Mother's Pizza Parlour and Spaghetti House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mother's Pizza |
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| Restaurant information | |
| Slogan | There Is No Other's Quite Like Mother's (1982) |
| Established | 1970 (originally) April 1, 2013 (reestablished) |
| Country | Canada |
Mother's Pizza Parlour and Spaghetti House, or simply Mother's Pizza, was a well-known restaurant chain. It was very popular in the 1970s and 1980s. At its biggest, Mother's Pizza had about 120 locations. These restaurants were found in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
People remembered Mother's for its tasty parlour-style pizza. They also loved the big mugs of root beer floats. The restaurants had a special old-fashioned look. This included cool Tiffany lamps. When the restaurant chain was brought back, it also offered pasta and salads.
The Story of Mother's Pizza
Mother's Pizza was started in 1970 by three partners. Their names were Grey Sisson, Ken Fowler, and Pasquale Marra. They opened their very first restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario. It was in a neighborhood called Westdale. Just one month later, a local newspaper called it one of the city's best restaurants.
By 1976, Mother's Pizza had grown quite a bit. An advertisement showed there were 17 locations. These were in many cities across Ontario, Canada. They served pizzas, spaghetti, and submarine sandwiches. They also had other items, like spumoni ice cream. Most of their food was made fresh.
Mother's Pizza had fun promotions. One was "NoodleNight" on Wednesdays. They even turned an old 1928 Model A car into the "Mother's Pie Wagon." This special car would go to parades and festivals.
In 1987, a group of investors bought 15 Mother's restaurants. They paid a lot of money for them. Famous baseball players like Ernie Whitt and Lloyd Moseby were part of this group. Ernie Whitt even became a spokesperson for the chain. He appeared in TV commercials and at charity events. The restaurants often had "Ernie Whitt Specials" on pizza. Other famous people, like actor Dennis Weaver, also appeared in their TV ads.
However, the company faced problems. In 1989, another pizza chain called Little Caesars bought Mother's Pizza. Over the next few years, many Mother's locations started to close. The original Westdale restaurant closed in 1992.
One of the original founders, Grey Sisson, later became important in another restaurant group. This group owns popular restaurants like Jack Astor's. Mother's Pizza's special flare glasses are now collected by people.
Mother's Pizza Returns!
Years later, in 2013, Mother's Pizza was brought back to life. Two people named Brian Alger and Geeve Sandhu loved the old chain. Brian Alger bought the Mother's trademark. Geeve Sandhu joined him to help run the new restaurants.
Many people who used to work for the original Mother's helped with the new one. One former owner even helped make the pizza dough taste just like the original.
The new restaurants kept some classic features. They still had pitchers of pop and red and white seats. They also had those famous Tiffany glass panels. They even showed old black and white movies. But they also added new things, like old barn beams and stone walls. They wanted the restaurant to feel like it had never left.
The first new Mother's Pizza opened on April 1, 2013. It was in Hamilton, Ontario, just like the very first one. This was done on purpose.
More locations opened soon after:
- The second Mother's Pizza opened in Kitchener, Ontario, on May 5, 2014.
- A third location opened in Brantford, Ontario, in Spring 2015.
- A fourth location opened in Waterloo, Ontario, in Fall 2016.
Sadly, these new locations also started to close. The Hamilton restaurant closed in September 2017. The Brantford location closed in April 2018. The Waterloo restaurant closed in May 2018. By January 2019, the last Mother's Pizza in Kitchener had also closed.
