On the eve of the celebration of Minsky’s 45th Anniversary, Ellen sat down for an insightful conversation with Minsky’s Pizza founder and CEO, Gregg Johnson! Although these two have known each other for years, this was a terrific opportunity for Ellen to learn more about Gregg, his restaurants and his fascinating life in Kansas City!
Gregg is no stranger to the pizza business or how to run a successful restaurant organization as he was also founder of Godfather’s Pizza in Omaha, Nebraska prior to starting Minsky’s Pizza. Join Ellen in learning more about the man not only behind Minsky’s, but also two of the neighborhood’s other great eateries, Italian restaurant Osteria IL Centro and breakfast restaurant eggtc. Ellen also got to know more about Gregg’s personal passion as an advocate for local animal shelters and his commitment to Kansas City philanthropy and local charities.
Q: Hi Gregg! First of all, I’m curious about how you decided on South Plaza for Minsky’s Pizza’s first location? And what do you like best about the Brookside, Waldo, South Plaza Corridor?
Gregg and Ellen with the South Plaza Mural
A: “When we owned Godfathers Pizza back in Omaha and would to decide to take off for a long weekend, we would always end up down in this area of town, in fact we’d stay at the old Alameda Plaza hotel. So we were all familiar with South Plaza. And after I sold Godfathers and had a vision for Minsky’s, we saw this great 51st and Main location and also knew about Rockhurst, UMKC, the art museums, and everything else – so it was kind of a no-brainer! I also just love the people in this neighborhood. Everybody says the same thing, but you just have a diverse population of people from all different walks of life. Great people with let’s-get-it-done kind of attitudes.”
Q: What Sets Minsky’s Pizza Apart? Why is it so Good?!
A: “It’s our quality. I mean, we buy the most expensive sauce you can buy in the world. The tomatoes are picked fresh and canned for transport that day – they’re not sitting around getting bruised. Our Mozzarella cheese is from Wisconsin and it’s truly the best cheese in America. It really starts from the ground up – the different minerals in the grass that the cows eat enhance the quality of cheese. And our meats are out of Iowa – our beef, pork, and Italian sausage. Our competitors put a lot of TVP additive in their meats, which gets a high yield out of it but makes the meat greasy. We aim for the highest quality, and the quality starts with the ingredients.”
Q: What’s the backstory behind Minsky’s Barbecue Chicken Pizza and also your Cheeseburger Pizza? Also, do have a favorite Minsky’s pizza?
A: “Minsky’s started making barbeque pizzas back in 1976 because of a barbeque place next door called Jake’s. One day, Jake came over with chicken and suggested a pizza with barbeque chicken. I said that we could try it out – and everyone loved it! And this was years before Wolfgang Puck even came to America. With the Cheeseburger Pizza – it just happened. We were sitting there back in the day and talking about how people loved McDonald’s lunches and dreamed up doing our own cheeseburger pizza to be be more competitive over lunch. We did that around 1977 – we made it with our own special sauce – and mustard and pickles. It’s fun to be the first ones to have done a Cheeseburger Pizza. And people love it. It’s great with fries and especially if you add bacon.
My favorite pizza would have to be the Papa Minsky’s because that was probably our first Gourmet-type pizza. We started off experimenting with pepperoni, Italian sausage – then added roasted red peppers. It really added flavor and people loved it!”
Q: As Minsky’s celebrates 45 years in business in March and looks forward toward an incredible 50 years, are there any upcoming projects you’re working on that you can share?
A: “At Minsky’s we keep experimenting. We get ideas all the time that we’re really excited about – like a macaroni and cheese pizza! We are working on the finishing touches for a White Macaroni and Cheese Gourmet Pizza. It’s an upscale pizza with bacon and fresh parsley. I think the plan is to roll it out in March or April. We were doing gluten free way ahead of the curve, and have added cauliflower and sweet potato crusts and added Beyond Meat plant-based options over the last several years. So, we’re always looking at trying different things and new products.”
Q: And what about eggtc. and Osteria IL Centro? As Minsky’s sister restaurants, can you tell us the story behind those two?
A: “We took over space just north of Minsky’s when it became available – initially using it as a party room – and left it virtually empty. I decided that I wanted to try out an Italian restaurant, like an Osteria – which is a neighborhood bar in Italy, serving appetizers and drinks. This idea was to create this little neighborhood offering with about 10 appetizers and serving wine. All of a sudden, the idea wasn’t so little, the concept kept growing as customers wanted different things and we became a full-fledged restaurant.
With eggtc., there wasn’t a breakfast place in the area. I thought we could do a breakfast restaurant that served alcohol. Back in the day when I was going to school in Omaha, I used to have a job where I worked a night shift until seven o’clock in the morning. We’d get off and then go out to a place and grab drinks. There are a lot of professions that work at night in the area – including night shift nurses and hospital crews, so I wanted to do something for them with a reverse happy hour. We put in some TVs and nice furniture, we added original artwork and cheerfully painted walls. We worked hard to make it an upscale breakfast place for the neighborhood and surrounding communities.”
Q: So I know that you’re a pet lover. You’ve also worked with many charities in the area. Can you tell me more about that?
A: “I’ve always liked dogs, but in the restaurant business I just worked too many hours to have a dog. However, when I met my wife, Damaris, we were talking about things that we wanted she said, ‘I just really love doggies.’ And so we got our first dog, Malo. Then we ended up getting a second dog as a playmate. After that, adopted our third and fourth dogs because someone returned them and the breeder contacted us because and they needed homes. They’re all really part of the family. Some of them are getting old, so we’ve decided we’re just going to work more on causes and help out with supporting KC Pet Project and other rescue places like that instead of adopting more pets at this point.
Ellen and Gregg Johnson’s Wife, Damaris!
Minsky’s has also had the privilege of working alongside several great organizations over the years. We’ve worked with the Alex Smith Foundation, the Eighty-Seven & Running Foundation with Operation Breakthrough (Travis Kelce’s charitable foundation) – that all do great things for the local community. Being involved feels good and it fires up our employees too, they’re really into it! These organizations are local and started here and it’s just really important to us to give back to this community.”
Q: Last question – what do you love about Kansas City?
A: “There are too many things to mention just one! Kansas City is a great place to live with so much to do. It’s a friendly city. The customers that come in from out of town always say the same thing – they say this is a friendly, friendly town. Kansas City is like a best kept secret. We’ve got a lot of successful businesses in town that started here, and it’s something we can all be proud of.”
With Minsky’s long-standing history as Kansas City’s favorite pizza and deep impact on the people of Kansas City (who didn’t work at Minsky’s as a teenager?!), we appreciate Gregg’s time in sitting down for a fun and insightful conversation. Gregg Johnson and Minsky’s Pizza are just another thing that makes this area so special!
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