MICHAEL

VAKNEEN

At the age of 29, Michael Vakneen opened his first business - Pop Up Pizza located inside the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Downtown, Las Vegas. Michael’s background out of college started in real estate leasing and moving into acquisitions. This 5-year experience led to working as the director of development for a real estate and restaurant group allowing Michael to parlay his degree and work experience. A few years later the hotel he opened his first business in reached out to help refresh the brand he originally started. This project also included a menu refresh to reflect multiple pizza styles including Detroit, grandma, Sicilian, and newly upgraded NY. After this initial scope of work, Michael was asked to do the same for all the fast casual outlets on property that were being acquired by the hotel. In addition, Michael designed and refreshed the coffee shop brand and store design, also negotiated a deal to buy out the remaining F&B tenants on property to bring them under the Hotels portfolio of F&B outlets.

In early 2020, Michael began a pizza focused consulting business to help new operators get into the industry. “I am passionate about helping struggling operators get back on track and also to help existing operators improve their efficiencies, costs, recipe development, menu engineering, brand strategy, staff training along with leadership/culture development”.

Between consulting and long lasting relationships with colleagues John Arena and Chris Decker, Michael is partnering up to create Truly Pizza located in Dana Point, CA. This new pizzeria will focus on a changing seasonal menu and working with California farmers and artisans to bring an elevated pizza experience to southern California. Additionally, Michael is working on opening a Neapolitan style pizzeria that will be a progressive approach to the classics where pizza was born. Both projects come online spring of 2023.

On an equally passionate note, Michael and his wife Joanna developed their own startup food brand in 2021. “We always wanted to share our childhood staples rooted in our Moroccan heritage”. This led to the launch of the first-ever squeezable harissa hot sauce and marinade to hit the market with additional product lines on the way. The vision for The Hamsa Brand is to develop a pantry collection of shelf stable condiments that encourage and empower home cooks to make food with chef quality sauces, spices, and oils. The Hamsa Brand is currently selling on premier retail platforms online such as Food52 and on the gourmet grocery store shelves of Erewhon Market with 7 locations around the Los Angeles area. This past November the Hamsa team signed their first national distributor deal for 2023 to launch with the premier gourmet foods distributor, Chefs Warehouse.

Accolades / Awards

-2nd place. World. Non traditional category. 2022 IPE

-1st place. USA. Non traditional category. 2022 IPE

-1 st place. World. International Italian sandwich contest. 2023 IPE

-2nd place. World. Non traditional category. 2023 IPE

-3rd place. World. Roman division. 2023 PPNE

-1stplace. prelimanary, non traditional. 2024 IPE

- 2nd place World. Non traditional. 2024 IPE

-Best Pizza Las Vegas Review Journal

-Thrillist Top Pizza in Las Vegas

-Eater Top Pizza in Las Vegas

-Vegas Weekly Top Pizza