In mid-September, Lou Perrotta and his family drove from Canton, Georgia—a rapidly growing suburb of Atlanta—to Nashville, Tennessee. They were going to watch their favorite football team, the New York Jets, take on the Tennessee Titans. There was one rule for the trip: there would be no talking about their pizzeria, Perrotta’s Pizza, the 100-seat restaurant they run together as a family. 

“We told ourselves that we weren’t going to talk about pizza,” Perrotta said. “But at some point, it always seems to sneak into the conversation. And my wife says, ‘see, there you go again! You’re talking about pizza.’”