Special Sauce

Papa Romano’s celebrates 40 years of pizza popularity

By Jennie Miller, C & G Staff Writer

SOUTHFIELD — In the back room of an old warehouse, an elderly Italian fella known only as “John T” would sell spice bags to people in the food business, each bag filled with slightly different ingredients than the next.

The contents of one of these spice bags would be mixed with a variety of tomatoes, and thus was born the blend of flavors that has given Papa Romano’s pizza its signature touch for the last 40 years.

The story could be an urban legend, but Jim Wampler of Novi remembers it clearly. And fondly. He was there the day the first Papa Romano’s store opened — April 1, 1970, at Nine Mile and Telegraph in Southfield. He had just turned 16 the day before, and the gig at this brand-new pizza place was his first job.

“There really wasn’t very many pizza places back in them days,” Wampler said. “Not like today. And back in them days, you didn’t worry about cost or anything. Today, it’s all about the bottom line. But back then, everything was based on, this is the recipe we got; this is how we follow it; this is how our pizza is made. And they have stayed pretty dang true to the original recipe that they had.”

Wampler remembers John T in the admiring way a young boy looks up to an old man filled with wisdom and experience.

“He was a scientist,” Wampler recalled. “He had a major role in the pizza business in the Detroit area, but he’s virtually unknown, which is a shame. He helped a lot of people in this town get started. He had a lot of recipes in his head. He peddled around a little cart in Detroit selling vegetables back in the ‘40s and ‘50s. (He later began working as a salesman for a food distributor). He’d sell these spice bags — you’d add tomatoes to make a pizza sauce. People would buy the spice bags from him. Each guy that came in, he’d vary it a bit differently so he wasn’t selling this guy the same pizza he was selling another guy.”

Ronald Hancock was among those who bought spice bags from John T. In his 20s at the time, Hancock opened the first Papa Romano’s, a spin-off of sorts from a little pizza place in Farmington Hills called Romano’s Pizza.

“He was a super guy,” Wampler said of his first boss, the man who made a name of Papa Romano’s, who sold the company and its 45 locations three years ago and now enjoys the fruits of his labor and spending time with his family, including 10 grandchildren. He still lives in Northville and summers in the East Tawas area, Wampler said.

“He was the type of guy who’d take his shirt off his back and give it to you, and if it didn’t fit he’d go get you another one,” Wampler said of Hancock. “People loved working for him. They were loyal to him. How could you not love a guy like that? I owe him so much; he was such a mentor to me.”

The pizza place found success, and in 1978 they opened a second location in Lathrup Village, followed by a third in Southfield.

“One thing led to another, and they just started expanding and it worked out real well,” Wampler said, and the company eventually grew to 44 in Michigan and one in Colorado.

Wampler stuck with his teenage gig and hasn’t ever parted ways with the company. He at one time owned eight franchises. He now runs the Ann Arbor location. “What started out as a part-time job as a high school student — it went from a job to a career,” Wampler said. “I tell you what, every day when I come to work, I still love what I’m doing. I love this business. The things I loved as a kid I still love today. I love taking care of the customers. I still get a thrill — from the big orders to the one person who comes in and says, ‘This is really good.’ We make a product that I’m proud to sell; I’m proud to serve to my family and my friends. We give people what they deserve. This is the best food you can get. We use hams you can take home and use on Easter dinner. The quality of the tomatoes, the quality of the flour — when you start with food that is really good by itself, you can mix it up any way you want and it’s still going to taste good.”

The company’s new owners, Askar Brands LLC, is honoring its long history and celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. Each of the stores will be giving away free pizza for a year — one three-topping large pizza and a two-liter of pop every week for 52 weeks to a local family from each location.

“It’s about an $850 value,” said Pam Cole, marketing manager for Papa Romano’s. “The stores really work hard in their local communities, and this raises some excitement and lets them give back at least to one family in their area.”

For more information, visit www.paparomanos.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Jennie Miller at jmiller@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1108.