Gabriel Pizza marks 40 years

OTTAWA — George Hanna grew up in his father’s restaurant, helping the family business on Friday and Saturday evenings wherever he could: cleaning trays, cutting pepperoni and shredding cheese. 

“Every weekend on Fridays, I’d get picked up by one of my uncles from school,” said Hanna, who would join his parents at Gabriel Pizza for the busiest night of the week. 

In 1977, his father and Gabriel Pizza founder Michael Hanna purchased the original restaurant on St. Joseph Boulevard in the Orleans suburb of Ottawa.

“At that time, he has sponsored his family to come from Lebanon and they all worked together in that store,” said George. “That location is still there and you can still find my dad there. He still likes going to the original store, almost every day.  

“A lot of the customers actually come to see him. He’s always humming around in the dining room talking to customers, talking about the good old days, that sort of stuff.” 

Hanna, the eldest of five children, opened his own store in 2001 with a friend in Kanata, which was the sixth Gabriel Pizza unit and the first location outside of Ottawa’s east end. It went well, so he opened another. 

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“After that, Gabriel’s just started to grow,” said Hanna, who became president and chief operating officer of Gabriel Pizza Franchise Corporation in 2003. 

“We’ve had a great loyal staff, some of which have been with us for about 30 years. Even though the head office company is young, I’ve had some of them from inception.”

Now, there are 38 Gabriel’s restaurants with two more slated to open by the end of the year.  

“So, 40 in 40; that was my goal set out about five years ago,” Hanna said. 

The Gabriel’s footprint is flexible, ranging from food court and take-out locations to full service restaurants, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

After four decades in the Ottawa community, Hanna attributes Gabriel’s success to the values of his father. 

 “For Gabriel’s, it’s always been what my dad has preached from the beginning. Number 1 was quality and service. My dad was a big proponent of making sure the customer was always happy,” Hanna said. “Sure, it’s cliché, everybody always says that, but he was very strong on that — he never let one customer leave the restaurant upset.”

The restaurant chain also makes an effort to support the local community. 

“He always believed in giving back to the community; doing whatever was asked of him,” said Hanna. “We’ve taken that and we’ve grown it across Ottawa, we get involved with local charities and local fundraising events. Whenever we’re called upon, we like to help out as much as we can.” 

The plan is to continue growing the Gabriel Pizza brand in its home province. 

“We’re as far Kingston now and heading west. We’re looking at continuing down that corridor and hopefully getting into all the markets that are available to us in Ontario,” Hanna said. 

Long-term plans also include expanding Gabriel’s sister brand Crust & Crate Public House. Focused on fast-fire pizza and craft beer, the first location opened in September 2015 at TD Place. The second Crust & Crate restaurant is slated to open June 1 in Ottawa’s east end. 

“Our plan for that brand is hopefully to have one or two in every major city across Canada,” Hanna said.