Me-n-Ed’s is a Fresno staple. Meet the brothers behind it and their other restaurants
Fresno's Restaurant Royalty is a Fresno Bee series that tells the stories of eight of the city’s most prominent restaurant families. Have a tip? Email bclough@fresnobee.com.
You can’t talk about Fresno restaurants without talking about Me-n-Ed’s Pizzeria.
Today, the Ferdinandi brothers — John and A. Tom Jr. — are behind about 60 Me-n-Ed’s in California.
The parent company of the pizzerias, Milano Restaurants International, also owns or franchises Piazza Del Pane, eight Blast & Brew locations, Me-n-Ed’s Victory Grill at Granite Park and Me-n-Ed’s Coney Island Bar and Grill in River Park.
The Ferdinandis are part of The Bee’s series focusing on local restaurant families with several locations and often multiple generations involved that have shaped the Fresno restaurant scene.
The first Me-n-Ed’s was founded in 1958 in Sacramento. (The “Me” in the name is Russ Johnson, brother of Shakey Johnson of Shakey’s Pizza.)
The Ferdinandi family didn’t found Me-n-Ed’s. Instead, the brothers’ dad, Tom Ferdinandi Sr., and his father were focused on tuxedos in the 1950s, running Ferdinandi Formal Wear on Fulton Street. (Said his obituary: “Everyone knew that ‘Ferd’s the Wurd’ when it came to dressing up in Fresno.”)
Eventually Tom Sr. and partner Jim DeMera bought Me-n-Ed’s locations in Hanford and on Blackstone Avenue in Fresno. They would go on to take over the chain and oversee massive growth.
The brothers who run the company today each had their own careers in finance before joining the family business.
The grandsons of immigrants, they were not the first restaurateurs in the family. An aunt and uncle ran the Rossi Pizza House in the old Fresno Farmers Market downtown in the ’70s and ’80s, along with the former Carriage House restaurant in Fig Garden Village.
Me-n-Ed’s turns 66 this year. But the parent company has riffed on the pizza and beer theme to create several more restaurants to keep up with the times.
There are Me-n-Ed’s On Tap locations with more than 30 taps of self-serve beer. Blast & Brew locations, a step up from the typical pizza joint, opened with “sophisticated comfort food” and self-serve beer taps. And during the pandemic when dining rooms were shut down, the family launched the delivery-only Cooped Up Wings.
Some of the restaurants are franchised, but the company still owns 75% of its businesses. And they don’t plan to slow down, John Ferdinandi said.
“You have to be constantly building your brand, staying in front of people. You can’t sit on your laurels at all,” he said. “You have to be very ready to react to a changing market, competitors.”
The brothers, who are 18 months apart, say they work well together.
“It’s almost like an engine and a caboose,” he said.
John is the innovator with new concepts and Tom makes sure the train doesn’t fall off the tracks, he said.
