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A History of Causing Cravings

Gatti's Pizza has been satisfying cravings for over 40 years. Our founder, Colonel Eure opened The Pizza Place in September 1964 in Stephenville, Texas. In 1969, he moved to Austin, and opened "Mr. Gatti's" as a tribute to his wife's maiden name.

Colonel Eure worked long hours to master the elements that make people crave pizza: real cheese (no imitations allowed), yeast-risen dough made fresh every day, our signature tangy pizza sauce and toppings that can't be topped. It wasn't long before Gatti's were popping up all over the Southwest and everyone agreed with our original tagline "The Best Pizza in Town...Honest."

It turns out that people crave fun as much as they crave delicious pizza, so we decided to give them both. During the 80's and 90's some buffet stores featured state-of-the-art game rooms, beginning an evolution that eventually led to GattiTown, a 25,000-square-foot superstore even devotes 10,000 square feet to a colossal Midway-type game room.

Colonel Eure's vision is now 140+ stores strong and counting, including GattiTown and delivery/carryout restaurants.

Much has changed in 40 years, but the most important things have stayed the same. We're still following the Colonel's recipes and causing new cravings to be born every day.

 

Looking Back with Pat Eure, the Colonel's Wife

Jim began our original pizza operation in Stephenville, Texas.

"We had such a crowd on the opening day That we couldn't handle it. Instead of Keeping it open, Jim closed it and kept it Closed until he felt we could handle big Crowds and serve perfect food. Pizza was New in Texas and Stephenville never had A pizza restaurant before."

In September, our family moved to Austin and opened our first restaurant, "The Pizza Place."

"By now there were more pizza places in town so Jim had a contest to pick the best name realizing that we had to be different than the others. He won his own contest by choosing my maiden name, Gatti. His advertising used to say that my dad, who was born in Italy, taught him about old world sauces and the secrets to making the best pizzas. This was rather a stretch but it Sounded good."

Gatti's Pizza had grown to thirteen stores In the Austin area.

"The first place was getting too small to Handle the crowds so we opened another On Riverside, another at Bergstrom's main Gate, then the 4th at 183 and Ohlen. Soon We expanded to Oak Hill, College Station, San Antonio, San Marcos and Cedar Park… The more stores we opened, the more Crowds came, and the rest is history."