How It All Began
The Story of Best Way
How it all began
The story of our famous square cut pizza begins in the early 1950s in an unlikely place, The Pennsylvania Railroad. Railroad worker, Gene Caparella, dusted off his grandmother’s pizza recipe one day and started bringing it to work. His fellow railroad workers tried it and loved it, and so the foundations of a pizza business started to form. In 1955, Gene was laid off from the railway and seized the opportunity to open his very first shop, which he named Best Way Pizza. Gene continued to operate his pizza shop in various locations around Altoona for 25 years, until his retirement in 1980.
Unhappy with the thought of never having Best Way Pizza again, Mr. Caparella’s friend, long-time customer, and square cut pizza fanatic, Craig LeCrone Sr. purchased the Best Way Pizza business and reopened a store in Hollidaysburg, PA. Craig Sr. kept his job at UPS until 1982, when he decided he liked being square and wanted to open up several more locations throughout the area.
The story of our famous square cut begins in the early 1950s at the Pennsylvania Railroad
Onward and upward
Keeping it all in the family, Mr. LeCrone’s son, Craig LeCrone Jr. joined the Best Way Pizza team in 1988 and together they’ve worked to build the Best Way Pizza business. With a passion for providing cheesy, square cuts of pizza fast and at affordable prices, the Best Way Pizza brand quickly achieved a mass following and the LeCrone family sold its first franchise in 1991 in Greenwood, Pennsylvania.
That store is still cranking out cheesy square cut goodness to this day. Since then, numerous franchise locations have opened throughout Pennsylvania, and we hope to add many more. Right now, there are 13 franchise locations and 1 company owned location, so you’re never far from a bite to eat at Best Way.