Pizza Factory, the award-winning pizza brand, recently announced that its Rio Vista location welcomed new owners. As local entrepreneurs, Gurdeep Bains and his partner TJ Dhaliwal now run the daily operations of the Rio Vista restaurant alongside their manager Gabby.
Upon initial introduction to the Pizza Factory brand, the duo fell in love with its family-oriented principles and customer-facing culture. The experienced restauranteurs, who also owns Pizza Factory locations in Valley Springs and Winters, CA, aim to form new and meaningful connections with members of the Rio Vista community and generate a new audience of visitors through proactive outreach. Since taking over ownership on July 10, they have already made plans to install a new salad bar and introduce beer on tap to the location to improve the overall dining experience.
“Our entire team at Pizza Factory Rio Vista is eager to continue building upon the brand’s reputation and maintain the location’s stance as the go-to spot within the community,” says Bains. “We’re committed to delivering the gold standard of customer service to our guests, and we have an amazing team behind our daily operations. I’m confident that we are leading with our best foot forward going into this venture and look forward to the future as we work to leave a lasting impact.”
Located at 201 Main Street, the restaurant has been a staple within Rio Vista for numerous years. Bains and Dhaliwal knew the location held such significance and wished for the brand to remain within the community to continue serving its legendary cuisine. Giveback efforts include hosting weekly senior nights on Monday evenings and $14.99 large pizza special on Tuesday.
Pizza Factory is in a league of its own within the pizza industry and has exemplified a strong growth trajectory. The brand has opened 8 locations thus far and has 3 more slated by the end of the year. In addition, Pizza Factory ranked on the 2023 Franchise Times Top 400 of the largest brands in franchising for the fifth consecutive year.
Featuring multiple fast-casual prototypes, Pizza Factory maintains its reputation for family-friendly dining and high-quality products. The brand specializes in its vast menu offerings, serving fresh, never frozen hand-tossed pizza, pasta, wings, sandwiches, salads, beer, wine and more. As Pizza Factory continues to develop into new markets, the brand is providing multi-unit operators flexible new-build or conversion options with delivery / curbside and traditional dine-in prototypes ranging from 1,000 – 4,000 sq. ft. The largest option typically features multiple dining sections, an arcade area for the kids, banquet rooms for parties and social gatherings and big-screen TVs throughout the restaurant.
“We could not think of anyone better than Gurdeep to make an impact on the community in Rio Vista,” says MJ Riva, CEO of Pizza Factory. “His passion and drive for entrepreneurship has been incredible and I’m looking forward to watching the team carry out Pizza Factory’s ‘awesome’ mission. Pizza Factory Rio Vista is in very capable hands and were thrilled to welcome Gurdeep to the Pizza Factory family.”
With aggressive development efforts underway, Pizza Factory is actively growing and seeking multi-unit operators to develop nationwide.