Parker John’s opens new restaurant in Stevens Point

Lori Jayne Carlson

Contributor

December 8, 2025

STEVENS POINT – Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza recently opened its sixth location in Stevens Point – a region Director of Training and Marketing Jordan Saunders said owners Aaron and Jennifer Sloma viewed as having untapped potential.

Saunders said the new location in Stevens Point, far enough from their existing restaurants, gave the Slomas a chance to reach a new audience.

“Stevens Point immediately stood out as the right fit,” he said. “Its central location and proximity to major highways and interstates make it a great spot. We saw an incredible opportunity to bring our smoked BBQ and hospitality to a region we felt would appreciate it.”

Saunders said the process of opening in Stevens Point began with a remodel and rebrand of a preexisting space, with staff hiring completed in approximately a month.

“A core part of our philosophy is to promote managers from within, and we were proud to do that for Stevens Point,” he said. “Newly promoted managers stepped into leadership roles at our other locations, while our seasoned management team relocated to Stevens Point to lead the new restaurant.”

Saunders said training for hourly staff began a week before the opening. 

“Our front-of-the-house team trains in a classroom setting, working through our training manuals, practicing role-play scenarios and running service drills to perfect our steps of service,” he said. “Meanwhile, our kitchen team spends that week preparing our very prep-intensive menu and cooking through recipes daily. The entire team tastes these dishes throughout training, allowing everyone to learn the menu together and understand our quality standards.”

Saunders said the plan was to open in Stevens Point in fall 2025, and despite a whirlwind of training and remodeling, they were able to stay on target.

“Watching everything come together so quickly was an incredible experience and something our team will never forget,” he said.

Saunders said the Stevens Point opening marks the company’s most recent expansion since its launch in 2008.

“The Stevens Point community has been unbelievably welcoming,” he said. “There’s always excitement when a new restaurant opens, but the response we’ve seen has exceeded all expectations. We’ve been fortunate to operate at full capacity every day since our grand opening, and early feedback from guests shows Parker John’s is already becoming a local favorite.”

‘The right shoes’

Describing it as a “family-friendly pizza joint” that offered both lunch and dinner buffet dining,  Saunders said the first Parker John’s location opened in 2008 as Parker John’s Pizza – which was named after the owners’ son.

“They had a small play area with arcade games and things like that,” he said. “So, very geared toward families.”

By 2011, Saunders said the U.S. economy was navigating a recession.

“[Parker John’s Pizza’s] business really declined,” he said. “But something that had always been a part of the Solmas’ business model back then and still to this day is delivery – delivering food to people’s homes using our own delivery cars and drivers and staff.”

Determined to succeed, Saunders said the Solmas temporarily closed Parker John’s Pizza to rebrand the restaurant.

“They just had to give it the right shoes, so it could start running,” he said. “They bought a little Southern Pride smoker and reopened as Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza.

Saunders said those changes helped generate momentum for a new brand identity, and business really began to take off.

The business soon expanded, he said, starting with the purchase and conversion of an existing Menasha restaurant in 2015.

Saunders said the years between the rebrand and acquisition of the Menasha location were spent focused heavily on shaping and planning their expansion strategy.

And that included, he said, serving “really, really good-tasting food.”

“Something that has always been true to Jen and Aaron’s hearts in the restaurant industry is providing food that tastes really good,” he said.

Saunders said the original Parker John’s location – “it was a really tiny building with like 13 tables; our bar, if you could even call it that, had three barstools” – closed in 2024.

“As Parker John’s grew as a restaurant and as our offerings and menus expanded, we felt our Kiel restaurant wasn’t big enough to execute at a level that we needed it to,” he said.

Since setting up shop in Menasha, Saunders said Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza has expanded into Appleton, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Sheboygan and its most recent opening in Stevens Point.

Growing, growing, growing

Saunders – who has been with Parker John’s for 11 years – said when he joined the company, he knew the Solmas had bigger ambitions.

The entire leadership team at Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza, he said, is equally committed to continued growth.

“We want it to be successful,” he said. “We all share in that excitement of wanting the restaurant to grow and continue to develop our staff as we open up more locations. It’s fun to watch. It’s a good problem to have. Keep growing and growing and growing.”

