In a world where the restaurant industry is a swirling mix of challenges and opportunities, there are a few exceptional leaders who rise above the rest, transforming their organizations into beacons of resilience and innovation. Among these pioneers is Tom Sacco, whose leadership has become a guiding light for Happy Joe’s.
As traditional dining models adapt to new realities—embracing the surge in delivery services, harnessing the power of digital innovations, and prioritizing sustainability— Tom skillfully steers through this evolving terrain with a blend of visionary insight and heartfelt empathy.
Tom Sacco, Chief Happiness Officer, CEO, and President of Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream, reflects on his extensive career in the restaurant industry, emphasizing his deep commitment to servant leadership. With over 40 years of experience, Tom has honed his skills as a transformational leader, particularly in the niche segment of the dynamic restaurant industry. His expertise, strategies, and intuitive understanding have been instrumental in navigating the challenges of the past, including guiding Happy Joe’s through the pandemic.
Under his leadership, Happy Joe’s has undergone a significant revitalization. He has skilfully refreshed, rejuvenated, and rebooted the iconic All-American brand, marking this period as a career highlight. Sacco’s approach is rooted in the core values of Happy Joe’s, which include having a servant’s heart, a warrior spirit, a passion for one’s work, a focus on quality, a willingness to take risks, community involvement, and maintaining a life balance. These values have guided his leadership and continue to drive the success of Happy Joe’s.
Forging Bonds Through Empathy
From the outset of his tenure at Happy Joe’s, Tom Sacco, Chief Happiness Officer, CEO, and President, implemented a leadership approach rooted in serving others. In the first 45 days after joining the company, Sacco made it a priority to visit each franchise owner personally, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. He took the time to sit across from them in empty, closed dining rooms to ask detailed questions, probe into their needs, and understand how he could support their success.
Sacco’s commitment to this approach was well received by the franchisees. His efforts to address their concerns and fulfill their requests within the first 12 months established a strong bond, built on trust and mutual respect. This foundational relationship paved the way for the subsequent achievements and positive impacts at Happy Joe’s.
Building Global Bonds Through Heartfelt Engagement
Tom employs a distinctive strategy to ensure Happy Joe’s maintains a strong emotional connection with its guests, especially as the brand expands. Rather than introducing himself as the new CEO and president, Tom chose to present himself as the Chief Happiness Officer. This approach acknowledges that happiness holds unique meanings for different groups, including franchise owners, guests, team members, stakeholders, and vendors.
Tom actively engages with these groups by promoting his personal contact details on the company’s website, including his cell phone number and email address. He prioritizes responding to all feedback—whether through calls, texts, emails, or WhatsApp—within 24 hours. This commitment to timely and personal communication has successfully fostered the sincere, heartfelt connections he aimed to establish.
Through this approach, Tom has built meaningful relationships that span across the United States and extend to multiple countries globally. His efforts to create magical family memories and positively impact the lives of franchise owners, team members, and other stakeholders have contributed significantly to the brand’s success. Tom believes that these emotional and life-changing bonds have been instrumental in achieving the remarkable successes Happy Joe’s has experienced and will continue to experience in the future
Nurturing Happier Memories
The recognition and accolades received fuel the passion within Tom’s team even further. The appreciation from guests, the industry, and the communities the organization serves intensifies the team’s dedication to creating magical memories for children and their families. Tom finds it inspirational to witness the positive response from each community, whether established or newly entered, in the USA or across the Middle East. The enthusiastic reception of Happy Joe’s family-first, quality-focused, humble pizza and ice cream concept highlights the impact of the efforts and reinforces its commitment to the brand’s values.
Ingenious Resilience in Action
The single most significant challenge Happy Joe’s faced was surviving the pandemic and its ongoing aftermath. Many reputable brands and thousands of restaurants and foodservice establishments did not make it, and continue to fail years after the damage done during the pandemic through weekly shutdowns. Even those that survived are now struggling due to the compounded pressures of inflation, reduced disposable income for families, and stringent regulations impacting the restaurant industry.
