Happy's Pizza is an American regional chain of restaurants, serving pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

, ribs, chicken, seafood, sandwiches, pasta and salad.

History

The first Happy's Pizza restaurant was opened by Happy Asker in 1994 on the east side of Detroit. From 2006 to early 2008, the chain doubled in size and reached 27 locations.

Now the chain has more than 65 locations in Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 and Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. The pizzerias are known for their granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 countertops, Venetian plaster

Venetian plaster

Venetian plaster is a wall and ceiling finish using thin layers of plaster applied with a spatula or trowel which are then burnished to create a smooth surface with the illusion of depth and texture. Venetian plaster techniques include marmorino, scagliola, and sgraffito....

 on their walls and the neon signs in and outside of the building.

Service of otherwise unserved areas

The company makes a point of opening stores and offering delivery services in areas where other pizza places will not. Chief operating officer Maher Bashi said in an interview: "We never discriminate where we do business. Everyone wants something good to eat no matter what part of town they live in."

Drivers killed

In July and August 2002, two drivers for Happy's Pizza were murdered within a 2-week period while making deliveries.

DEA investigation

On August 26, 2010 Happy's Pizza corporate offices were raided by Drug Enforcement Administration

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

 agents and agents from the Internal Revenue Service

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 criminal division. According to Detroit's Channel 7

WXYZ-TV

WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...

 approximately 30 agents participated in the raid where boxes of company records were loaded into rental vans.

Local charity work

Asker has said he believes that it is "important to give back to the people who support you" and because of that belief he has involved the company in a number of charity events such as giving away hundreds of bike helmets, or donating thousands of winter coats to Detroit area families. In January 2010 Happy's Pizza offered a pizza party to those classes at in Detroit area schools where at least 80% of students filled out and returned H1N1

H1N1

'Influenza A virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and was the most common cause of human influenza in 2009. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent of...

vaccination forms. It offered to provide about 4,000 pizza parties for this purpose.

External links