A Fort Worth Original: Mama’s Pizza Coming Back To Camp Bowie

Fort Worth Star Telegram:

Watch out, Domino’s. Fort Worth restaurateur Jordan Scott says the homegrown Mama’s Pizza is on the rise again.

Scott, who inherited the West Berry Street location in Fort Worth from his late godfather, the longtime owner Frank “Chris” Farkas, said he has purchased control of Mama’s franchise rights after a three-year negotiation.

He plans to bring Mama’s pies back to Camp Bowie Boulevard on Aug. 11, in an old Double Dave’s Pizzaworks that’s blocks from Mama’s once-most-popular location, which closed in 2004.

“Think of the most difficult thing. This was worse,” Scott said of talks conducted through lawyers to buy the moribund franchise operation, whose owners hadn’t sold a single franchise since acquiring it from Farkas in 1999. The last owner was a maker of aircraft-testing equipment that had no restaurant or franchising experience.

At one time, there were 18 Mama’s Pizza stores — nine owned by Farkas and nine by franchisees. Most fell victim to the 1980s oil crunch, Scott said. Today, Scott operates one of the 18 along with two new ones that he opened. Successors to independent franchisees operate other Mama’s Pizza stores in Plano and Lewisville. Neither of the latter adheres to the original recipe, he said. Read more.