Whereas pizza giants like Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Pizza Hut continue to compete amongst one another, there is a informal, sit-down restaurant chain serving up buffet–type, all-you-can-eat pizza that has been staging a quiet comeback because it filed for chapter in 2021. That chain? Cicis Pizza, a now 40-year-old mainstay in household eating based mostly in Coppell, Texas, with round 300 eating places unfold out amongst over 30 states on the time of writing. It as soon as was a go-to spot — and a lifesaver — for busy households who must replenish at a modest value level (simply $1.99 per grownup, initially).
After peaking with over 600 areas in 2009, that quantity regularly started to declined; in January 2021, almost a yr after the COVID-19 pandemic started, Cicis entered Chapter 11 chapter. However a mere two months later, it emerged debt-free, with new house owners and a brand new lease on life. Actually, Jeff Hetsel, the president and COO of Cicis, was wanting ahead to staging a comeback. In 2023, underneath the management of Hetsel and distinguished shareholder Chris Dharod, the chain tweaked its pizza recipe, and extra importantly, expanded the dimensions of its recreation rooms.
That latter transfer alone exploded same-store gross sales, and it wasn’t simply making the sport rooms bigger that helped. Cicis Pizza areas additionally invested cash into modernizing its recreation room expertise, eliminating tokens (which might be simply dropped or misplaced) and changing them with playing cards. These interactive recreation components may assist Cicis get one step forward of rival pizza chains.
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The Unsure Future Of Cicis Pizza
A complete Cicis pepperoni pizza sits in a cardboard to-go field – Instagram/cicisofficial
Regardless of its successes after rising from chapter in 2021, Cicis Pizza nonetheless occupies a tenuous market area, as informal eating restaurant chains take hit after hit (like TGI Fridays, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2024, and Hooters, which went bankrupt just five months later). Cicis continues to evolve, nonetheless, leaning into its newer call-ahead, pick-up-in-store ordering system, in addition to third-party supply fashions. It is also getting in on the “worth wars,” making an attempt to supply clients menu objects that present extra bang on your buck. Cicis lately went old skool for its 40 yr anniversary, providing “classic” pricing of $4.99 grownup buffet admission on choose days of the week.
The brand new period of Cicis can be leaning into trendy know-how in an enormous means, implementing stringent and widespread safety measures in Fee Card Knowledge (PCI), in addition to leveraging AI in modern methods. The pizza buffet chain additionally lately gained the Visionary in Know-how Award, introduced by XRobotics, for “main the way in which in modernizing restaurant operations via sensible, scalable know-how options,” (by way of Pizza Marketplace). This integration of leading edge know-how into on a regular basis operations, whereas nonetheless staying true to what made it a hit within the first place, could also be precisely what Cicis wants so as to survive no matter comes subsequent.
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