Exploring Life & Business with Mohammed Firoj and Mohd Islam of Star Pizza

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mohammed Firoj and Mohd.

Mohammed and Mohd, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Mohammed: I started out in America by working for Chilis for 10 years and eventually becoming their corporate trainer, but I was always interested to start my own business. A friend of mine brought to my attention that there was an Italian store for sale, so we went there to negotiate and take over the store sometime in the spring of 1999. At the time two brothers were running the store, the DeSantis brothers. At the time I had never cooked before, but it didn’t take long to learn because they trained me with all their recipes; I took those recipes and ended up choosing higher quality ingredients, leveling up our mozzarella, going through every topping and choosing higher quality ingredients. That was the beginning of our business.

My partner was my brother in law and he was in Rome for 15 years and he had a true Italian experience, and he taught me the secrets of making true Italian pastas.

Mohd: Mohammed started the business in 1999. It was a small shop in Roswell Business Corners. After coming here after almost 15 years of living in Italy, it wasn’t long before I also joined him later in the same year, and together we built a restaurant that we’ve poured our hearts into and one that was made with the help and love of our family and all the people that helped us start our story and continue to build it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Mohammed: First thing was, I didn’t know anything about marketing. It doesn’t matter how good quality our food is if people don’t know you’re there. First two to three months, we were only getting 200-300 dollars of monthly sales. Then a lady came up to us and offered a marketing job for us, where she delivered coupons for us for just $250. Since then, we couldn’t stop the avalanche of business. We have since been marketing to schools, churches, mosques, and this was a great way to keep building our business and customer base.

Mohd: It hasn’t been a smooth road. My journey after coming here after uprooting my life in Italy, it was difficult being in a position where I had to start over from scratch. It was a whole new environment and place, and I was feeling homesick for the life I had built there–the friends, the career, and the belief that that’s where our family was supposed to start. On top of that, we both had kids that were young and families that were still growing. The pressure was high to make sure that the business succeeded because we wanted to make our families proud and establish a solid footing for our futures. At the start, we were struggling to pay our bills and wondering if this was worth it because of the risks. It was years of trying to establish ourselves in different places in Roswell and other cities. Some were successes, and others were failures, but in the end, we created something that we are proud of and can look at and say “this was a product of our dedication and perseverance”.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Mohammed: Low costs are not actually our first priority. Our number one priority is that we make healthy, wholesome pizzas. It seems like you can’t make healthy pizza, but look at our Mediterranean pizza, with 7 toppings. It’s our highest selling pizza, and we call it “guiltless”. Fresh tomatoes, fresh spinach, roasted garlic, mozzarella, feta, and basil that makes one of the best selling pizzas. Even our pepperoni is made from beef, which is a cleaner, higher-quality option, without the fillers and additives that other pepperoni meats have. That’s our mentality, everything we do, quality and health is on my mind.

Another big part of this is family. It is normal in the restaurant business to get extremely busy and shorthanded. We get a lot of big orders from schools, offices, and churches. I can call my family any time and say “Hey I’m in a situation” and everyone knows what to do. Even my children know how to make pizzas! They are busy with their own lives but they still support the business however they can.

My wife is the backbone of it all. She knows everything, from pizzas to pastas. Whenever we have big orders, she’s the first person I call.

Mohd: We’re known for our range of Italian dishes from pizzas, to pastas, and to countless others. Something I think that stands out about our business is that it’s family. Our family all play important parts in our restaurant from chefs to managers to everyone working in the background to everyone who’s always ready to drop everything to lend us a hand. All of them are our family, and we couldn’t be where we are without them.

We know how important it is to connect to our customers and always do our best to make them feel like a part of our family, and our abilities to do that is what makes us proud of what we built.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Mohammed: Well, it’s family. Indeed, when we’re in a tough spot and need help, family shows up. It doesn’t matter who’s doing what, they drop what they’re doing and come to help.

And mostly, my wife. She’s the one who steps in for the big things. When the pressure is high and we need someone to rely on, she is always there, ready to be a leader and make sure everything gets done.

Mohd: I think the people that we can thank the most for our success are our wives. They always continued to support us and help us in any way they could. Anything from family matters to business matters, they were there and eager to help us because this business was just as important to them as it was for us. The amount of hard work that they have done to help us is what brought us here, and we couldn’t thank them enough for being our motivation and inspiration to keep on going.

Our kids were also our biggest cheerleaders. They always wanted to help and be around, and their best times were spent at the restaurant hanging out with us. They were always bright spots in our lives and our motivation to work harder because this was the legacy we were leaving for them.

Pricing:

• Large Guiltless Mediterranean @. $15.99
• Large Signature Greek Salad @ $10.99
• Shrimp Alfredo Pasta @ $13.99
• 15 Wings @ $19.99
• Medium Calzone @ $12.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://starpizza.com
• Instagram: starpizzacanton
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starpizzaroswell/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/star-pizza-and-pasta-roswell