Tom believes that Happy Joe’s has had a guardian angel watching over it as it navigated through the pandemic. The organization was well-prepared with its own in-house delivery service and a pickup window, which helped maintain customer engagement during the toughest times. Families with children across the USA and around the globe have needed a “Happy Place” more than ever, and Happy Joe’s has been fortunate to be in the right place, with the right brand and product, at the right time.
With the technology enhancements made during the pandemic, a fresh and relevant redesigned image, and a fun, engaging website and app, the organization has successfully lifted families’ spirits, celebrated the magic of children’s smiles, and watched its sales grow and its restaurants expand.
Scaling New Heights
Tom envisions Happy Joe’s Pizza expanding significantly over the next five years, with many more restaurants both across the USA and around the world. The common thread connecting the brand’s history with its future will be its family-centric focus, dedicated to creating magical memories through the highest quality, uniquely comforting pizza offerings.
The organization has already initiated the use of A.I. for ordering and is collaborating with robotics to ensure consistency in its high-quality pizza products and having the team members provide face forward service by minimizing rudimentary repetitive functions so Happy Joe’s guests are always first. These key initiatives are central to achieving the vision of broadening Happy Joe’s footprint while maintaining its commitment to exceptional, family-oriented dining experiences.
Embracing a Servant’s Heart and a Warrior Spirit
Tom’s career was shaped by the guidance of several mentor-based coaches rather than a single pivotal moment. From a young age, he was influenced by his grandfather, Tony Sacco, who instilled in him a deep love and emotional connection to the food service industry by emphasizing the importance of putting heart and soul into every meal, serving, conversation, and community involvement.
As he progressed in his career, Tom was further shaped by working with several exemplary leaders. His foundational experiences began with founder Oscar Grubert and President Rene Bazinet at Mother Tucker’s Food Experience, followed by his time with the iconic founder Gerry Kingen at Red Robin. He then learned from the worldly, master motivator, and franchise educator Jeff Rogers at Bonanza Family Restaurants (USACafes). Finally, Tom worked alongside the consummate executive Jack Anton at Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.
These experiences collectively taught Tom the essence of “Why we Do, What we Do, When we Do, and How To Do It” successfully, all while embracing a Servant’s Heart and a Warrior Spirit.
From Calabria to Cuisine
Tom’s career foundation was profoundly shaped by his grandfather’s mentorship. In the tumultuous late 1960s, as a preteen and early teenager, he could not have anticipated how his grandfather’s remarkable journey would influence his own career. His grandfather, who had left his small village of Conflenti in Calabria, Italy, as a 15-year-old with only an elementary school education, had been sent alone to the USA by his father to escape the horrors of World War I. To avoid having to enlist and face the war’s brutal realities, his great-grandfather Tommaso Sacco sought to protect his eldest son from the conflict that had devastated their village.
Despite his limited English and agricultural background, Tom’s grandfather possessed a profound worldly knowledge and natural intuition. Over 50 years later, he shared invaluable wisdom about what truly mattered to guests, staff, stakeholders, and vendors. As a young man, Tom absorbed this wisdom deeply, likening it to a dry cloth soaking up spilled water on a dining table. His grandfather’s daily teachings stayed with him, growing in significance as his career expanded across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and other regions worldwide.
Tom’s grandfather, an elderly immigrant with a modest background, unknowingly provided him with a Ph.D. in restaurant management, operations, guest service, employee leadership, community relations, shareholder value protection, and vendor partnership development. This foundation enabled Tom to lead prominent foodservice organizations, including Red Robin, Ghirardelli Chocolate, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Bonanza Family Restaurants, Mother Tucker’s Food Experience, Ponderosa Steakhouse & Buffet, and currently, Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream in his 40+ year career.
Beyond the Basics
Happy Joe’s does not use a cookie-cutter approach to engaging with local communities. Instead, it coaches and guides its franchise owners to seek out opportunities that support those in need, particularly children and families, aligning with its family-focused brand. If a franchise owner has a personal passion for a different local charity that is meaningful to them, the organization encourages them to adhere to its Core Values—Be Passionate at What You Do and Be Involved in Your Community. Regardless of the cause, these two principles will always lead to a successful and positive outcome.
“Our vision for Happy Joe’s is not just about expanding our footprint but about deepening our connection with communities worldwide. We aim to spread joy and quality through every new location, ensuring every family feels valued.”