The Spinato's Experience: Why We Lead with Human Connection

What makes a restaurant feel like home? Is it the food, the familiar faces or the feeling that someone genuinely cares about making your day a little better?

At Spinato's Pizzeria & Family Kitchen, we believe it's all of those things. We call it The Spinato's Experience, and for our team, it's much more than a commitment to exceptional food and service. It's a philosophy that guides how we treat our guests, support one another and make decisions about our future.

As Anthony Spinato, Spinato's CEO, says, "We believe that the best restaurants make their locations feel like home. From the moment you walk into our restaurant, we want you to feel like part of a big family. We want to enhance our guests' special occasions and let them enjoy every moment, whether you dine in at the restaurant, takeout, or enjoy our fresh pizza at one of our concession stands at Mortgage Matchup Center or State Farm Stadium."

But for our Spinato's team, The Spinato's Experience is much bigger than what happens between the moment you walk through our door and the moment you leave. We know that every touchpoint shapes how you feel about us, and whether you ever come back.

The Spinato's Experience is rooted in a philosophy established by Spinato's co-founder and patriarch Ken Spinato when he opened the family's first restaurant in 1974: Treat guests the way you would treat someone you invited into your own home. Prepare for them. Welcome them. Feed them well. Be curious about their lives. Make them feel genuinely cared for.

Over more than 50 years, that philosophy has influenced decisions throughout our company. Itaffects how our restaurants are designed, how our food is prepared, how quickly we grow, which opportunities we pursue, how we listen to feedback, how we recognize loyal guests, and how we stay connected outside the restaurants.

For our team members, The Spinato's Experience comes to life through everyday interactions. It's remembering a regular guest's favorite pizza, helping someone with special dietary needs to order a customized dish or finding a way to turn an ordinary meal into a special occasion. These moments may seem small, but together they create the relationships that have kept generations of families coming back to Spinato's.

The Spinato's Experience also guides us as we expand to other neighborhoods. At one point, we even turned down an opportunity to expand to 60 restaurants because we were concerned that growing too quickly could compromise The Spinato's Experience. We know that we need to be strategic with our growth, and that we must always lead with human connection. 

In 2022, we almost turned down the opportunity to become the "Official Pizza of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury." We knew fans deserved the same fresh, delicious pizza they enjoyed at our restaurants, but we weren't sure how to make that happen in a busy arena. Serving frozen pizza was not an option. Through creative problem-solving and a lot of hard work, we figured out a way to maintain our strict standards so fans could have the same positive experience with fresh, delicious pizza at the game. We had so much success with the concession stands that in 2024, we also became the "Official Pizza of the Arizona Cardinals."

The Spinato's Experience doesn't end when our guests leave our restaurants. We look for opportunities throughout the year to strengthen those relationships and create meaningful experiences beyond the dining table. One example is The Spinato's Experience Dinner Giveaway, which gives guests an opportunity to enjoy an intimate December dinner inside the Dough Room at our Spinato's Family Kitchen headquarters. We'll be announcing the winners for this year's dinner soon. 

The good news is that you can stay connected with us to learn about more ways we provide The Spinato's Experience. Follow us on social media and sign up for our Loyalty Program, "The Secret Sauce Society," so you can track progress, receive exclusive offers, preview new menu items, earn rewards and possibly receive some surprise bonuses along the way. 

Do you have a favorite story about The Spinato's Experience? We'd love to hear about it.