— By Katie Lee —
Mellow Mushroom, the psychedelic pizza franchise known for its imaginative pizzas, hand-tossed stone-baked dough and unique atmosphere, projects a laid-back vibe but is anything but ‘mellow’ in its ambition.
One year after marking its 50th anniversary, Mellow Mushroom spent 2025 not basking in the glow of its half-century of success but rather laser-focused on improving restaurant operations and rolling out a new store prototype. Today, those investments are paying off.
“In 2026, our milestones have been about disciplined growth and evolution: 8 new locations signed for development in the first half of the year, our first-ever Montana and Nevada locations in the works, and the rollout of our second Fast Fine prototype,” says Ahsan Jiva, executive vice president of strategy and transformation. “We expect to sign another 4 to 6 deals before the end of 2026.”
Currently, the Atlanta-based brand operates 160 restaurants across roughly 15 states, concentrated mostly in the Southeast. The vast majority are franchised and locally owned, with fewer than 10% of stores being company-owned locations used to test and refine operational changes before rolling them out to the rest of the system.
Mellow Mushroom started in 1974 near the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, when three friends — Rocky Reeves, Mike Nicholson and Marc “Banks” Weinstein — opened a pizzeria built around stone-baked pizza and a laid-back, art-filled atmosphere. Over 50 years later, the company is still Atlanta-based and family-owned.
This year, Mellow Mushroom continues to roll out its new “Fast Fine” prototype. First launched in the Grant Park neighborhood outside Atlanta, the first fully counter-service model opened in November 2024 and completed its first full year of operation in 2025. The brand opened its second Fast Fine restaurant in the south Atlanta suburb of Newnan, Georgia, in July 2026 to astounding success.
“Our first and now our second Fast Fine locations have both exceeded expectations,” Jiva says. “The goal was a leaner box that still delivers the Mellow Mushroom vibe, so we carried the artwork, the atmosphere and the signature dough into a smaller, more efficient format. We took the learnings from the prototype to hone in on the facility design to maximize efficiency and prioritize the guest and Shroom Crew experience.”
Jiva adds: “Our traditional full-service restaurants run roughly 5,000 square feet; our newer Fast Fine format targets about 2,500 to 3,200 square feet. Having both lets us match the footprint to the real estate and the market instead of forcing every site into one box.”
The smaller, counter-service model needs fewer staff, has lower buildout costs, and can fit into easier real estate — all while keeping the classic ‘Mellow’ nostalgia and increasing speed and efficiency.
“Counter service is the biggest lever,” Jiva explains. “It takes fewer people to run, so the team focuses on execution rather than table management, and guests move through faster. The menu is intentionally slimmer, which simplifies prep and the line and reduces the chance for error during a rush. The smaller footprint also brings the kitchen and front of house closer together, so food gets from the oven to the guest faster. We added purposeful technology where it made sense, like KDS, to help our managers drive quality and speed but still lean into traditional hospitality by staffing dining-room liaisons whose job is to make sure a counter-service visit still feels like Mellow.”
In addition to growing its traditional full-service casual dining locations and continuing to open more Fast Fine counter-service formats, Mellow Mushroom is also actively looking at non-traditional spaces.
“We are in discussions with prime operators about bringing Mellow Mushrooms to airports, train stations and stadiums across the country,” Jiva says. “Our early growth came through college towns in the Southeast, so expanding our relationships with those schools through their entertainment districts is a natural next step.”
Last year, improvement initiatives centered on kitchen execution, back-office efficiency and guest engagement infrastructure. A new back-office system and an operator-facing app, MyMellow, have been introduced to reduce administrative friction for operators, streamline data sources and access points, and give restaurant management staff time back to focus on the guest and Shroom Crew experience.
Over the last 12 months, about two-thirds of restaurants moved onto a digital kitchen platform. Implementation took place location by location to align with each restaurant’s layout and workflow. The platform is already improving speed of service, order accuracy and food quality, particularly when dine-in and off-premise orders overlap during peak hours.
The Mellow Mushroom system is averaging more than $2.7 million in AUV, with the top 25% of franchise locations averaging north of $3.8 million in AUV, according to its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document.
As part of its next phase of guest engagement, Mellow Mushroom plans to launch an app and a formal loyalty program in late 2026. The rollout is intended to give guests a modern rewards experience, a single place to order, receive offers, track rewards and participate in exclusives. The program is also expected to support more consistent, targeted communications and offers as the company expands use of its customer data platform.
