OPEN SOURCE
We published this story in response to a reader suggestion. Do you have a tip for our reporters? Click here to submit it.
MANSFIELD — Scott Granneman loves pizza so much he could eat it for breakfast — and he has on many occasions.
Granneman opened his first pizza shop in his early 20s. He built and sold a regional empire. Then he walked away for a while, moved across the country and became a limo driver in Las Vegas.
Now, the 66-year-old is returning to his roots in more ways than one.
After returning to Ohio to be closer to family, he spotted an empty commercial kitchen at 247 Marion Ave., the former KD’s Pizza. He opened Scotty’s Pizza there in July.
Just like that, the founder of East of Chicago Pizza was back in the kitchen.
From hometown pizza shop to household name
Granneman has always been entrepreneurial. As a high school student, he’d skip class at least once a week to cut firewood all day, then haul it to Cleveland and sell it in the evening.
He mowed cemetery lawns and worked as a plumber before opening The Greenwich Pizza Barn in 1982. He was 23 years old.
For the first few years, he kept his day job and ran his pizza shop at night.
As the only pizzeria operator in Greenwich, Granneman listened to every piece of feedback customers had to offer and learned all he could about the craft.
“I would go to seminars. I would listen to anybody that came in the door. I just started experimenting,” he said. “I still experiment.”
A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Granneman spent about five years in pursuit of the perfect pizza crust.
“I remember the day I felt like I had it,” he said. “I thought I could have stores across the country.”
Granneman opened his second pizza shop in Willard in 1991. He borrowed the name from a local pastor, who told Granneman he made the best pizza east of Chicago.
He outgrew the space within a year.
“I was surprised how much of a reputation I had,” he recalled. “When I moved over there, I had taken the phones off the hook.”
Franchises started popping up not long after. Branneman spent his days on the road, traveling across the midwest to help owners set up shop. It was thrilling and exhausting.
“In the next 10 years, I had 100 (pizza shops) and I didn’t have anybody selling franchises,” he said. “They were all just word-of-mouth.”
A few years later, Granneman sold The Greenwich Pizza Barn and it became an East of Chicago franchise. He said he’s still in touch with the original franchisees, who operate it to this day.
“I like other people’s success,” he said. “It gives me the greatest joy when I see these franchisees that have been super successful.”
After selling East of Chicago to a franchisee in 2008, Franneman packed his bags.
“I lived in Las Vegas for 13 years, I drove limos and I had a blast,” he said. “I got to meet hundreds of celebrities. I drove Nicholas Cage around all the time.”
He considered opening a pizza shop out west on several occasions, but said the pieces never quite came together.
Scotty’s Pizza menu includes Detroit style, taco pizza
Finding the right location has been a key to Granneman’s success numerous times.
The original Greenwich Pizza Barn carried an astonishingly low rent of $150 with utilities.
Granneman said he got a good deal on a Willard property that became the first East of Chicago shop.
The former KD’s Pizza building at 247 Marion Avenue presented yet another opportunity. The building already had a commercial kitchen and a drive-thru window.
Scotty’s Pizza opened in July with little fanfare.
“I didn’t want to have a grand opening or anything like that. I wanted to build a good staff first, which is the biggest struggle today,” he said.
Granneman said he’s getting there with a good manager and a small, but reliable group of high school students.
Granneman said the name Scotty’s Pizza is a bit of joke at his own expense. He’s never liked being called Scotty.
It’s a humble operation. His office is just big enough for two chairs, an antique wood desk and a printer that sits atop two Amazon boxes. An unopened, vintage glass Pepsi bottle sits on the shelf above, next to a bag of coffee filters.
The kitchen is clean, bright and unpretentious with white walls, glass block windows and stainless steel shelving. Pizzas roll through a conveyor belt oven. It’s not the traditional deck oven preferred by most pizza makers, but Granneman swears by its consistency.
The crusts come out just the way he likes them — bready but not dense, with a crunchy, buttery bottom.
Scotty’s Pizza also serves a taco pizza, a staple menu item at Granneman’s previous enterprises.
But the owner of Scotty’s isn’t content to simply rely on what worked in the past. He’s still experimenting.
That’s why the shop offers Detroit style, a square-shaped pan pizza with the sauce drizzled on top.
Other offerings include traditional circular pizza, cheesy bread and The Great Scott, a 16-by-16 inch pan pizza made with over a pound of cheese. Customers can buy fresh or frozen pizzas, as well as frozen dough balls.
When a call came in during a midafternoon lull, Granneman leaned in his office chair to peer out into the kitchen.
“You got it, Colton?” he asked a teenage employee, following up with some gentle encouragement. “I know you can handle it.”
After a few minutes, Granneman checked the boy’s work. He nodded approvingly at the heaps of pepperoni, then added one more dash of a signature pepper blend.
Granneman said he hopes to get to a place where he only has to come into the shop a couple of days a week. But in the meantime, he’s enjoying the opportunity to get to know his customers.
That’s been his favorite part of the business.
“There’s some really great people down here,” he said. “I ain’t never worked a day in my life. I just love making people happy with pizza.”