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Mountain Mike's Pizza takes top honors at Pizza Marketplace's Top 100 Movers & Shakers 2025 event
Mountain Mike's Pizza took home the top honor at Pizza Marketplace's top brand of 2025. Cicis Pizza won a special award from Xrobotics, and David McKillips was the top executive for the year.
March 31, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
California-based Mountain Mike's Pizza took top honors on Pizza Marketplace's 2025 Top 100 Movers & Shakers list and was honored last Tuesday at a gala event at the Las Vegas Country Club.
Mountain Mike's Pizza has more than 300 units in operation across nine states. In 2024, the brand inked dozens of franchise deals from coast to coast and opened more than 20 locations, including highly anticipated debuts in Houston, Seattle, Colorado Springs and Los Angeles. It is on track to hit 400 units systemwide by the end of 2026 and has a strong leadership team to back up that aggressive growth.
"Mountain Mike's Pizza is everything a chain should be," said Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace. "The brand's growth is impressive, but so, too, is the team behind it. This is how legends are made!"
To make the Top 100 list, which includes the Top 75 brands and the Top 25 pizza industry executives, brands nominated themselves and were vetted by a panel of judges. They measured their growth, use of technology and leadership in the industry. The event was sponsored by HungerRush, Burkett Restaurant Equipment, Atmosphere and XRobotics.
During the gala event, Cicis Pizza was awarded the Visionary in Technology Award given out by XRobotics for the brand's outstanding commitment to innovation and technology.
Pizza Marketplace's Top Executive for the year was David McKillips, president and CEO of CEC Entertainment, parent company to Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza.
"David has helped mold the entertainment industry with Chuck E. Cheese's impressive 45-year legacy," Detwiler said. "With family fun centers and its new Adventure Zones, Chuck E. Cheese isn't sitting on its laurels. Instead, it is working toward its bright future under him helm."
Nominations for the Pizza Marketplace Top 100 Movers & Shakers 2026 list will open this December.
CLICK HERE to read the full list of 75 top brands and 25 top executives.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
Included In This Story
Mountain Mike's Pizza
For over 45 years, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a leading family-style pizza chain known for its legendary crispy, curly pepperonis and Mountain-sized pizzas, has been quietly building one of the largest regional pizza franchises in the West. Today we're developing coast-to-coast with 300+ restaurants, and we're primed for explosive growth nationwide
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