Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria was founded in Burbank, California by brothers Aro & Allen Agakhanyan. The 2 Brothers Came to America from Armenia with their Mother & Sister. Aro came to America at the age of 12 years old. He was a cook at 16 years old at the Domino's Pizza in Burbank at the time. He was employed there for about a year and a half. At 17 Years old he was in Hoover High school in Glendale, California taking a couple classes from 7AM – 9AM.
After school Aro & Allen would go to work at a pizza place they purchased off some people. The name of the pizza place was called Roselli's Pizza. Back then they had 2 sized pizzas & 2 sandwiches. Very small menu, No Business – they didn't know how they did it. Back then the brothers didn't even have a car, they had a bicycle which they rode to school then to the pizza shop. Aro thought he could open his own business because he was a good cook at Dominos. After 4 years of struggling he figured that just being a good cook doesn't cut it.
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The Pizza oven in Roselli's was very old and small. The largest size pizza that they could fit in there was only 8". Aro eventually bought a jeep wrangler, but then sold it to purchase a new pizza oven & some other equipment for the pizza shop, which sent the brothers back to being without a car. The new oven was a bigger, better pizza oven. The same oven Domino's was using at the time. This was a big upgrade as they could fit 2 - 28" pizzas in them at the same time. The name of the pizza place was still called Roselli's Pizza, but they named the 28" Pizza the Big Mama Pizza because of its size. They didn't have the Big Papa Pizza back then which is known as the 36" Pizza today. He registered the names Big Mama & Big Papa & said "I Don’t Know, Maybe One Day It Will Be Something, I Don’t Know What". They were selling a lot of the 28" Big Mama Pizza back then.
Location
231 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California 91203, United States
