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1000 Degrees Pizza acquires My Pie1000 Degrees Pizza acquires My Pie

Owner Amandeep Judge indicated this is the first in a series of acquisitions

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 20, 2023

2 Min Read
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1000 Degrees Pizza, a 25-unit chain based in Galloway, N.J., has announced its purchase of six-unit My Pie Pizza in the first of what the new owner of the larger chain said will be a series of acquisitions.

Amandeep Judge acquired 1,000 Degrees in October of last year. That chain focuses on traditional Neapolitan and Roman style pizzas, while My Pie offers New York Style pizza, calzone, chicken wings, and salads, but the acquiring company said the synergies between the companies would help enable both concepts to grow.

"This is another remarkable step in the evolution of the restaurant empire that we’re building,” Judge said in a release announcing the acquisition. “Beyond the business models and loyal fanbases, there are incredibly talented team members at both brands that will continue to foster our growth.”

My Pie operates in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Utah, and Nevada, and 1000 Degrees is in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas. Both are fast-casual, build-your-own-pizza concepts. All My Pie locations and all but one 1000 Degrees units are franchised.

Judge, a real estate broker, also said that similarities in design and operations would make for a smooth acquisition and would allow both brands to share marketing and supply resources, lowering costs for franchisees.

Related:Is the pizza industry in trouble or normalizing after a long pandemic?

“My Pie Pizza fits seamlessly into the 1000 Degrees system, which was a key factor in choosing the first brand we acquired,” Judge said. “The harmony between the restaurants makes this an optimal partnership; one that allows the best aspects of the 1000 Degrees brand and its robust support systems to shine. We are looking forward to successfully uniting the brands and exploring more acquisition opportunities in the restaurant space in the future.” 

Matt Merrill, 1000 Degrees’ director of franchise operations, said current My Pie franchisees would benefit from the processes and systems currently being put into place.

“Our goal is to streamline our operations as a unified brand, and help the franchisees achieve a higher earning potential,” he said in the release, which also said that 1000 Degrees was in the process of opening new locations in Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

The company did not indicate what other fast-casual pizza concepts might be acquisition targets.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
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