Stoner’s Pizza Joint announced on May 1, 2026 the launch of the Pesto Paradise Pizza, a limited-time offering available at participating locations from May 4 through June 28, 2026. The pizza features a pesto base topped with chicken, fresh spinach, diced tomatoes, feta, and whole-milk mozzarella. Stoner’s Rewards members receive $3 off their first Pesto Paradise Pizza when ordering through the Stoner’s app. John Stetson, CEO, is the spokesperson. Stoner’s Pizza Joint was founded in 2013 and operates 55 locations across the Southeast, Texas, and Colorado, with 10 more units in development. The brand is known for fresh, made-in-house dough, sauces, and cheese blends prepared daily.
The Pesto Paradise Pizza: A Non-Tomato Sauce Platform at a Growing Fast-Casual Chain
The Pesto Paradise Pizza’s most sourcing-significant element is the pesto base, not the toppings. The majority of Stoner’s menu, like most pizza brands, is built on a tomato sauce platform. Pesto represents an alternative sauce system requiring an entirely different set of ingredients: basil, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan or Romano cheese, and pine nuts or an alternative nut base (walnuts and sunflower seeds are common commercial substitutions for pine nuts given their lower cost and supply consistency).
Pesto at commercial pizza production scale is typically sourced as a pre-made pesto sauce from a food-grade pesto manufacturer rather than produced in-house, particularly for a franchise system like Stoner’s where consistency across 55-plus locations is a production requirement. The sauce must perform as a pizza base: it needs sufficient viscosity to spread without running, enough oil content to prevent drying during the bake, and a basil and garlic intensity that survives oven temperatures without burning or fading.
The whole-milk mozzarella specification is consistent with Stoner’s brand-wide commitment to quality cheese inputs. Whole-milk mozzarella contains a higher fat content than part-skim mozzarella, delivering more richness, a creamier melt, and better stretch on the pizza. For a franchise chain producing daily at 55-plus locations, whole-milk mozzarella is a more expensive input than part-skim but is increasingly the standard at fast-casual pizza brands positioning themselves above the commodity pizza tier.
The feta addition is the most distinctive topping from a sourcing standpoint. Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made from sheep’s milk or a sheep and goat milk blend, with Protected Designation of Origin status in the EU for Greek feta. For U.S. foodservice applications, domestic feta is typically made from cow’s milk at a considerably lower price point than imported Greek feta. In a pizza application, feta behaves differently from mozzarella: it does not melt into a smooth layer but instead softens and develops a creamy, salty flavor concentration during baking. For Stoner’s ingredient procurement team, feta in a pizza application requires a foodservice portion-controlled crumbled or block format at a consistent salinity and moisture specification across all franchise locations.
Stoner’s Growth Trajectory and What It Means for Its Supplier Base
The Pesto Paradise Pizza announcement runs in the same week as two other Stoner’s press releases: four new location openings including Kansas City and Dallas, and eight new committed franchise units in Orlando. The brand is in active, rapid multi-market expansion, adding locations in the Southeast, Texas, Colorado, and now the Midwest and Florida simultaneously.
That expansion trajectory is the most important context for interpreting any Stoner’s product launch. At 55 current locations with 18-plus new units in active development, Stoner’s ingredient procurement program is scaling rapidly. A pesto LTO launched across 55 locations in May 2026 will be a pesto LTO across potentially 70-plus locations by the time the next LTO cycle begins. For ingredient suppliers qualifying Stoner’s as a food service account, the growth curve makes the procurement relationship more valuable than the current location count suggests.
Stoner’s in-house dough program is the brand’s most distinctive operational commitment. Fresh dough made daily at each location is an unusual choice for a franchise pizza system, where most operators use pre-portioned frozen or par-baked dough delivered from a central commissary. In-house daily dough production requires enriched wheat flour inputs at a consistent protein content and specification delivered on a daily or multi-day replenishment cycle to 55-plus locations, creating a sustained high-frequency flour procurement program that is structurally different from a centralized dough supply chain.
The $3 App Promotion and Stoner’s Digital Loyalty Strategy
The Stoner’s Rewards app offer ($3 off the first Pesto Paradise Pizza for members) is consistent with a loyalty-driven LTO launch strategy we have seen across multiple QSR brands this week: BJ’s Wagyu Burger timed to National Burger Month, Freddy’s Dr Pepper Frost with app-exclusive early access, and Chipotle’s $0 delivery promotion for the Honey Chicken return. The pattern is the same across all of them: use a new menu item to drive app enrollment and engagement, use the app discount to increase trial of the new item, and use the trial occasion to convert new customers into repeat visitors.
