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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Sammy’s Pizza Lakeside in Duluth is one of 17 in the Sammy’s United organization – a restaurant dynasty that started in 1954 with Sam and Louise Perrella in Hibbing, Minnesota.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
The crew at Sammy’s Pizza Lakeside in Duluth prepare pizzas during the dinner rush.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Square-cut slices are a signature of a Sammy's Pizza, like this one found at Sammy's Downtown Duluth.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Jim Acheson, grandson of Sam Perrella, shows off his crust-throwing skills. “It is an efficient way to give it a toss and make it just a little bit bigger,” Jim says, also admitting it’s for show, too. Jim grew up “Sammy’s” since his parents established the Lakeside business in Duluth when he was about 6.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Each Sammy's restaurant is different, with some offering a full menu including steaks and chicken or a full-service bar.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Marcos Delgado sprinkles cheese onto a pizza at Sammy’s Pizza Lakeside...
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
... while co-worker Marty Kalishek slides a pie into the oven.
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
Recipes for the special sauce and crust are part of the family’s secrets...
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Jack Rendulich
Sammy's Pizza
... but it’s no secret among many local people that they enjoy Sammy’s Pizza as these young folk do at the Lakeside restaurant.
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Sammy's Pizza
Sammy's Pizza founders Sam and Louise Perrella.
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Brian K. Anderson / Fortune Bay Casino Resort
Sammy's United
At a recent Sammy’s United meeting at Fortune Bay Resort Casino in Ely, Minnesota, these owners met. From left in the front are Dave Shomento (Minot and nephew to Sammy’s founder Sam Perrella); Jim Acheson (Duluth Lakeside and Sam’s grandson); Terry Perrella (Duluth Downtown and Sam’s grandson); Mike Acheson (Cloquet and Sam’s grandson); Jeff Perrella (Sammy’s Kitchen and Sam’s son); Jeff Perrella Jr. (Coon Rapids, Minnesota, and Sam’s grandson); Rich Chalupsky (Hibbing). In the back are: Nick Perrella (Winona, Minnesota, and a cousin); Mike Jerulle (West Duluth and son of Sam’s best friend); Tony Jerulle (Grand Rapids and nephew of Sam’s best friend); Tim Perrella (Downtown Duluth and Sam’s grandson); and Jimmy Jerulle (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and grandson of Sam’s best friend).
The Family Behind the Regional Pizza Dynasty
If Sam Perrella could see the restaurant dynasty he and his wife Louise started in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1954, he likely would be impressed that Sammy’s Pizza has 17 outlets stretching from western North Dakota to the eastern edge of Wisconsin.
Sam might be amused by the more than 20 million pizzas made since he started the business, using his and Louise’s secret recipe. He no doubt would be proud that all of these outlets – full-service restaurants or corner-of-a-gas-station distribution points – created ownership opportunities for his direct descendants and those of his close relatives and his best friend.
What might most please Sam, though, is how the business of his family has become the tradition of so many other families, who often send in their “Sammy’s Stories” …
I used to visit Duluth as a child with my great aunt. We stayed at the Curtis House. I continued to visit Duluth through the ’60s and early ’70s. Sammy's was always on our list of places to eat. Nice to see Sammy's is still serving. – Bill, Guelph, Ontario
My brother and sister live in Florida and miss Sammy's Pizza so much that I bought frozen pizzas and sent them in dry ice to them for Christmas. The mailing charges were three times the price of the pizzas – but they were so happy to have Sammy's pizza! They expect it every year now! – Tammy, Duluth
I used to live in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and worked in Duluth. Many nights on my way home I stopped in Lakeside for my Sammy's fix. Now it's my must-have every time I'm home. THE GREATEST PIE ON EARTH!!!!!!!!!!!! – Eugene, Chico, California
“Basically what happened,” says Jeff Perrella, Sam and Louise’s son, “is my mother and father had a little café in Keewatin … somehow they got the idea to make pizza.”
The idea probably came from soldiers returning after World War II, bringing word of their favorite foods from foreign lands. Sam heard about pizza and also had a friend from Chicago who described its popularity there. Sam, a former miner who had a café in tiny Keewatin, arranged to visit with some pizza makers in Chicago.
Sam brought back an enthusiasm for pizza, and for what would become Sammy’s signature square-cut pieces, but did not import the thicker Chicago-style crust or recipe. He and Louise developed their own.
The couple decided the bigger town of Hibbing was the place to launch the new venture, which they did in October 1954. It was something new to the Iron Range.
“We were, by a mile, the first pizza restaurant in Hibbing,” recalls Jeff. “Everybody knew Sammy’s, everybody ate there.”
In the beginning, times were tough, Jeff adds. “I’m a little kid at that time, they weren’t real successful. They were just busting their tails trying to make a living. You just ate, slept and breathed Sammy’s Pizza. All I ever knew was that our whole family went to work. You went there, you washed dishes, squeezed tomatoes. … You ate there, ate the leftovers.”
Soon, though, both pizza in general and Sammy’s Pizza in particular became appreciated. Relatives looking to start their own businesses turned to Sam and Louise for advice and for opportunities. They, in turn, were generous in helping them to grow their own Sammy’s Pizza places around the region.
“By the time I was about 13, 14 years old … my dad started to get a little famous. You said, ‘Sammy’s Pizza’ and everybody knew who you were,” Jeff recalls.
In Duluth, Sam’s son, also Sam, opened a Sammy’s Pizza downtown in 1956. Two year’s later, Sam’s daugther Marguerite and husband, Jim, opened Sammy’s Pizza Lakeside in Duluth. That’s how Jim Acheson, Marguerite and Jim’s son, grew up in the family business.
