In 2023 BoomBozz Pizza & Watch Bar celebrates its 25th anniversary. Since its inception in 1998, BoomBozz has grown from a single carry out delivery pizzeria in Louisville to multiple locations across Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. We’ll have more to to say about the 25th anniversary celebration, but first this excerpt from my 2017 F&D magazine profile, explaining how it all began for BoomBozz.
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In 1994, Tony Palombino was out of school, young and restless, and unsure what to do next. After all, first-generation children don’t always remain in their immigrant parents’ small shops and stores.
Abruptly, a game-changing opportunity arose.
“I’d been in the restaurant business all my life up to that point, with my family,” Palombino remembered. “I got into the banking business, then I got a call from my mentor in Kansas City. He wanted to open a wood-fired pizza concept, which was unique for the time.”
Palombino went to Kansas City, and in 1995 he entered a specialty pizza into a contest sponsored by Pizza Today magazine.
Called the Pollotate, this pizza had marinated chicken, roasted potatoes and red onions on a crust brushed with oil and garlic – and it won first prize at the finals in Las Vegas.
The Pollotate was Palombino’s first bona fide chart topper, and the trophy remains proudly displayed at his office. However, the lasting lesson came only after he returned to Kansas City and got back to work. Soon his phone was ringing off its pre-cellular hook.
“Pizza Today sent out a press release (to Kansas City media). I had no idea they did that. People started calling, asking about the contest. Literally, within three of four days I was on every television station in Kansas City, and it was a lightbulb moment.”
To Palombino, the potential power of marketing was an epiphany, helping him to begin understanding the nuts and bolts of being in business.
“At the end of the day, my family was in the restaurant business, and it was hard to make a dime,” he said. “I saw my parent struggle in the restaurant business.”
Palombino had been hesitant; now he knew that fantastic food required skill sets beyond kitchen creativity. His time in banking provided necessary insight into the financial realities of business, and in Kansas City the pizza contest was an...Read more
