Marion’s Piazza turns 60, celebrates with discount for customers

“(Founder) Marion (Glass) would always say top quality is our most important thing,” Supervisor John Davis said. “We buy the best quality products we can buy.”

Marion’s uses Stanislaus tomato sauce, Leprino cheese, Hormel pepperoni and a unique blend of sausage from Landes Meats.

“Never cheat the customers,” Davis said. “(Glass) always said if you see a kid going heavy on the ingredients, just get the scale and have them weigh it out. But, if you see them going light, you give them hell because that’s the fastest way to lose customers.”

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

Marion’s expects to sell around 1.3 million pizzas this year with favorites such as the Deluxe (pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions and green peppers), Super Cheese (a Deluxe pizza with extra cheese on top), Pepperoni and Cheese pizzas.

Non-pizza favorites include the steak sandwich and submarine (baked ham, luncheon meat, salami, cheese, tomato sauce, sweet banana peppers and onions).

“Quality is why people come back,” Davis said.

He believes keeping the menu simple helps with the ease of operations. The only items they’ve added over the past decade include gluten-free pizza crust and pineapple as a topping.

They’ve recently introduced online ordering, which Davis said has been a “big hit.”

Second-generation owned

Marion’s was founded on Aug. 19, 1965. Glass initially got into the pizza business as the owner of three Cassano’s pizza franchises, but he had ideas of his own.

“I felt that it was time to have a dining room pizza house,” he previously said.

The community had never seen a restaurant like the one at 460 Patterson Road in Dayton, where a large deluxe pizza cost $2.50. The restaurant had seating for 200, four pizza ovens and the largest walk in cooler in town, according to a 1965 article in the Dayton Herald.

This was a first for pizza establishments in the area because all the others offered carryout service with no inside dining.

Glass died in 2006 at 92 and his son, Roger, operated the business until his death in August 2022.

“(Roger) was great with people,” Davis said. “He was a people person. He donated a lot of money to CJ. He donated a lot of money to UD, which he went to both of those schools. He was generous to people, too.”

Davis said Glass did a great job building the company, but Roger took the next step by paying his people better.

In August 2022, Dayton Daily News talked with Roger ahead of the Best of Dayton contest. He said his employees take a lot of pride in being nominated as the Best Pizza Restaurant in the Dayton area.

“I know our employees look forward to it every year and they take a lot of pride in winning,” Roger said. “Those kids work hard and without our loyal employees we wouldn’t be where we are. I just think so many people know about this (contest) and look forward to (it). I know I do.”

Marion’s won Best Pizza and Best Square-Cut Pizza in the 2025 Best of Dayton contest.

Today, the business is owned and operated by Roger’s sisters, Carol Glass Pollock and Kathi Glass.

People at the heart of it

“A lot of businesses don’t make it 30 or 40 years, let alone 50 or 60, so it’s a big deal,” Davis said. “I’ve been here 34 years and Marion actually hired me himself. We sat at one of those tables right over there and he hired me. He was like a dad to me.”

Davis was hired as a supervisor after working as a store manager at McDonald’s.

“For me, I like working with people and I see people at every store,” Davis said. “I know people by name. I know them by their order.”

Some of his favorite memories at Marion’s include the cast parties. He said Glass was friends with the owner of Memorial Hall.

“They did shows at Memorial Hall,” Davis said. “The cast would come after the show, and we would feed them.”

Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com

Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com

He recalled Roger telling him to go see if Barbara Eden from “I Dream of Jeannie” wanted more wine.

“So I went and I said, ”Ms. Eden, would you like some more wine?" She said, “Honey, I’d really like a root beer.””

Actors such as Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe still stop by Marion’s Piazza to this day.

A record year is in sight

Marion’s plans to continue to keep things simple with using top quality products, having clean restaurants and providing good service.

“We could add more stores,” Davis said. “I would look for us to expand in probably the next five years, not the next year or so.”

Marion’s is up about 6% this year. Davis said last year was not a record year, but the year before was. Marion’s is really close to hitting a record year.

“You’re never too busy,” Davis said. “Our stores seat between 300-500 people and to be out of seats on a Friday or Saturday night — that’s a good thing.”

Davis would like to thank their customers for continuing to show support year after year.

“It’s a give back to the community,” said supervisor John Davis. “Every five years we do a rollback and that’s why we’re doing that this year. We didn’t five years ago because of the pandemic.”

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

Wednesday’s deal is a big deal

Marion’s Piazza stores are expected to sell more than 20,000 pizzas Wednesday, July 16 when it offers 60 percent off its large pies.

To gear up for the sale, employees in the “dough room” at the North Dixie Drive restaurant will pull double shifts on Monday and Tuesday to make sure there’s enough pizza dough.

“The doughs we make today are really tomorrow’s doughs because we have fresh yeast and they really need to rest overnight,” Davis said.

The dough room typically makes around 1,500 small doughs and 4,000 large doughs per day. For the sale, they will make around 22,500 large doughs.

Davis is expecting to sell between 20,000-22,000 pizzas on Wednesday, which is three times what is sold on a Friday or Saturday.

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

“Our ovens will produce about 200 pizzas an hour per store,” Davis said. “The ovens will stay full. Once you start getting into it, there will not be any extra space to put things halfway through or pull things out early.”

During the sale, there will be no extra cheese, super cheese, extra sauce, double the ingredients or split topping pizzas. Special cooking instructions such as light bakes or extra well done are not allowed.

Davis is expecting lines to go fast with wait times no longer than 30 minutes. There will be no phone or online orders.

HOW TO GO

Marion’s Piazza has nine locations throughout the region:

For more information, visit marionspiazza.com.