'Much Ado About Pizza' Wins Big In Competition
PLEASANTON, CA — Since two married teachers opened a small pizza shop in Pleasanton two years ago, there has indeed been Much Ado About Pizza.
The Shakespeare-themed pizzeria, named by former Quarry Lane School drama teacher Kira Zabrowski after the Bard’s famous play, was number 51 on Yelp’s 2024 Top 100 Places To Eat in the U.S. It was also just one of seven pizzerias included on that list, and the only restaurant in Pleasanton. Nearly 200 ecstatic Yelp reviews show how it made it onto the list. Diablo Magazine also included it in a 2022 roundup of the best pizzerias in the East Bay.
Late last month, Zabrowski prepared Much Ado’s house sauce at the California Pizza Challenge at the LA Convention Center, where it placed second. Kira and her husband Mark, who are both members of the U.S. Pizza Team, also competed against each other in the Three Cheese Challenge. Both placed in the Top 10. They used only California cheeses, which is part of their broader philosophy.
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“Everybody loves our pizza sauce here, and I just took it,” Kira said. “We don’t use any sugars or preservatives, we use a product called Stanislaus, which is a California tomato. We have the can, we purée the tomato, we put in our little secret ingredients, and we use a local olive oil…we got to pick the olives we use for our olive oil. Anything we can do to make it more authentic and local and us.”
All the competitors used the same dough and cheese, but supplied their own sauces to cook a pizza. Zabrowski was just half a point away from winning first place.
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This was the first year that the Zabrowskis were chosen to compete at the California Restaurant Show, but they are no strangers to competition. In March 2022, the spring before she opened Much Ado, Kira scored 4th place in the Non-Traditional Pizza Competition at the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas. However, the most recent competition in LA was the first time Kira and Mark had to stand in front of judges and talk about how they prepared their pizzas.
“We just kind of went for it this year,” Kira said, noting how many different competitions they signed up for over the course of three days. They even gave a seminar about how to make a new business succeed and thrive.
That was a talk they were well-qualified to give. Before they opened their first-ever business, Kira spent 25 years teaching English and drama. Mark was in sales, but began teaching math and economics at the Quarry Lane School in Dublin, where Kira worked. As it did for so many, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to re-evaluate her life.
“I went nope, I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go off on my own,” she said. Kira began baking between classes for her “sanity”, and discovered a love for cooking sourdough. She initially considered opening a bakery, but decided against it due to the early hours it required. They settled on making pizza, and planned to call themselves Pizza Love before they discovered that was already taken and copyrighted.
“I woke up one day, and I said to my husband, ‘Much Ado About Pizza,’ that’s it. It’s gonna be Shakespeare eating pizza, it’s hilarious, let’s go,” said Kira, who once worked for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Despite initial reservations from Mark, they ran with that, and now the entire menu has a Shakespeare theme, from “Taming of the Chew” to “Ham-let.” Almost as soon as they started, the combination of their unique sourdough, sauce, and quirky menu caused much ado in Pleasanton, and they were inundated with customers.
Now they’re looking to branch out, through the help of further competitions. In October, the Zabrowskis will participate in a pitch competition sponsored by Pizza Marketplace at the Fast Casual Executive Summit. If they win, they’ll receive money and free consulting for six months to help grow their business.
“We’re ready to grow,” she said.
Much Ado About Pizza is located at 1991 Santa Rita Road, Suite E, in Pleasanton. For more information, visit muchadoaboutpizzaca.com or call 760-766-5010.
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