Zachary’s celebrated the holidays at Lake Chalet in Oakland! We ate, we laughed, we took too many photo booth pics and we danced the night away! It’s always a blast to see everyone gussied up for a special event. We are truly lucky to work with so many AMAZING employee owners!

We can’t think of a better way to celebrate nature’s Winter-time treats than with a brand new salad! Our Oakland and Berkeley menus will be featuring the Pomegranate Persimmon Salad (say that five times fast!) for the next several weeks! This beautiful salad sits on a bed of arugula and comes with shaved Parmesan cheese and our house-made shallot vinaigrette. The sweetness of the persimmon is a perfect match for the peppery arugula and the tart pomegranate. We are excited to try out a brand new salad and we hope you are too!

We are bringing back the Za-Curry’s Chicken pizza in Oakland and Berkeley! In celebration of our beloved Warriors, we created this flavorful special that we feature once or twice a (basketball) season. It’s packed with curry spiced free range chicken and onion, golden raisins and mozzarella cheese. It’s available as a thin crust pizza for a limited time only!

In San Ramon and Pleasant Hill, we are featuring the Zachary’s Chicken Alfredo pizza. This pizza is a bit different for us because it is tomato-sauce free! It’s made with alfredo sauce, our free range chicken breast, fresh spinach, bacon, and mozzarella cheese. It’s also available as a thin crust only for a limited time.

One of the things that we are the most proud of is our long term relationship with our suppliers. We are truly fortunate to have close relationships with several companies that keep us stocked with fresh and delicious ingredients to make our pizza and various other products that we need to keep our restaurants running smoothly. In fact, when our founders, Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel, decided to retire, they were keenly aware of the impact that ending a relationship with a distributor could have on the distributor’s business. A perk of Zach and Barbara’s decision to sell the company to the employees (read more about our ESOP here), was that our relationships with our distributors stayed intact!

We were reminded of the notability of our relationship with one such supplier, Mike Hudson Distributing, based in Petaluma, CA, when we learned about one of our long term delivery drivers getting a route change. Jeff has been delivering to Zachary’s for 14 years!! He learned a few weeks ago that he could have the opportunity to drive in Humboldt County. This was a good move for him, so he let us know that he was saying good bye. The management team immediately moved to put together a Zachary’s care package for him, wrapped up in one of the pizza boxes he has been delivering to us since 2003. Here is a picture of Jeff cheesin’ with Zachary’s employee owners Mario, Arturo and Hugo:

Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but Jeff said he would miss us the most!

Best of luck to Jeff as he embarks on this new journey!

Woo-hoo! We are pleased as pie (!!) to share exciting news from Bay Area Guardian: We won Best Pizza! We feel super honored to receive this award, especially since we don’t have any locations in San Francisco… a city of amazing food and delicious pizza!

Check out all of the winners here. There are some pretty amazing spots on this list! Time to map out our dining-destination-desires for 2018! We could not be more excited.

Naji and Sammi accepting our award at the Best of the Bay Winner’s Party

We have a brand new, never-before-featured-at-Zachary’s pizza special in San Ramon and Pleasant Hill! It’s the Zachary’s Chicken Alfredo pizza! This tomato sauce-free pizza uses a rich and creamy Alfredo sauce to bind and connect the other flavors on the pizza: our free range chicken breast, fresh spinach, bacon and mozzarella cheese. It’s available as a thin crust pizza only. We are super excited to try something new; we hope that you are too. It’s only around for a limited time!

In Oakland and Berkeley, we are bringing back the ultimate in comfort pizza… our Roasted Potato pizza. This deliciously delightful pie is made with oven roasted red potatoes, chopped onion, garlic, fresh rosemary and Monterey Jack cheese. It’s available stuffed or thin crust.

Both pizzas are only available for a limited time! Plan accordingly!

We’ve heard your demands! The Zachary’s Greek salad is back as of TODAY at all four locations! Made with Romaine, baby spinach, Kalamata olives, pepperoncini, cucumbers, feta and our delightfully tangy, house-made red pepper vinaigrette, this salad is a perfect start to a meal! Or, add chicken to make the Zachary’s Greek a healthy, hearty entree.

It’s available fir a limited time only, so catch it while you can!

Happy National Employee Ownership Month!

Zachary’s is an ESOP. What is an ESOP, you ask? ESOP stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan. All of Zachary’s stock is owned by the employees. ESOPs are federally governed, defined contribution plans. More info here: National Center for Employee Ownership.

When Zachary’s founders, Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel, decided it was time to retire, instead of selling to a third party buyer or (gasp!) dissolving our beloved restaurants, they sold the company to the employees. Little by little, the Zachary’s crew bought more and more of the company until we became officially 100% employee owned in 2010.

To kick off employee ownership month, we hosted our Annual ESOP Meetings. This is a chance for our whole crew to get together to learn about our business and learn about the ESOP. In the photo on the left, employee owners eagerly await the start of the meeting… and the unveiling of Zachary’s 2016 share value!

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month! For the entire month of October, Zachary’s will be selling pink t-shirts! We started selling pink t-shirts in 2014 after a group of Zachary’s employee owners participated in the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk in San Francisco. The walk was inspirational, a great place to learn and LOTS of fun.

Since 2014, we have continued the tradition of raising money for the American Cancer Society with our pink t-shirt sales. This year, t-shirts will be sold from our Oakland location on College Avenue and our Pleasant Hill location. All proceeds go directly to the American Cancer Society!

We have a new special in Pleasant Hill and San Ramon! It’s the Buffalo Chicken Pizza! This spicy special is made with our free-range chicken breast marinated in a cayenne pepper “wing sauce” with pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and topped with our house-made blue cheese dressing. This pizza is available stuffed or thin crust for a limited time!

Our CEO (Kevin) grew up in Buffalo, NY and drew inspiration for this pizza from the sauce of his homeland. Kevin writes, “Growing up in Buffalo, pizza night always meant pepperoni pizza and a bucket of chicken wings with blue cheese dressing. The flavor of Buffalo wings and pepperoni pizza work really well together, so I figured why not try combining those flavors on our pizza?”

We think you will enjoy this combination just as much as Kevin did as a kid in Buffalo.