Pizza Today - April 2016 - 61

rowing up in suburban New
Haven, Connecticut, Jon
Mangini says pizza was just a
part of life. "Everybody worked
in a pizza place," he says. "I was
surrounded by it."
When he moved to San Diego,
California, 12 years ago, Mangini says
he knew he wanted to do something
with pizza.
After spending much of his career in
front-of-house management in highend bar and fine-dining establishments,
Mangini created a concept that blended
nightlife and pizza in downtown
San Diego's reemerging East Village.
BASIC Urban Kitchen + Bar opened in
2006 with high praise for its pizza and
bar scene. Mangini had worked with
friends from Connecticut to develop
a signature New Haven-style pie in
BASIC's gas-fired brick oven.
Mangini looked to expand beyond
BASIC's nightlife component. "I
wanted to do something that was
really focused more towards coal-fired
pizza," he says. "So that is how I started
URBN." A spin-off of the BASIC
concept, the first URBN opened in
2008 in Vista, a small community north
of San Diego. Since then, URBN has
grown to four units in the San Diego
area. While Vista took some time to
get off the ground, he says, the other
locations found their rhythm quickly.
Last year, URBN ranked No. 14 on
Pizza Today's Hot 100 Independent
Pizzerias list, with gross sales of $10.5
million.
Pizza Today sat down with
Mangini at URBN's North Park

location in January to go in-depth into
the pizza operation. Opened in 2010,
North Park is the third URBN pizzeria
to launch in the San Diego area.

LEFT: Owner Jon Mangini ABOVE: Sausage + Peppers and The Mash Potato are popular New Haven-style pies.

Indicative of the name, the pizzeria
is a hip, modern space with a mix of
wood, metal and concrete and industrial
fixtures and lighting. The location's
footprint is nearly 5,000 square feet and
offers various seating, from communal
and bar to four top and even lounge.
Not all URBN locations share the
same spacious layout. "I have two
different concepts," he says. "One of
them is a larger, full bar, and the other
is smaller with beer and wine."
The URBN concept works in all of
its markets, Mangini says. With each
location, he says: "We tweak it a little
bit." Menus vary as well as type of
service - table or counter. "What it

comes down to is they have the same
feel," he says, adding that they have
to have the simple, urban style. Each
URBN is adjusted to fit the type of
community it serves, whether it's the
small beach community of Encinitas,
the suburban El Cajon area or the hip,
North Park neighborhood.
While BASIC has high tourist traffic,
the three other locations concentrate
on drawing from the neighborhoods
and communities that surround them.
"I try to hire a staff that their main
job is to cater to the locals and just
say, 'yes,'" Mangini says, adding that
the relaxed company culture results in
happy employees that resonate well to
A P R I L 2 0 1 6 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 6 1

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - April 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - April 2016