The New Pie
Stoner's Pizza Joint is entering fall with a limited-time Cheeseburger Pizza available at participating locations September 1 through October 31. The specialty pie builds on a cheddar cheese base and layers seasoned beef, diced onions, pickles, bacon and mozzarella before finishing with a swirl of Thousand Island dressing — a format designed to translate a drive-thru staple into a shareable, game-day format.
"We're always looking for fun ways to take familiar flavors and give them the Stoner's treatment," said John Stetson, CEO of Stoner's Pizza Joint. "The Cheeseburger Pizza is exactly that — bold, craveable and made for sharing on game day."
The mashup-pizza format has emerged as a reliable traffic driver in limited-service and delivery-forward pizza concepts, where operators increasingly borrow from the burger and snack categories to generate social shareability and repeat visits. Stoner's, founded in 2013 and now operating 55-plus units across the Southeast, Texas, Midwest and Colorado, positions itself squarely in that playbook.
Pickle Pizza and Loyalty Activation
Stoner's is also extending its Pickle Pizza — a summer fan favorite — through October 31, giving the chain two specialty pies on the menu simultaneously during its highest-attendance fall sports window. Running dual LTOs across a 55-unit footprint creates upsell opportunity at point of sale without requiring back-of-house complexity, a tactic increasingly common among regional pizza chains competing on foodservice differentiation.
The fall calendar layers in loyalty incentives around three September food holidays: National Cheese Pizza Day on September 5, National Cheeseburger Day on September 18 and National Pepperoni Pizza Day on September 20. Stoner's Rewards members receive exclusive deals tied to each date, a cadence that compresses three separate promotional beats into a single month and keeps the loyalty program top of mind during the period.
Growth Backdrop
With additional units in development beyond its current 55-plus-location footprint, Stoner's sits in the growth phase where LTO velocity and loyalty enrollment both serve a dual purpose: they drive near-term ticket and repeat visits while generating the brand familiarity that supports franchise sales. The chain's in-house dough, proprietary sauce and cheese blends give it a quality narrative that differentiates from national delivery aggregators — a positioning argument that resonates with both consumers and prospective franchisees evaluating the pizza segment.
For c-store operators, the Stoner's trajectory is worth tracking: pizza-and-wings concepts of this scale are increasingly evaluated as co-branding or foodservice licensing partners for larger-format fuel-and-convenience locations looking to elevate their foodservice programs beyond roller grill and grab-and-go.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