“Off-premise is now roughly 40% of our volume, up from about 20% before the pandemic, and digital ordering makes up the large majority of that,” Jiva says. “The pandemic accelerated it, and it has not receded, which tells us the shift is structural rather than temporary. The changes that are here to stay are the ones we have built the operation around: dedicated capacity for off-premise during peak overlap, kitchen display systems that keep dine-in and to-go orders accurate at the same time, AI-powered quote times for digital orders, and formats like Fast Fine.”
Behind the scenes, back-of-house equipment is built for speed, efficiency and accuracy.
“In all of our formats, the back-of-house is built for efficiency in a smaller space, with a streamlined line and kitchen display systems that keep dine-in and off-premise orders moving accurately during peak periods,” Jiva says. “We dedicate more space to our granite stone ovens so we have to be more efficient in other areas, so we rely on equipment from Praticca and MerryChef to prepare items that otherwise would’ve required a deep fryer.”
If equipment breaks down, Mellow Mushroom knows it can rely on a trusted network of R&M vendors sourced by individual franchisees and backstopped by the national reach and resources of its corporate operations service team.
“Our restaurants are locally owned, so franchisees own day-to-day R&M at the store level,” Jiva says. “We support them centrally through our operations services team, nationally negotiated contracts and access to support professionals across the country.”
Franchisees utilize a mix of both national and local vendors. “For consistency across the system, core products run through national relationships, including our primary distribution partner, so a pizza in one market tastes the same as it does in another,” Jiva says. “At the same time, our locally owned operators lean on local vendors and local craft beer where it makes the experience feel authentic to the community. The same is true for facilities-related vendors. Our signage program, equipment partner, and primary parts supplier are national relationships, but repair and service are localized.”
At present, Mellow Mushroom is focused on purposeful growth with quality operators, along with consistent operational execution with its existing operators. Longer term, the goal is disciplined, well-supported growth across various formats and markets, and giving Mellow Mushroom’s operators the tools and training to run stronger, more profitable restaurants.
“The brand keeps climbing the same way it has for 50 years: by staying true to what makes Mellow different while getting sharper about how we execute it,” Jiva says.
While Mellow Mushroom does not rule out future international growth, it still has plenty of room to grow domestically. Mellow Mushroom is prioritizing the Midwest and sees more white space in the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida, where the brand has operated for decades.
“When you look at transplants from the Southeast, states like Montana, Arizona and Colorado also stand out, so we’re continuing to grow our presence in those markets and entering Montana for the first time,” Jiva says. “While we are proudly Atlanta-born and the Southeast remains our stronghold, we are deliberately extending into the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Mountain West where the demographics and real estate fit. We grow by market fit and operator quality, not by planting flags.”
After all, growth is better when it’s strategic and deliberate — not just growth for growth’s sake. The company isn’t interested in keeping up with the unit counts of major fast-food pizza chains and remains unfazed by any so-called ‘pizza wars.’
“We have never tried to win the commodity-pizza fight,” Jiva says. “We differentiate ourselves as a full-service restaurant that offers an escape from the cookie-cutter mundaneness of today’s dining options. The combination of hand-tossed, stone-baked pizza made from a dough recipe we have used since 1974, a serious craft beer and cocktail program, and a space that feels like a piece of local art rather than a chain — that mix is why we rank at the top of the category for guest experience and loyalty. One of the strongest signals of our health is that many of our newest franchisees are longtime guests who wanted to own a piece of the brand they already love and our existing franchisees are growing and renewing their investments with the brand.
More than 50 years in, the veteran pizza brand knows how to delight its guests — and it does so at the beat of its own drum. Just as no two locations are alike, no two days look alike either — which Jiva appreciates.
“The work is tangible,” he says. “One day I’m with prospective franchisees talking about bringing Mellow Mushroom to their markets or working on long-range business planning with our executive team; the next, I’m in the data, helping craft the mechanics of our loyalty program or the store operations app MyMellow, or discussing analog tools to improve pizza shape consistency. I really enjoy guiding and supporting our broader team and seeing their ideas move from conception to something a guest or Shroom Crew member actually feels or experiences in the restaurant.”
And the groovy, good vibes a guest feels? Those are baked right in.
— This article originally published as the cover story of the August 2026 issue of Retail & Restaurant Facility Business. To have your retail or restaurant brand considered as a profile on an upcoming cover, please email the editor, Katie Lee, at katie@francemediainc.com.