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TONY RIVIERA AND I have been sitting at a conference table inside his suburban Seattle offices chatting about chicken pesto pizzas and sausage and pepper calzones for a half an hour when he decides it's time for a late lunch.
Riviera, anxious for me to taste his products, has pre-arranged for pizza delivery. An assistant knocks on the door, and asks if we'd like something to drink. She returns bearing the drinks and three brown cardboard boxes displaying pizzas studded with sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes hearts, grilled (and roasted) chicken, and fresh mushrooms smothered in Alfredo sauce.
I nibble politely, but Riviera leans over the table and attacks with gusto. "I haven't had pizza in two weeks," he explains, folding in half a slice slathered with chicken and barbecue sauce, then demolishing it in two bites.
Riviera, founder and president of Seattle-based Tony Maroni's Famous Gourmet Pizza, is passionate about pizza. The son of a Sicilian master baker, he's been tossing and stretching dough since age 11 when he worked in a pizzeria in his native Brooklyn. Now, after 10 years of doing business in Seattle's affluent east side suburbs, Riviera has honed a concept he believes has national reach. It's a chain of tiny take-out and delivery pizzerias, featuring soft lighting, stone archways, ceramic tile floors, and faux wood columns. The classy units also specialize in pasta, calzones, and salads several notches (and dollars) above what national chains offer.
Backed by a group of investors, including George Naddaff, founder and former c.e.o. of Boston Chicken, Tony Maroni's Franchise Systems is making an aggressive push to expand outside the Seattle area. Plans call for 25 franchise and company-owned stores by the end of the year, up from the current 10 (five company-owned, five franchises), and 150 by the year 2000. Target areas are high-traffic, high-income neighborhoods. The first out-of-state franchise stores are planned for Manhattan Beach, California.
Compact 1,200-square-foot stores, designed by Medici Consultants of Bellevue, Washington, combine an efficient kitchen layout with a smart, Italianesque interior meant to convey the feel of a sit-down restaurant, though minus tables. Tony Maroni's niche: providing a quick, gourmet dinner to busy professionals (many with children) who eat pizza an average of once every three or four weeks....