Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria

Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria is a pizza restaurant chain primarily located in Southern California. The chain is notable for its extremely large "Giant Sicilian" pizza, which is claimed to be the largest deliverable pizza in the world. Additionally, the chain gained notoriety when, during the 2014 Academy Awards, host Ellen Degeneres had Big Mama's pizzas delivered onstage.

The first Big Mama's & Papa's was first opened in 1992 by Armenian immigrant brothers Aro and Allen Agakhanyan.[1] At the time, the brothers were neither fluent in English nor out of high school.[1] Since that time, the chain has expanded to 20 restaurants in the Southern California region, with both company-owned and franchise operations. In 2015, Big Mama's announced that it will be expanding internationally to Dubai.

One of the restaurant's signature products is a very large "Giant Sicilian" pizza. The pizza measures 54" by 54" and has approximately 200 slices. It holds the record of "largest pizza commercially available."[2] Big Mama's small delivery vehicles have special compartments attached to the roof to accommodate the size of this pizza. In 1993, deeply affected by the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the Agakhanyan brothers held a month long campaign called "Intolerance Down, Pepperoni Up!" with 5% of all profits donated to the USC Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs (CBCSA).

During the 2014 Academy Awards, host Ellen Degeneres called for pizzas to be delivered for the enjoyment of the audience (composed of numerous celebrities). Degeneres often frequents Big Mama's, which has a location near her studio.[3] An order was made for twenty pizzas to be delivered to the Dolby Theater.[3] To the surprise of the deliveryman (who thought the pizza was merely for the backstage crew), Ellen brought him onstage and had him deliver the pizza to the assembled celebrities. She then passed Pharrel's trademark hat around to gather contributions for a tip from the movie stars. Given the huge audience of the award ceremony, the going price of advertisement time, and the fact that the bit lasted approximately 3 minutes, Big Mama's received approximately $10 million in free publicity.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Feifer, Brad. "So Brad Pitt Ate a Slice … How the pizza place Ellen ordered from at last year’s Oscars has parlayed its three minutes of fame." February 20, 2015. Slate.com Accessed February 20, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Largest Pizza Commercially Available" guinnessworldrecords.com Accessed February 20, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Weisman, Aly. "Pizza Chain Gets $10 Million In Free Publicity, Has Huge Sales Surge After Ellen's Oscars Bit." www.businessinsider.com March 4, 2014. Accessed February 20, 2015.
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