Just like his Uncle Jeff, Jim remembers being involved in helping from a young age.
“I started cleaning the bathroom and then got promoted to window washer and dishwasher.”
After high school, Jim went on to college to study English, but his father died shortly thereafter. He returned home to help with the business. His mother, Marguerite, gave him permission to continue his own career and suggested he finish his university studies, a great gift, Jim believes, but he chose the family business. He realized how much he enjoyed working in his home neighborhood where he could watch the families of his patrons grow up.
“We’re almost 60 years old,” Jim says of Sammy’s Pizza. “We’re not only owners, but we’re still from the neighborhood. When someone comes in, I can say, ‘Oh, hi! How did your son’s hockey tournament go last week?’ … They grew up with it being their neighborhood pizza place. It’s nostalgia.”
Being neighborly, of course, isn’t the only reason Sammy’s Pizza leaves such an impression on so many people. That secret recipe calls to many, who come back again and again for a square slice.
Sammy’s Pizza, though, is not a franchise. It’s a dynasty based on the good will and good work of Sam and Louise, with Sam as front man. “He very much was not just the center of the business, but of the family,” Jim says. “Nobody paid anything to get into Sammy’s Pizza. He liked to do business on a handshake.”
Jim remembers his Grandpa Sam as “a big man with a big personality and a loud voice, an amazingly generous man.”
“As this passes down in a generation, it’s a big responsibility,” echoes Jeff. “People expect you to be there, to have the same pizza, the same taste, the same atmosphere. Our family takes it very seriously.”
In an interesting twist, Jeff’s children decided not to pursue the family business, so Jeff sold the original Hibbing restaurant to the sons of his father’s best friend. But heritage proved strong; Jeff’s children opened Sammy’s Pizza places in the Twin Cities.
Because the multiple businesses are not part of a franchise, each owner is free to tinker with what is served in his restaurants. There are a couple of restaurants that carry the name and have family ties, but are not part of Sammy’s United, the owners’ group created in lieu of a franchise.
“It’s really nice that you can build a store that fits your neighborhood,” Jim says.
One way to aid a standard flavor has been the business undertaken by Jeff and his mother, Louise, now 91 and still working every business day. They created Sammy’s Kitchen and make packets of spices, sauces and other items to sell to the various Sammy’s Pizza places.
“We make homemade spaghetti sauce, ravioli. … We make about 150 gallons of spaghetti sauce a week, about 1,600 meatballs a week,” Jeff says.
The pizza recipe hasn’t changed since its inception, Jeff adds. “When I’m telling you that this recipe is the same one as 1954, you can go to the bank on it.”
These premade and prepackaged ingredients allow the products to be similar in taste, though still slightly varied, says Jim. After all, he explains, water is a large ingredient in the making of pizza crust, and the water beside the shores of Lake Superior might be quite different than that coming out of the taps at Green Bay, Wisconsin, or Minot, North Dakota. That is why some people feel their own local Sammy’s makes “the best” pizza, he says.
Most of the restaurants using the name Sammy’s Pizza are part of Sammy’s United, which meets three times a year. This “owners meeting” looks a lot like a family reunion, Jim and Jeff agree. This year in September, the group met at Fortune Bay Resort Hotel in Ely, Minnesota.
It’s at this meeting that there might be discussion, occasionally heated, about the business and menu decisions being made by each owner.
“We share notes, we brainstorm, we kind of hold each other’s feet to the fire,” Jeff says. “The same tomato product, the same cheese – that’s just a 100 percent voluntary deal. It’s funny because we’re yelling at each other – it isn’t all peaches and cream. … There’s no holding back in our family.”
Ultimately, perhaps over a round of golf, all feathers are smoothed and everyone goes back home resolved to keep the tradition, if not the exact letter, of what Sam Perrella started. And they all work together, as you’d expect of family. “Everybody gets along good, everybody helps each other. In a jam, you call in the cavalry and they all show up. It’s really cool.
“Some of these people are in the fourth generation, they’re making a living, they’re enjoying what they’re doing, they’re doing a good job … all started from this little store in Keewatin, Minnesota,” Jeff adds. “Two people have this idea, bring it to fruition and then share it with all their family, and now we’re getting into great-grandchildren who are making their living from that idea.”
Making great pizza, lasagna, steaks and chicken are not the only consistent element of all Sammy’s Pizza spots.
Both Jim and Jeff agree that if the family business had specific “policies and procedures,” they would include how to treat staff and guests – basically like family.
“My mother and father ingrained in my brain from a very early age how appreciative you have to be for the people who work for you – I need them way worse than they need me – and appreciate the customers because they have lots of choices. They’re an asset, they’re valuable, you have to treat them well.”
That, as much as the food, is probably why so many people feel that Sammy’s Pizza is a part of their own tradition.
“We’ve made so many friends, our customers are our friends. It’s kind of neat,” says Jeff.
“The fact that people come back after years and years, that they want to eat your food at your store and say, ‘Hi,’ to you. … The best thing that you can ever hear is when somebody walks in the door and says I haven’t been home in 10 years, this is exactly how I remember it. You hit a home run.”
My husband and I started dating in 1971. Our first date was at Sammy's Pizza on 1st Street in Duluth. Believe me, through our courtship we ate dozens of Sammy's pizzas. After we got married in 1972, we vowed that we would go back to Sammy's for every anniversary. After over 35 years, there have been few anniversaries that we have missed having Sammy's for our celebration. – Paulette, Duluth