Mama’s Pizza, famous in Fort Worth for 52 years, to open in Parker County
Mama’s Pizza, the old-time pizzeria voted Fort Worth’s best through much of its 52-year history, will open a much-awaited Hudson Oaks location, owner Jordan Scott said Wednesday.
The seventh Mama’s will replace another pizzeria at 100 S. Oakridge Drive, near Blu Jasmine Thai in a shopping center across from Wal-Mart and across Fort Worth Highway from the city’s busy H-E-B supermarket.
The 2,600-square-foot location has a patio It was formerly a Palio’s location.
Mama’s is a traditional pizzeria known for using double mozzarella on every pizza. But the restaurants have added thin-crust or gluten-free pizzas, grilled chicken, Alfredo sauce “white pizzas” and toppings such as spinach or basil.
“We’re traditional pizza,” said Jordan Scott, in his 15th year as owner of a legacy founded in 1968 as a sideline for a Fort Worth schoolteacher.
“We grate our own cheese and we use plenty of it. When you carry out a Mama’s pizza, it’s gonna weigh a couple of pounds,” Scott said.
The original owner, retired teacher Ed Stebbins of Arlington, said he wanted to serve something like his Italian family served in Connecticut. Not the cheap, cracker-crust pizzas of Pizza Inn or Pizza Hut chains.
“Everything back then was flat and flimsy,” Stebbins said in a 2018 interview.
At first, there was no “Mama.”
Stebbins chose the name to contrast with the popular pizzeria of that day, Papa’s Pizza Parlor, a Shakey’s-esque family restaurant with a player piano.
But the woman everyone knew as Mama was his mother-in-law, Catherine Biggs, who ran the former Texas Wesleyan University flagship store for 18 years.
Biggs had just retired when Scott started as a teenager at the old Mama’s on Camp Bowie Boulevard. Now, the newer Mama’s nearby at 5800 Camp Bowie Blvd. is his company’s No. 1 location, followed by an Arlington location at 1200 N. Fielder Road.
Scott also owns the Mama’s on Camp Bowie Boulevard, North Fielder Road and the oldest location, 1813 W. Berry St. Franchise locations also are in Cityview, Mansfield and North Richland Hills; mamaspizzas.net.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 4:47 PM.