As evidence of its growth, Saunders said the restaurant began with a small crew and the two owners.

Today, he said, Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza employs about 350 people across its six locations.

However, Saunders said growth came with its share of challenges.  

When they opened Parker John’s fourth location in Green Bay in 2020, Saunders said they did so under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that prevented dining rooms from opening. 

“We could only do carry-out and delivery,” he said. “That was a challenging one. We were working toward remodeling it. The whole pandemic happened, and we were faced with the challenge of making a decision. Do we have a restaurant that could open but choose not to and be stuck paying a mortgage on a property and staff who had already been hired? Or do we open under the conditions that we were able to and get by? So, we made the decision to open and do delivery and carry out. It was definitely the most unique opening that we’ve ever had as a restaurant, but it all worked out.”

Saunders said the situation was “unique” because there was no playbook for navigating restrictions as dining rooms first closed and later reopened with social-distancing requirements. 

Observing how other businesses adapted, Saunders said they made the decisions they felt were best for Parker John’s. 

Up next, Wausau… South Wisconsin?

Though the Stevens Point location opened only recently, Saunders said the team is already set to open Parker John’s seventh location in Wausau in 2026.

“We have really been embracing the community there, and it’s kind of our untapped market for us right now,” he said. “It’s far enough away that we are seeing a lot of people who are not as familiar with us. They haven’t heard of Parker John’s before, so it’s a whole new market for us.” 

Saunders said the goal is to keep locations close enough to manage efficiently, yet far enough apart to reach new markets.

Looking ahead, he said the company is considering expansion further south in Wisconsin.

“If we find a restaurant that needs a new group to come in and show love to it again, like we’ve done in the past, I think we would do that before building,” he said.

With building costs so high, Saunders said it’s far more cost-effective to take over an existing space and customize it than to construct a new building from scratch.

With a Wausau location expected to open in 2026 and plans for a potential southern Wisconsin site, Saunders said the restaurant’s expansion wasn’t entirely surprising.  

“Looking at numbers early on and comparing them to industry average numbers that get put out by restaurant magazines, our growth was always higher than what the industry average was,” he said. “So, that was a great sign. We were doing things right, and we were being accepted by the communities we existed in. I definitely knew it would be going in a positive direction.”

Culture matters

Saunders said any business, regardless of type, begins with the people working within it, emphasizing the importance of ensuring employees buy into the company culture.

“We have a very unique, guest-centered culture,” he said. “If you are our guests, we are going to do anything for you. We’re going to take care of you. We need to make sure that when you decide to dine out at a Parker John’s – knowing that there are tons of other options out there – that you feel appreciated from the second you walk into a restaurant all the way to the moment you’re leaving… Guests feel valued.”

 Finding the staff who will buy into that culture, Saunders said, has been crucial to Parker John’s growth and success.

A few years ago, Saunders said, the Solmas implemented a comprehensive benefits package for full-time employees, including partially paid health insurance and a company-matching 401(k).

Those offerings, he said, helped attract a different, more engaged type of workforce.

“We began attracting people who wanted this to be their career because they offered those kinds of benefits,” he said.

The benefits package, Saunders said, helped reduce turnover, drawing employees who were as dedicated to guest service as the owners and who felt comfortable and valued in the restaurants.

“They felt at home working for us and our restaurants,” he said. “I think that’s one thing we are doing right.” 

By valuing its staff, Saunders said Parker John’s can grow its team and promote from within. 

“A lot of managers who work for us now – they weren’t hired as managers,” he said. “A lot of our managers grew from within, and we are very proud of that.”

Cooks, Saunders said, have advanced to kitchen managers, while bartenders have moved up to supervisors, assistant managers and general managers.

The company, he said, provides clear career paths for employees who want to build a future in the restaurant industry.

Quality, consistency

In his experience, Saunders said good service alone isn’t enough to drive the kind of growth Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza has achieved.

“It’s the quality of food,” he said. “If you want people to come back to your restaurant, providing an inviting atmosphere and good service is only half of it. Providing food that tastes good – food that they want to come back and eat again [is just as important]. So, making sure we create consistent products, while still making them from scratch, like we did way back in 2008 and in 2011 when we rebranded – staying true to the foundation of Parker John’s.”

For more on Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza, head to parkerjohns.com.