Pizza company may seem an odd way to describe Central New York’s largest chocolate maker until you realize that its signature gourmet chocolate gift is Chocolate Pizza. Nestled in the rolling hills of the Finger Lakes just minutes from the resort town of Skaneateles and a short drive from Syracuse, Chocolate Pizza Company has made a name for itself nationally as a pizza company with a twist. Featured recently on CNBC, Food Network and NBC and in Forbes, People and Entrepreneur magazines, Chocolate Pizza Company and its 29-year-old owner, Ryan Novak, have caught the country’s attention for both an inspiring story and unforgettable chocolate specialties.
There is pizza company after pizza company across America, over 60,000 pizza shops according to some estimates, but there is only one Chocolate Pizza Company and it calls Marcellus, New York home. It is an unlikely place to find an emerging national brand but it is pure Americana in spirit. Founded in the late 1700’s, Marcellus became a hub for textile manufacturing with mills springing up along Nine Mile Creek that snakes through the village. But those heydays have long since passed. Today, Marcellus is a quiet dot on the map with one stop light, a beautiful park and a Mayberry RFD lifestyle where neighbors know each other and flag waving parades draw residents to the village square on Memorial Day and Old Home Days. It’s where Ryan grew up and where he wanted his business to grow. And grow it has.
Ryan started with Chocolate Pizza Company as a dishwasher when he was 15 years-old. He knew early on that this small-town chocolate shop had huge potential and he told the founder that when she was ready to retire, he wanted to own the business. In 2010, at the age of 21 and a senior at Syracuse University, Ryan got the chance and bought the company. At the time, it offered two types of Chocolate Pizza®, with nuts and without, and had about a dozen chocolate specialties including its Peanut Butter Wings®, Clusters and chocolate covered cookies. There was no website where you could buy anything and its store was the front end of a cramped 1,500 square foot kitchen operation.
Folks wouldn’t recognize that business today. In a few short years, Ryan has completely reshaped the most unique pizza company in the country. Its website, ChocolatePizza.com, has taken orders from chocolate lovers on 6 continents (missing only Antarctica), its product line has expanded to over 150 chocolate treats and its home, while still in Marcellus, is now a 10,000 square foot facility that includes a 1,200 square foot store that hosts bus tours and visitors from all over. Hard to imagine, but this pizza company is also gaining traction overseas, having been featured on an episode of Food Factory that aired on Discovery Channel India and Food Network Canada.
You wouldn’t think that major corporations would turn to a pizza company for their holiday gifts but they flock to Chocolate Pizza Company every Christmas season. Banks, airlines, entertainment giants and household names in healthcare, insurance and energy have all tapped Ryan’s company for gifts that are unique, delicious and impressive. Whether it is custom Chocolate Pizzas, gift baskets, chocolate towers or Pizza and Wing Combos, businesses large and small come back year after year for corporate gifts because they say nothing else garners the positive response they get when they send chocolate from Chocolate Pizza Company. It’s a pizza company unlike any other and its future has never been brighter.
