Rise Pies

Rise Pies story began in 2013, when its sister company, Chestnut Land Company of Youngstown, Ohio, celebrated its 20th year anniversary as a franchisee of Auntie Annes Soft Pretzels. Chestnut has grown to 70 Auntie Annes stores in 15 states. For several years, Chestnut had looked to launch a complementary restaurant concept to present to its real estate partners. The concept that kept coming up in Chestnuts discussions was pizza, which 93% of Americans report eating at least once per month. After considering several franchise concepts in the category, Chestnut CEO Ed Muransky couldnt help but think that many of the pizza offerings in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio were simply better. He looked to combine the wonderful pizza of Youngstown with the burgeoning fast casual segment of the restaurant industry, and Rise Pies was born. Ed teamed up with his son Eddie and Award-Winning Chef Vernon Cesta, the Owner and Executive Chef at Vernons Cafe, an Italian Bistro in Niles, Ohio that...