Donatos Pizza

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Donatos Pizza

Type	Private
Founded	Columbus, Ohio, USA (1963)
Headquarters	Columbus, Ohio, USA
Key people	Jim Grote (Founder & CEO)
Industry	Food Wholesale
Products	Pizza, Pasta
Employees	N/A
Website	www.donatos.com

Donatos Pizza is a "fast casual" restaurant chain founded in 1963 by college sophomore Jim Grote. The first Donatos was in Columbus, Ohio. Donatos currently has locations in Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Orlando. They also briefly had locations in Atlanta; however, these were subsequently closed. Donatos was also briefly owned by McDonald's, along with Boston Market and Chipotle Mexican Grill, but a majority interest in Donatos was repurchased by Grote as McDonald's sought to refocus on its core business.^[1] During this period three stores were operated in Munich, Germany. Donatos serves pizza, subs, salads, and wings. With over 170 restaurants, it is one of the most successful pizzerias in the U.S.

Donatos, however, is slightly different from fast-food pizza chains such as Domino's or Pizza Hut. Its typical pizza has a thin crust with a thick, slightly sweet tomato sauce; the pizza is typically cut into square pieces instead of the traditional wedge shape. Also, the pizza is typically covered in toppings; one touted characteristic of the pepperoni pizza is that a large pizza always has 100 pepperonis.

In mid-2005, Donatos introduced the "Take and Bake" Store. In this concept, Donatos offers a limited menu of their Signature Pizzas, Subs, Wings, and Breadsticks, as well as the option to "Take and Bake." The pizzas are created to the customer's order and are placed on a disposable foil baking pan, packaged with a disposable cardboard square cutting board, and boxed with instructions on how to bake them at home. These stores are located inside of Kroger Food and Drug Stores. The fifth Donatos Take and Bake opened in a new market: Wheeling, West Virginia. The company has announced the possibility of opening some free-standing locations in the Wheeling area, maybe as soon as 2007.