ABO'S
PIZZA
Professional History &
Company Vision
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Between 1972 and 1977, Boulder, Colorado was
a scenic college town, heavily influenced by
the tastes and finances of 20,000 college
students who populated Boulder on a
part-time basis. Enter Steve Abo, a college
student at the University of Colorado (CU)
who did not fit the typical student mold
striving to become a doctor, lawyer, or
corporate stuffed shirt. Rather, he enjoyed
the more casual approach to academics,
dabbling in generic 101 studies while
hanging out with free-spirited Ivy
League grads who loved their guitars
and fought regular cravings for
foods from back East, specifically,
New York. |
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At that time, there was not a place to be
found in Boulder to appease the appetite for
a slice, a slice of New York Pizza that is.
Abo and his friends often complained that
there was no place in town to "fill the
munchie." After one too many complaints from
the group, Abo decided he was going to do
it. He was going to bring the first New York
Pizza to Boulder, both literally and
figuratively.
Shortly thereafter, Abo dropped out of CU
and went back home to New York City for six
months where the seeds of a Boulderite
entrepreneurial success story began. Through
a family connection his father had with
Rocky Graziano, the 1947-1948 Middle Weight
Boxing Champion, Abo had a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work (for
free) as a pizza business apprentice to
Graziano. Graziano owned his own successful
pizzeria chain in New York City, a pizza
place to not only to satisfy the New
Yorker's addiction to the proverbial slice,
but also a spot with a legendary past in
fronting for the mob.
Fueled with the desire to learn everything
about the pizza business from scratch, Abo
worked for Graziano for six months. To the
eager-to-learn Abo, Graziano's head pizza
chef Frankie would say "just watch." After
"watching" for five months, Abo decided he
"got it" and started making pizzas and
filling ovens. He was ready to move back to
Boulder to begin bringing a slice of New
York to this once ordinary food town.
But what Steve Abo "got" during his
apprenticeship was more than an authentic
technique for hand tossing a crust or
building a superb tasting pie with a secret
Graziano family sauce recipe. He got a
really big bug for a business venture that
would grow into a 27 year-old
entrepreneurial success story. In 1977, Abo
opened the first Abo's Pizza on University
Hill. |
