Chain of pizzerias forges link with Valley Latino community

But Hispanics and pizza?

A Latino pizza chain was a niche nobody was filling until a Dallas-based company, Pizza Patrón, began franchising two years ago.

Local entrepreneur Lee Cohn owns the first eight franchises of Pizza Patrón in the Valley, including one in Chandler at Arizona Avenue and Ray Road.

"I originally thought I'd probably do somewhere around 30 (restaurants) in the Phoenix area, but now we think we'll do more like 50," said Cohn, who put together a group to raise capital.

"I don't think there's any doubt they'll continue to grow," said Jeremy White, editor in chief of Pizza Today magazine.

"Phoenix and Los Angeles and Dallas and . . . Miami. All those markets seem really natural because they already have a Hispanic population. But Louisville, Ky., where I live, is seeing a Hispanic population boom as well," he said.

Some pizza chains may run print or radio ads in Spanish, "but no one has made it their focus, their priority," White said.

The pizza isn't much different than other chains. What's different is the marketing.

Pizza Patrón sites must be where the population within a three-mile radius is 40 percent Latino or is growing toward that. The manager of the store needs to live in the area.

"That helps the store plug into the community because the guy running it is part of the community," said Andy Gamm, director of brand development. "It really operates on a very grass-roots, local community level when it's done correctly."

The staff needs to be fluently bilingual.

"We want the right faces behind the counter," Gamm said. "We do much more than a Spanish-language advertising campaign that you might see from Domino's. . . . We understand our customer and know it's much more than language. (Customers) want to feel when they walk in the store that the people behind the counter not only understand the language but understand who they are and can relate."

The company was founded in Dallas in 1986 by Antonio Swad, who is not Hispanic and who started the Wingstop chain. He called his first pizza parlor Pizza Pizza.

"Very quickly Swad ran into issues with Little Caesar's, who said he had their slogan. His employees called him patrón, so he changed the name," Gamm said.

Patrón is an endearing word that means community leader.

"He fell into the name, and it's a fantastic fit," Gamm said.

About 95 percent of the stores are carry-out only, and Pizza Patrón sells a traditional large, 15-inch cheese pizza with one topping for $4.99, the price it has been for 19 years. A customer can even buy a half pizza. Some sites open at 4 p.m. weekdays but open for lunch on weekends.

White's magazine publishes an annual list of the top 100 pizza companies in terms of sales, and in 2007, Pizza Patrón was 94th with gross sales at $21 million.

For his part, Cohn is a Chicago native who has been involved with restaurants in metro Phoenix since 1974. He says he introduced deep dish pizza to Arizona with his Lunt Avenue Marble Club. As co-founder and CEO of Big 4 Restaurants, he also has been involved with other popular restaurants including Oscar Taylor at the Biltmore Fashion Park, Ed Debevics in Phoenix and the American Grill in Mesa, all of which are closed. He got out of the day-to-day restaurant business to consult and devote time to the boards he's on: Morton's, Marie Callender's, and McCormick and Schmick's.

But someone called him about Pizza Patrón, and he was hooked.

"There's just nobody focusing on catering to the Latin community with pizza," he said. "I thought it was a great idea, and it's been fun."

The franchise fee is $20,000 for the first one and less for subsequent franchises. The additional costs range widely because of variation in real estate costs. Cohn also owns stores in Mesa, Glendale, Avondale and Phoenix.

"We're looking for people who want to own them along with us," Cohn said. "One of the things we've found out about Latinos here is that they're very entrepreneurial and opening a lot of businesses. Obviously, they're hardworking, and they put their families in the business. They belong to the church, and we think that's a real important element to this business that separates us from other pizza chains."