Operations
Pushed by the culinary legacy of a “supertaster” chef and a rigorous, 23-level merit-based labor system, Regents Pizza remodeled from a twice-failed native store right into a $7.7 million powerhouse by mastering each New York and Chicago types alongside an elite, Cicerone-led craft beer program.
Photograph: Regent’s Pizza
February 19, 2026 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
In 2005, Chef Stephen Carson walked right into a failing 1,100-square-foot pizzeria in tucked away on the underside ground of a medical advanced in La Jolla’s UTC district in California and noticed one thing others had missed. The store, Regents Pizza, had already failed twice and was hemorrhaging cash on lower than $450,000 in annual gross sales. However Carson, a “supertaster” with a refined palate for advanced flavors, partnered with turnaround professional Invoice Vivian to rework the struggling spot right into a culinary vacation spot.
Twenty years later, Regents Pizza has developed right into a Southern California powerhouse, producing $7.7 million in annual income from a single location by mastering the uncommon “diplomatic” feat of serving each genuine New York and Chicago deep-dish pizzas alongside an elite craft beer program.
Carson and Vivian had identified one another for 15 to twenty years once they partnered, each having expertise within the pizza trade already. Carson was recognized with melanoma in 2008 and handed away three years later. Vivian bought a majority curiosity within the idea and took over. They ultimately moved their small pizzeria into the endcap of their strip middle, which afforded them 4,100 sq. toes. Whereas their outdated restaurant had simply 30 seats, the brand new location boasts 130.
Right this moment, the model distinguishes itself from the competitors with Carson’s handcrafted menu of New York and Chicago-style pizzas and a craft beer program any pizzeria would envy.
On faucet
To enrich their mastery of each types of pies, Regents Pizza has established a beer program that rivals the sophistication of elite wine cellars. In a metropolis usually thought to be the “craft capital” of the US, the restaurant distinguishes itself via a rigorous, expert-led method to service.
San Diego has been a hub for the event of craft beer tasting rooms and microbreweries. Vivian mentioned there aren’t any carefully guarded secrets and techniques, as “individuals within the craft beer world like to see one another succeed,” Vivian mentioned, including that the realm has about 150 craft breweries at this time.
Considered one of his present companions, Cary Reuter, helped construct the craft beer facet of Regents Pizza’s enterprise. The bartenders are all Cicerones — the beer equal of a sommelier.
“The explanation for that’s we knew we could not pretend our means via describing any craft beer with a San Diego beer drinker as a result of individuals on this city who drink beer know beer,” Vivian mentioned. “And we needed to be a spot the place there was all the time one thing new and that you can come and study one thing and educate your folks. Our Cicerone beertenders know that we’ve no commodity beers, by no means will. However we like to introduce commodity beer drinkers — Budweiser, Blue Moon, these types of parents — to one thing a bit higher. Identical fashion, a bit higher.”
Clients are inspired to attempt small samples of beer. They will style as many as they need, however the job of a Cicerone is to get the client to decide on inside a three-taste most to be environment friendly and to maintain prices in management.
Beer accounts for $1 million in gross sales yearly. Regents Pizza sells 2,700 half-liters every week.
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Photograph: Regents Pizza |
On the menu
Pizza accounts for about 60 to 65% of gross sales. The model sells 1,300 Chicago pies and 6,500 Chicago-style slices per thirty days. It sells 6,800 New York pies and 14,000 slices per thirty days.
On-premise eating is about 53% of gross sales, whereas off-premise gross sales accounts for 47% of gross sales. Catering makes up $1.2 million yearly.
“Our high quality customary is to be one of the best in the whole lot we do, not solely within the elements we purchase, however within the recipes,” Vivian mentioned. “All of the recipes are a really excessive taste profile, which is according to Stephen’s legacy. And the whole lot we introduce has to satisfy our requirements … throughout all menu classes.”
The menu begins with nice elements, and so they make as a lot as doable in home, which is paired with worker coaching, consistency of recipes, stable execution and supervision, Vivian added.
Apart from entire pizzas and slices, there’s an appetizer menu, calzones, 13 kinds of Buffalo and Nashville scorching rooster wings, salads, selfmade pastas, scorching sandwiches and desserts.
Climbing the ranks: the 23-job ranges system
The restaurant’s $7.7-million success is constructed upon a extremely structured, systems-oriented method to labor that emphasizes benefit over easy tenure. Drawing on Vivian’s background in turnaround administration and company restaurant chains, Regents Pizza makes use of a “23-job ranges” system to professionalize each position in the home.
- Benefit-based development: Raises usually are not granted merely for time served; as an alternative, staff should show particular, goal competencies to maneuver up the 23-level ladder. The model employs about 75 individuals, a lot of them UC San Diego college students.
- Ability certification: Every degree requires certification by a coach. For instance, a kitchen employee would possibly transfer from dishwashing to dough making, then progress via stretching, topping, and ultimately managing the ovens or the “scorching line.”
- Goal transparency: Each job degree has a corresponding guidelines of expertise. This ensures that when an worker asks for a elevate, the trail to attaining it’s clear, documented and fully inside their management.
- Excessive retention: This professionalized tradition has resulted in a remarkably steady workforce, with 10% of the 75-person workers having been with the restaurant for a decade or extra.
“Suggestions run about $4.50 an hour and we’re north of $18 in San Diego for minimal wage,” Vivian defined. “So, that is a fairly excessive wage only for a non-skilled job. However if you wish to make extra you must have extra expertise and you must show it. We’ve got all these ranges as you progress up — each has a special ability set. So perhaps the following factor that any individual can study is dough making and dough rolling. There’s dough stretching, there’s pizza stretching, there’s pizza topping, there’s pizza stretching, working the ovens and so forth.
“As you progress up in your ability set, you earn more money and also you’re licensed in every of these by a coach. And in order quickly as you get that, you get a elevate — no questions requested. We would like individuals to make more cash, proper, as a result of we’ve a greater product. Then we’ve varied ranges of supervision within the varied jobs.”
Within the entrance of the home, staff could begin as bussers or runners after which transfer as much as cashiers.
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Photograph: Regents Pizza |
Discovering success
Vivian mentioned the model’s meals and repair are the secrets and techniques to its success. Whereas that is a declare made by many pizzerias within the trade, it isn’t lip service for Regents Pizza. Vivian would not suppose the one unit is maxed out and mentioned $9 million or $10 million in gross sales just isn’t out of the realm of risk.
They’ve reworked the kitchen 3 times — the final time in Dec. 2024 — and have concerned industrial engineers alongside the best way, growing kitchen throughput and effectivity.
Vivian mentioned he would not suppose Regents Pizza will franchise sooner or later as a result of manufacturers should compromise and police their franchisees to make sure consistency and that the idea’s requirements are being upheld.
“After we develop, we’ll develop organically and it will be for the good thing about the individuals who have labored their means up from the underside in our restaurant,” Vivian mentioned.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the positioning editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise overlaying meals, individuals and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent almost twenty years overlaying the pizza trade, from unbiased pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each measurement enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has received quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and may let you know the place to seek out one of the best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a dwelling.
