• In the most recent chapter of his career, Chris Decker is leaning on creativity to build the reputation of culinary hot spot Truly Pizza.
• While pepperoni pizza is still a top seller, he’s taken the pizzeria staple to a new level with a brown butter-sesame crust.
• When a light and crispy pizza did not work on the appetizer menu, moving it to another section boosted sales exponentially.

Chris Decker of Truly Pizza Reinvents Fan-favorite Menu Items

After spending decades at Las Vegas-based Metro Pizza, where customers knew their orders before they’d even looked at a menu, Chris Decker wanted to flex his creative muscle. Nearly three years into his tenure as co-founder of Truly Pizza – a culinary destination that has put Orange County, California on the same map as pizza capitals such as New York, Chicago and Detroit – Decker leads with creativity while using sales metrics to understand what is working for his customers.

“Truly gave me something that I never really had before: a clean slate,” Decker says during his session during the 2026 International Pizza Expo. “We could basically invent anything that we wanted because they didn’t know any different.”

Decker explains that three other pizzerias operate on the same street as Truly’s first location in Dana Point, California, so he sought – and still strives – to create something “that you’re not going to get anywhere else.

Pepperoni Pizza, Reimagined

During his Pizza Expo session about building a seasonal menu, Decker got a chance to break the mold he had pushed against for years. Rather than thinking, “If I make another pepperoni pizza, my head’s gonna explode,” he sought to answer the question: How can I create this to be a little bit different?

The answer, in this case was creating a brown butter-sesame crust. “It’s super simple, but we paired it differently,” he says. After waiting until winter, when customers are craving heavier comfort foods, Decker let his mind wander to the buttered pan pizza of his youth and created a square pizza where the butter allowed the crust to crisp. In addition to covering the pizza with red sauce, whole milk mozzarella and cup and char pepperoni, the pie is finished with burrata and fresh basil.

He says all Truly Pizza pies are hit with a squeeze of fresh lemon before leaving the expo window.

“It doesn’t have to be flowers and bells and whistles and oils and all this other stuff. Trust me, no matter what we make, pepperoni is the king of all,” Decker says.

The Business Angle

When launching a new menu item, Decker says he spends more time in the dining room than the kitchen. He is constantly asking for guest feedback to understand if new dishes hit the mark with pizzeria customers.

“For me, success is how many we sold. How many people ordered it and loved it,” he says.” Our goal is to have someone … never say, ‘I wish they would have done this.’ We hopefully have already thought of that.”

What is The Fajita Effect?

When someone orders fajitas at a Mexican restaurant, everyone knows about it because of the signature sizzle and smoky aroma that fills the dining room. Ten minutes later, the kitchen is hit with dozens of fajita orders.

Looking for a way to replicate the fajita effect at Truly Pizza, Decker enlisted a sausage pizza, some fresh rosemary and a blowtorch. “We light that rosemary on fire, and … it fills that whole patio with the smell of burning rosemary,” he says. “It’s a beautiful thing. You’re creating memories.”

Experiment With Extravagance

A signature dessert at Truly Pizza is soft serve with olive oil and sea salt. Decker says caviar on pizza has hit the mainstream in recent years, but one weekend the staff at Truly decided to introduce soft serve with caviar.

“We sold more caviar on ice cream than we did caviar on pizza that weekend. People were super into it, and I’ll never understand why,” he says. “People couldn’t get enough of it.

The message? Experiment. Be creative.

“Whatever you think isn’t going to work, you’ll be really surprised,” Decker says. “Because I thought, ‘We’re going to sell out of this caviar (pizza), and we’re not even going to have any more for ice cream, and it was the other way around.’”

Know When to Pivot

As important as it is to know what is working, it’s equally important to understand when customers are just not into your idea. Decker thought he’d hit gold when he put The Ciccio on the appetizer menu, calling it “the pizza before the pizza.” The light and airy tomato sauce pie has just a dusting of cheese and won’t fill you up. The problem? Customers just didn’t get the concept.

Once Truly moved the Pizza Tonda Romana off the appetizer list and added it to the regular menu, the restaurant went from selling eight of the pies per week to 80 per day.

KATE LAVIN is Senior Editor at Pizza Today.

To experience inspirational sessions like this one, sign up to be notified when registration opens for the International Pizza Expo.

Eager to get started improving business even sooner? Get notified when registration opens for Pizza Expo Columbus, taking place Oct. 11-12 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.