Marco's Pizza Revived the Iconic $1 Slice to Celebrate Launch of its NEW NY Style Pizza

Marco's Pizza Tapped NYC Transplants — and Basketball Legend God Shammgod — to Prove Its NY Style Pizza Is the Real Deal

TOLEDO, Ohio, May 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Marco's Pizza, one of the nation's fastest-growing pizza brands, brought a taste of New York City to Orlando this week as former New Yorkers*, local pizza fans and NYC basketball legend God Shammgod gathered to weigh in on the brand's NEW NY Style Pizza — and the verdict was clear: it delivers the authentic flavors and foldable slice experience New Yorkers know and love.

The one-day-only activation took place at a Marco's Pizza location in Orlando, Florida — a fitting location given Florida remains the No. 1 destination for New York City transplants. To celebrate the launch, Marco's revived the iconic New York $1 slice tradition for the day, serving oversized, foldable NY Style Pizza slices to guests eager to see whether the brand could truly capture the flavor and experience of a classic NYC slice shop. Throughout the event, former New Yorkers and local pizza lovers lined up to sample the pizza and share their reactions to Marco's take on an authentic New York-style slice.

"As a New Yorker, I take pizza seriously," said God Shammgod, current assistant basketball coach and legendary Harlem streetball icon. "You can tell Marco's really put the work in to get this right. They actually went to New York, studied the pizza culture and visited some of the city's most iconic slice shops to understand what makes a real New York slice. The fold, the flavor, the whole experience — it reminds me of home."

To develop the new offering, Marco's Pizza spent months studying iconic New York City pizzerias alongside renowned pizza expert Scott Wiener, refining everything from dough structure and sauce composition to the signature foldability expected from a true New York-style slice.

The result is an extra-large 16-inch pizza cut into six oversized slices, featuring dough made fresh in-store daily and stretched extra thin. Instead of Marco's traditional pizza sauce, the NY Style Pizza features crushed tomatoes packaged hours after picking, paired with just the right amount of cheese and large-diameter deli-style pepperoni, then finished with Marco's signature garlic sauce crust and parmesan.

"We knew if we were going to create a NY Style Pizza, we had to do it authentically and respectfully," said Steve Kennedy, Chief Marketing Officer of Marco's Pizza. "That meant learning directly from the culture and traditions that make New York pizza so iconic. Seeing transplanted New Yorkers respond so positively to the pizza — especially in a place like Florida where so many former New Yorkers now live — was incredibly rewarding for our team."

Guests throughout the event echoed similar sentiments, commenting on the pizza's foldability, thin crust texture and nostalgic flavor profile reminiscent of neighborhood slice shops in New York.

Event photography can be found here (Photo Credit: Phelan Ebenhack/AP) and b-roll footage found here.

Marco's NEW NY Style Pizza is available for a limited time at participating locations nationwide.
For more information about Marco's Pizza and to find your nearest location, please visit www.marcos.com or download the mobile app available on the App Store or Google Play.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA
Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is one of the fastest-growing pizza brands in the United States. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives to deliver a high-quality pizza experience, known for its dough made from scratch and its three fresh signature cheeses. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate over 1,200 stores in 35 states with locations in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Mexico. Notably, Marco's was recognized as America's Favorite Restaurant in the Limited-Service Pizza category by Nation's Restaurant News using Technomic Ignite Consumer 2025 data^ꝉꝉ. Other recent accolades include being recognized by QSR as one of the "16 Best Franchise Deals for 2025", ranking No. 50 on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2026 "Franchise 500" ranking, earning a coveted spot as the only top 5 pizza chain to rank on Newsweek's 2025 "America's Best Customer Service" in pizza chains list, earning a spot on QSR's Top 50, and being featured on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 500" ranking.

*Paid sponsors include God Shammgod and two New York-based influencers.

^ꝉꝉAccording to Technomic's 2025 America's Favorite Restaurants data, Marco's Pizza secured the top spot in the Limited-Service Pizza category with a 54.6% composite top-box rating, indicating the share of recent guests who gave the brand the highest possible rating for each of the guest experience attributes. Data for America's Favorite Chains comes from Technomic Ignite Consumer, which collects information about how brands impact consumers and how consumers interact with those brands, via online surveys. See here for more information: www.technomic.com/ignite-consumer.

SOURCE Marco's Pizza