Those four owners include Stan Frazier (the former drummer for Sugar Ray and a winner of TVs “Chef Race”), Andy Hong (partner in Hong Entertainment and Artist Network management firms), Jeff Roberts (former SVP of worldwide retail for Volcom) and Rob Dodman (former CFO of Winchell’s Donuts).

They remodeled the interior and created a new menu, all in record time.

“We got the keys on a Friday, by the following Friday we were open for business,” recalled Frazier. “We had 25 to 30 people working around the clock. I did not think we could do it, but we pulled it off with three minutes to go before opening our doors. There was a line out the door, not a single parking space. People were walking blocks to come here. It was amazing and proved that people love what we’re doing here.”

UCI Expansion

Now, Sgt. Pepperoni’s is spreading the love.

The four partners opened a second concept last year in the Aliso Viejo Town Center.

This month, they unveiled a third location in Irvine’s Campus Plaza at 4533 Campus Drive, a short walk from UCI’s campus. The new restaurant boasts a 2,500-square-foot dining room and large patio with a hip and modern fast-casual ambience and subtle design accents.

So why open two restaurants during a pandemic?

“My partners are the crazy ones,” joked Frazier. “I said ‘are you sure?’ I’m in love with their passion and drive and love for community. We’re spreading love through pizza.”

“We started small in terms of vision and objectives, but over the years we have learned how much this place means to the community,” Hong said. “So, we said let’s bring this to another community, which was Aliso Viejo, and now Irvine. Jeff Roberts is in charge of the expansion, he’s a retail expert. We probably looked at 100 opportunities in Orange County and we picked Aliso Viejo and Irvine.”

Hong said they had started on plans for the Aliso Viejo and Irvine locations when the pandemic hit, but they made the decision to proceed and adapt.

“We did make some significant adjustments with closing indoor dining and staff issues with COVID, and we had to accelerate certain things like online ordering and digital servicing, but at the end of the day, it all made our business better.”

Menu Additions

The Irvine location will feature Sgt. Pepperoni’s full menu plus a rotation of season specials and Irvine-exclusives. Popular pies include the Hawaii 5-0 (pepperoni, pineapple, sweet New York ricotta, fresh garlic, and spicy pickled jalapeno) and Meatball Ricotta (featuring Stan’s famous meatballs, sweet New York ricotta, fresh garlic, mozzarella topped with marinara).

Since success breeds success, are they looking for more opportunities to expand, or maybe franchise?

“We made a decision not to franchise,” Hong stated. “We want to have that consistent customer experience. We will grow organically, opportunistically, but be careful about when we expand, where we expand, and how we expand. We don’t want to compromise. With any form of art or music, as soon as you begin to compromise, you become compromised. If you keep your integrity up high, your customers feel it, your employees feel it.”

Sgt. Pepperoni’s has garnered numerous awards including winning Best Pizza in several OC publications. There’s a reason for that, Frazier said.

“We use the highest quality ingredients we can find. Could we get less quality cheese? Yes, but we can’t. We could not be confident selling an inferior product just to make a buck. It costs a lot but it’s worth it.”

In addition to great pizza, Sgt. Pepperoni’s is a great community partner. They regularly host fundraisers for schools and other organizations, and every September they raise money for Julian’s Lego Corner at CHOC.

And if that’s not enough, Erica Roberts (wife of partner Jeff Roberts) came up with the concept of a “we make, you bake” pizza, which is an unbaked pizza that can be cooked in any home oven.

“What can we count on in this life? Pizza,” Hong said with a smile. “It will never go away. When we go to Mars, I guarantee we will have pizza on Mars. We want Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza on Mars. Coming soon.”

Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza: 2300 S.E. Bristol St. Ste. F, Newport Beach, (949) 852-9500, sgtpepps.com

Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza: 26601 Aliso Creek Road, Ste. D, Aliso Viejo, (949) 215-3070, sgtpepps.com

Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza: 4533 Campus Drive, Irvine, sgtpepps.com

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