Al Contarino, The Pizza Guy
I have one memory of the dining hall my freshman year ... somebody threw a piece of food and it landed on our table. One of my buddies said, ‘It’s on,’ and threw it back. And it started a food fight, just like you see in the movies.
Even in middle school, Al Contarino ’92 was thinking of ways to turn food into a business.
“I would walk to the five-and-dime store in downtown Andover and get all those different 10-cent candies—the boxes of Mike and Ikes and the Jolly Rancher sticks—and then sell them for a quarter at school. My whole locker was full of candy,” recalls Contarino, who even kept track of his sales on his family’s Apple computer by learning to use VisiCalc, the first-ever spreadsheet program.
Contarino, who earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from the Francis College of Engineering, has channeled that same entrepreneurial spirit as president and co-founder of KettlePizza, an innovative line of products that turns charcoal and gas grills into backyard pizza ovens.
“I’ve always been a grill guy, but I found it really hard to cook pizza on the grill because you lose all the heat when you lift up the lid,” says Contarino. “The trick to pizza is hot and fast. We get the grill up to 900 degrees so you’re cooking a pizza in three minutes. It’s a great alternative to spending thousands of dollars on a pizza oven.”
Working out of the barn at his home in Boxford, Mass., Contarino started KettlePizza in 2010 with co-founder George Peters. Business has heated up through the years (most of their sales are online, but they’re also found in Crate & Barrel and local hardware stores) and they’re now headquartered in North Andover, where they have a showroom and warehouse.
“It’s a challenging market, but I love having my own business,” says Contarino, who takes pride in the fact that all KettlePizza products are made locally. In fact, some of the metal parts are machined at Sparton Technology Corp. in Hudson, N.H., where Contarino’s friend and fellow industrial technology alumnus, Scott Breton ’92, is vice president.—EB