Pizza Expo After Dark w/ Al The Pizza Buddha, Nick Camacho, Marc Schecter, Ryan Mondragon & Scott Sandler

2025-05-30

This Episode’s Sponsors→ 🌾 Use Code: PIE2PIE to Get 15% Off Cairnspring Mills Flour: https://bit.ly/CairnspringMills 🌶️ Join The Pepper Flake Revolution: https://bit.ly/flatironpepper 🎶 Maestro Sausage: https://bit.ly/maestro-sausage 🍕 Be in Business for yourself, not by yourself w/ SLICE : https://bit.ly/SLICENOW Get a NEW GOZNEY: https://us.gozney.com/?dt_id=1529737 Here's some FREE stuff → 🚀HOW TO STEAL A RECIPE https://www.subscribepage...

This Episode’s Sponsors→

🌾 Use Code: PIE2PIE to Get 15% Off Cairnspring Mills Flour: https://bit.ly/CairnspringMills

🌶️ Join The Pepper Flake Revolution: https://bit.ly/flatironpepper

🎶 Maestro Sausage: https://bit.ly/maestro-sausage

🍕 Be in Business for yourself, not by yourself w/ SLICE : https://bit.ly/SLICENOW

Get a NEW GOZNEY: https://us.gozney.com/?dt_id=1529737

Here's some FREE stuff →

🚀HOW TO STEAL A RECIPE https://www.subscribepage.com/howtostealarecipe

🍕 Thinking of Opening a Pizza Shop? Start here: https://howtoopenapizzashop.com/

My Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/alexkoons

On this episode, we go late night for a special episode: After Dark at Pizza Expo 2025 with an incredible lineup of pizza legends - Nick Camacho of Lucky Nick's, Marc Schecter from Square Pie Guys, Al The Pizza Buddha, Ryan Mondragon of Sanctuary Pizza, and Scott Sandler from Pizza Via - all crammed into a Vegas hotel room for a meeting of the minds. These guys opened up about everything from their biggest pain points, how they see automation changing restaurants, to Al getting emotional about his World Pizza Champion honor, plus we somehow ended up watching Tony G's legendary pizza acrobatics Matrix routine from 2006. This is pure gold, zero filter, and the kind of conversation that only happens when the cameras keep rolling and nobody wants to leave.

Chapters:

00:00 - Pizza Expo After Dark Beginnings

05:11 - Labor Crisis Forcing Pizza Automation

10:37 - $2.50 vs $20: The Minimum Wage Reality

15:14 - Conveyor Ovens vs Hand-Tossed Debate 20:10 - McDonald's Systems for Pizza Shops

25:32 - Wood-Fired Romance is Dead

30:15 - Competition vs Market Saturation

35:20 - Partnership Horror Stories

42:15 - Imposter Syndrome Confessions

44:27 - What's Really in Chain Pizza Cheese

50:30 - Time Slots: Future of Pizza Ordering

58:45 - Mobile vs Brick-and-Mortar Success