A New Pizza Place Has Its Sights on West Central Missouri

There's a new pizza place looking to make a home in West Central Missouri, and they'd like to have locations as close as Marshall and Warrensburg.

I'm talking about Mr. Gatti's Pizza. Mr. Gatti's though is more than just a pizza joint. It's a Family Entertainment Center. Yaknow kind of like Showbiz Pizza was, or Chuck E. Cheese is. The difference, according to Mr. Gatti's website, is that they've got better pizza. According to their website:

"While other brands concentrated either on fun gaming centers with mediocre food, or good food with a few games in a back room, we excelled at both — allowing our locations to further stand out in the minds of families in nearby communities."

Mr. Gatti's isn't new on the scene either. They've been big in parts of Texas and the Southeast for decades. James Eure opened his first pizza place in Texas in 1964, and his first Mr. Gatti's, named for his wife's father, in Austin in 1969. He credits his pizza place's success due to a crave-able pizza recipe.

"Mr. Eure dedicated himself to mastering the elements that make people crave pizza: real cheese, yeast-risen dough made fresh every day, our signature tangy pizza sauce, and toppings that can’t be topped."

Now, when I lived in Lubbock, we had a Mr. Gatti's Family Entertainment Center down the street. I remember hearing good things about the pizza so I tried it. I don't remember it being bad, but I don't remember it being a pizza I liked enough to experience again either. So make of that what you will.

So where is Mr. Gatti's opening in West Central Missouri? Their locator already has locations in Columbia, Springfield, Joplin, and Branson. They don't, however, have any opening dates listed.

Other territories available for franchising in Missouri that the pizza place would like to locate include Marshall, Warrensburg, and Hannibal along with Jefferson City, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cape Girardeau, and St. Joseph.

That said, just because a chain finds an area desirable doesn't mean a store will open there anytime soon. Just ask Pizza Ranch, which has long considered Sedalia as a market for its pizza buffet.

As for Mr. Gatti's, I think Sedalia would be a perfect location for Mr. Gatti's because of the desire of residents looking for entertainment. A family entertainment center with an arcade and very good pizza might be one of the ways to solve that problem. It'd be even better if it was next door to a brand-new bowling alley.