Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom held a ribbon cutting at their new location at 24515 Katy Freeway on Oct. 11 – but that isn’t the only big news for SPB Hospitality, the company that owns the pizza franchise. SPB has also moved its corporate office to 19219 I-10 near Greenhouse Road.

“We selected Katy and Houston for the reasons most companies would love to come to Texas,” said SPB President and CEO Jim Mazany. “It’s a great place – great schools obviously to start with – a really exciting, fun food scene and social scene.”

Mazany said the environment in Greater Houston, especially in the Katy area, would help the company draw staff to its 175-employee corporate office which has opportunities for professionals in a variety of disciplines, including information technology, human resources and administration, among others. That’s in addition to the people hired to work at the new restaurant.

“We’ve hired 125 people in the Old Chicago restaurant,” Mazany said. “So, at this time, we’re adding a lot of jobs to the workforce.”

Mazany said anyone interested in applying for those jobs can search for them on Indeed or visit the SPB Hospitality website. (see sidebar) While staffing up during recovery from the pandemic has been a challenge, Mazany said the company’s training programs and competitive pay have helped mitigate that problem.

In addition to Old Chicago, SPB Hospitality also owns Logan’s Roadhouse, Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, ChopHouse & Brewery, A1A Ale Works Restaurant & Taproom, Twisted Tenders and Roadies Sliders, according to the SPB website.

Mazany said another draw for moving the corporate office to the Katy area is the growth in the area. With an increasing population, there are both more consumers and more possible employees with extensive experience in corporate environments, he said.

He added that the company has competitive benefits, even in an environment such as Greater Houston and he’s proud of the environment employees are given at SPB. The company offers a full benefits package that includes health insurance, paid time off and other perks.

“We’re a really good employer with good benefits that we offer, and some exciting meal benefits as well,” Mazany said. “You get to eat at any one of our restaurants and it’s a really good corporate culture.”

SPB wants to be involved in the community, Mazany said. Their community programs include sponsoring extracurricular activities for students, fundraisers to help local charities and the company founded the Hope Foundation – its own charitable venture that helps nonprofits in the communities SPB operates restaurants in.

“Most recently we … raised $180,000 for No Kid Hungry and Share Our Strength for the elimination of child hunger in America, connecting children with food programs. It’s really important to us and we’ve done a lot of work (for people with special needs),” Mazany said.

Mazany said SPB Hospitality intends to add two to three more restaurants in Greater Houston in the next couple of years and would like to add about 10 restaurants across the state in total during that same timeframe.

Right now though, Mazany said he hopes the Katy area will give the new Old Chicago location a try. He said the restaurant not only offers pizza, but a full line of pub grub and pastas to accommodate any guest’s preference. Additionally, he said, the restaurant offers locally sourced beer, wine and spirits to support the community it operates in.

“On our current beer list, we have over nine or 10 different beers that are local beers, whether it’s Galveston or whether it’s from Katy itself,” Mazany said.

The most important thing Mazany wants the Katy community to know is that SPB Hospitality is looking to be involved in the Katy area.

“It’s really important for us to be a part of the Katy community and the fiber of the community and I would love for everybody to kind of come out and give us a try,” Mazany said. “… You know, we look to have a very long-term relationship in Katy and obviously we’ve made a very big commitment here as an organization, moving the entire company here.”