Pizza Ranch

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Pizza Ranch
Type Private
Founded Hull, Iowa, USA (1981)
Headquarters Hull, Iowa, USA
Key people Lawrence Vander Esch [1] (Co-founder)
Adrie Groeneweg [2] (President and Co-founder)
Industry Food Wholesale
Products Pizza, Chicken
Website http://www.pizzaranch.com/

The Pizza Ranch, Inc. founded in 1981 is a "fast casual" restaurant chain. Pizza Ranch offers pizza, chicken, salad bar, and a pizza and chicken buffet. Pizza Ranch has 127 locations in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.


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[edit] History

Starting as a single store in Hull, Iowa, the Pizza Ranch, which specializes in pizza and chicken, has grown steadily and now has franchises in eight states. What makes Pizza Ranch unique is that most of their stores offer a host of dining options. [1]

[edit] Menu

The Pizza Ranch is famous for there mile-long buffet, with home-cooked items.

  • Country's Best Chicken®
  • Pizza Lover's Pizza® offers in many combinations. Dessert & Fruit Pizza available as well.
  • Also on the Buffet: Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Tater Wedges, Salad Bar, Fruit, Soups, Pudding, BBQ Chicken, Vegetables, Coffee.

The Pizza Ranch slogan is 'Good Things, Every Day.

[edit] Controversy

Fifty-nine-year-old Lawrence Vander Esch of Hull, the founder of the Pizza Ranch chain, was sentenced in 2001 to ten years in prison. Vander Esch pleaded guilty in 2001 to fondling teenage male employees of the Pizza Ranch in Hull after falsely persuading them to donate semen samples for a medical research project. [2]

Vander Esch was sentenced to ten years in prison but was released in March 2005 for good behavior.

A month before his release, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that sexual abuse does not occur if a defendant deceives a victim to get consent to perform a sex act. The ruling was applied retroactively to Vander Esch. [3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links