For a 55-location regional chain in active expansion, the Stoner’s app is also a franchise-wide order aggregation tool that gives the brand visibility into demand patterns across all locations. The Pesto Paradise Pizza’s LTO window gives the brand a concrete demand data point for a non-tomato-sauce pizza at its current franchise scale, which directly informs whether a pesto platform is worth pursuing as a permanent menu addition in future menu cycles.
Why It Matters for Pesto, Feta, Whole-Milk Mozzarella, and Fresh Spinach Ingredient Suppliers
Stoner’s Pizza Joint’s Pesto Paradise Pizza launch from May 4 through June 28, 2026 at 55-plus participating locations creates a concentrated seven-week demand event for commercial pesto sauce at the pizza base viscosity and flavor specification required for a daily fresh-dough pizza production program, alongside a simultaneous procurement requirement for feta cheese in a foodservice crumbled or block format, fresh spinach at the portion specification for pizza topping application, and whole-milk mozzarella at the melt and stretch specification consistent with Stoner’s brand-wide premium cheese standard. For pesto sauce manufacturers and Italian specialty ingredient distributors serving the fast-casual pizza segment, the Pesto Paradise Pizza is the first non-tomato sauce LTO at Stoner’s, creating a new application category for pesto at a franchise chain in active rapid expansion across the Southeast, Texas, Colorado, and now Kansas City and Orlando.
The feta cheese requirement for a pizza topping application at Stoner’s 55-plus locations creates a demand for domestic or imported feta at the salinity, moisture, and crumble specification required for consistent portioning across a daily made-to-order pizza production program in a fresh-dough franchise environment. For feta and specialty cheese distributors serving fast-casual pizza chains, Stoner’s Pesto Paradise creates a new feta procurement program within a brand that otherwise operates on a mozzarella-primary cheese platform, opening a specialty cheese supply relationship at a chain that will reach 65-plus locations before the end of 2026.
The fresh spinach topping requirement adds a leafy green produce input to Stoner’s daily fresh ingredient procurement program, requiring a consistent delivery cycle for fresh spinach at a portion and quality specification that maintains visual appeal and texture integrity when applied to a pizza pre-bake at Stoner’s daily production temperatures. For produce distributors serving fast-casual pizza operators in the Southeast and Texas, Stoner’s fresh spinach requirement during the LTO window is a new daily produce procurement line alongside the brand’s existing fresh tomato, pepper, and produce topping inputs.
FAQs
What is the Pesto Paradise Pizza? A limited-time Stoner’s Pizza Joint offering featuring a pesto base topped with chicken, fresh spinach, diced tomatoes, feta, and whole-milk mozzarella. Available at participating locations from May 4 through June 28, 2026.
How do you get $3 off? Stoner’s Rewards members get $3 off their first Pesto Paradise Pizza when ordering through the Stoner’s Pizza Joint app. New members can sign up for free at stonerspizzajoint.com.
How big is Stoner’s Pizza Joint? 55 locations across the Southeast, Texas, and Colorado. 10 more units in development. Founded 2013 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Known for fresh, made-in-house dough, sauces, and cheese blends prepared daily.
What is the brand’s current growth trajectory? Stoner’s announced four new openings in the same week as this LTO, including its first Kansas City location, and eight committed units in Orlando. The brand is in active multi-market expansion.
About Source86
Stoner’s Pizza Joint’s Pesto Paradise Pizza launch reflects active demand for commercial pesto sauce at the pizza base viscosity and flavor specification for a fresh-dough daily production pizza program across a growing fast-casual franchise, feta cheese in foodservice crumbled or block format at the salinity and moisture specification for a pizza topping application, fresh spinach on a daily produce replenishment cycle for a made-to-order pizza topping program, whole-milk mozzarella at the melt and stretch specification supporting Stoner’s brand-wide premium cheese standard across all LTO and core menu applications, enriched wheat flour on a high-frequency daily delivery cycle for Stoner’s in-house fresh dough production program at all participating franchise locations, and diced tomato inputs for pizza topping application at fresh-ingredient daily preparation standards. At Source86, we connect fast-casual pizza operators, growing franchise systems, and foodservice ingredient distributors with trusted bulk and wholesale sourcing partners for pesto and specialty Italian sauce systems, feta and specialty cheese in foodservice formats, fresh produce on daily replenishment cycles, whole-milk mozzarella, enriched flour for fresh dough programs, and the ingredient sourcing infrastructure that supports daily fresh-ingredient pizza production at multi-unit fast-casual franchise scale.
Whether your production team sources commercial pesto for a pizza sauce application, feta for a fast-casual topping program, or whole-milk mozzarella at a fresh-dough pizza franchise specification, Source86 is your bridge to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.
