How to start a pizza business in the US: shop, delivery and ordering

To start a pizza business in the US, choose your format (slice shop, takeout and delivery, sit-down pizzeria or pizza truck), find a site that can take a commercial oven and hood, get your health permit after plan review and a fire inspection, cost your menu, and decide early whether you'll deliver with your own drivers or through apps. Delivery is where pizza shops win or lose money. Your own drivers make sense only when you have enough orders per hour; below that, app commission or on-demand couriers can be cheaper per order.

Not legal advice. Wage, tip and permit rules vary by state and city. Figures were read on the sources' own pages on October 20, 2026.

Step 1: Choose your pizza format

Takeout and delivery shops rely on online ordering more than any other format, so plan your ordering and delivery setup as part of the concept.

Step 2: Write your plan and cost your menu

Write down your format, location, menu, prices, start-up costs and break-even point. A short menu of pies, a few sides and drinks is easier to run and to cost.

Flour is cheap: 12 ounces of all-purpose flour, roughly enough for one 16-inch base, cost about 41 cents at the BLS September 2026 average retail price of $0.545 a pound. Toppings and cheese are where costs grow, so cost every pie with the recipe cost calculator for pizza restaurants and set prices with the menu price calculator.

For the plan itself, use the pizzeria business plan template and the restaurant startup cost calculator.

Step 3: Register the business and get tax IDs

Set up the business before you sign a lease, since landlords and permit offices ask for it.

• Choose a structure (sole proprietorship, LLC or corporation).
• Get an EIN from the IRS online; it's free.
• Register for sales tax with your state; restaurant food is taxable in states with a sales tax.
• Open a business bank account.

Step 4: Find a site that can take an oven and hood

The oven decides your site. Check before you sign:

• Exhaust hood and fire suppression. Commercial cooking ventilation and fire protection are covered by NFPA 96, the Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations, which your local fire code usually adopts. Hood, ducts, fans and suppression systems need inspection and regular cleaning.
• Wood or coal ovens come under NFPA 96's solid-fuel cooking requirements, so ask your fire marshal early what your oven, chimney and ash handling need.
• Gas and power for deck or conveyor ovens, mixers and walk-in coolers.
• Zoning, parking and delivery access if you plan to deliver.

Step 5: Get plans approved and apply for permits

Most health departments approve your plans before you build. The FDA Food Code's model rules, which most states use in some edition, say:

• plans and specifications are reviewed and approved before a food establishment is built, converted or remodeled;
• you apply for a permit at least 30 calendar days before opening;
• the person in charge is a certified food protection manager, unless the department rates you low risk;
• since the 2026 edition (released September 17, 2026), you keep a written employee illness policy.

You'll also need a fire department inspection, a business license where your city requires it, and a liquor license from your state if you'll serve beer or wine.

Step 6: Set up food safety for dough, sauce and toppings

Pizza kitchens hold a lot of prepared food. Under the Food Code:

• keep cold toppings and cheese at 41°F or below and hot-held food at 135°F or above;
• cool cooked sauces from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours and to 41°F within 6 hours in total;
• date-mark ready-to-eat chilled food kept more than 24 hours (up to 7 days at 41°F).

Know your allergens: wheat and milk are in almost every pie, and the FDA's nine major allergens also include soy, tree nuts and sesame, which can appear in toppings, oils and crusts.

Step 7: Hire your team

A pizza shop needs cooks, counter staff and, if you deliver, drivers. The BLS national medians in May 2025 were $17.98 an hour for restaurant cooks, $15.00 for fast food and counter workers, and $18.64 for driver/sales workers (the group that includes pizza delivery drivers). Check your state minimum wage; every hire needs a Form I-9.

Step 8: Decide how you'll deliver

You have three choices, and you can mix them:

1. Delivery apps (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub): they bring new customers but charge commission. DoorDash's US tiers are 15%, 25% and 30%.
2. On-demand couriers for orders from your own website, such as DoorDash Drive On-Demand at $6.99 to $10.99 a delivery or Uber Direct from $7.99.
3. Your own drivers, paid by you, using their cars or yours.

If drivers use their own cars, the law matters. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a driver's wages minus the car costs they cover for you can't drop below minimum wage. In opinion letter FLSA2020-12, about pizza and food delivery drivers, the Department of Labor said reimbursement must reasonably approximate the real expenses, and that the IRS business standard mileage rate is "not legally mandated" but "presumptively reasonable." The IRS rate is 72.5¢ a mile for January–June 2026 and 76¢ a mile from July 1, 2026. Some states add their own rules: California's Labor Code §2802 requires employers to cover employees' necessary work expenses.

Run your own numbers in the own delivery cost calculator, and read our in-house delivery guide and how to pay delivery drivers.

Step 9: Set up online ordering and your driver app

Your repeat customers are the ones you most want ordering direct, on your own page, instead of through an app that charges commission on every order.

How Menuthere helps. Menuthere's Free plan gives you an ordering page and QR codes with 0% commission and 50 orders a month, with pizza sizes and toppings as options and the major allergens tagged on each item. Lite (US$17 a month) adds unlimited orders, delivery fees by distance, scheduled orders and card payments through your own Stripe account. Pro (US$39 a month) adds your own drivers with the Menuthere rider app for iOS and Android: you assign each order to a driver with one tap, and customers follow the driver live on a tracking page, with no per-delivery fee from Menuthere. Assignment is manual (no automatic dispatch or route optimization). Outside India, Pro can also book Uber Direct on your own Uber account. See Menuthere for pizza shops and the rider app.

Bring your regulars back to your own ordering page. with 0% commission.

Create your free ordering page

Worked example: what does one delivery cost you?

Here's the cost of one delivery with your own driver who uses their own car. Each round trip is assumed to be 5 miles, reimbursed at the IRS rate of 76¢ a mile ($3.80). Wages are each state's minimum (Texas $7.25; California $16.90) plus the employer's 7.65% payroll tax; tips go to the driver on top. The deliveries-per-hour figures are assumptions.

Compare that with the alternatives for a $30 order:

What this shows: in a low-wage state with steady volume, your own drivers cost about the same as app commission per order, and you keep the customer relationship and the data. In a high-wage state, own drivers only pay off at higher volume, when each driver makes more deliveries an hour. App commission also doesn't stop at delivery: you pay it on the whole order, and the customer belongs to the app.

How much does it cost to open a pizza shop?

A takeout and delivery shop in a second-generation restaurant space (one that already has a hood) costs far less than a new sit-down pizzeria. Build your budget from these lines, with real quotes:

Add your numbers to the restaurant startup cost calculator.

Your pizza business start-up checklist

• Format chosen; menu costed
• Business plan and budget
• Structure, EIN, sales tax registration, bank account
• Site with hood, gas and power checked; fire marshal consulted about the oven
• Plans approved; health permit; fire inspection; business license
• Certified food protection manager; employee illness policy
• Staff hired; I-9s done; driver reimbursement policy written
• Delivery mix decided (apps, couriers, own drivers)
• Ordering page with sizes, toppings and delivery zones

Related guides

Planning a full sit-down or counter-service restaurant? Read our step-by-step guide on how to open a restaurant, with a 6-month timeline. You may also want to read how to start a food truck business and how to start a catering business.