Industry Restaurant Chain Headquarters Taipei, Taiwan Website alleycatspizza.com | Founded 2004 Products Pizza, calzones | |
Key people Alan Pontes, Mark Thomas | ||
Alleycat's Pizza, usually referred to simply as Alleycat's, is a pizzeria chain restaurant that started in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2004. From its humble origins in the tiny basement level of a building on Lishui Street, it has expanded to nine locations throughout Taipei.
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History
Alleycat's was started in 2004 by Alan Pontes, a South African immigrant with Italian family roots. The dearth of Italian pizza available in Taiwan gave Pontes the idea of starting his own pizza restaurant, featuring a masonry oven. Addressing a long-felt need among the foreign population for more traditional pizza varieties (as opposed to the locally popular toppings based on East Asian cuisine), it was an immediate success. A second location opened in Neihu in early 2006, quickly followed by a third in the former VFW post building in Tienmu.
The original Lishui Street basement location was closed in 2006 when a street-level space in an adjacent building became available.
In 2007, Pontes briefly left Taiwan, and the chain was sold to Mark Thomas. Pontes has since returned, and has started a new restaurant chain, Yuma Southwest Grill.
Signage
Alleycat's signage is simply the name in red-on-black lettering in a stylized font. Although the chain has used various drawings for promotions from time to time, it does not use a logo.