Almanac Beer Co. is an Alameda, California craft brewery founded in 2010 by Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan. Known first for oak-aged sours and farm-to-barrel ales inspired by the Bay Area's seasonal produce, the company has reinvented itself as 'Almanac Adventureland' - a 30,000+ square-foot brewery, beer garden and family entertainment destination inside a restored 1940s naval hangar, complete with arcade games, sandboxes, pizza, food pop-ups and festivals that draw up to 3,000 visitors on a peak day.
Papa Gino's is a New England pizzeria chain known for its thin-crust pizza, pasta, and subs. Founded in East Boston in 1961 by Italian immigrant Michael Valerio and his wife Helen as a by-the-slice shop called Piece O' Pizza, it grew into a regional institution across Massachusetts and neighboring states. After a 2018 bankruptcy that shrank the chain dramatically, it was bought by Wynnchurch Capital and now operates roughly 78-79 locations, leaning on its New England roots and a 2026 partnership with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye to win back fans.
Amy's Kitchen is a family-owned, privately held organic food maker based in Petaluma, California. Founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner and named after their daughter, the company makes 250-plus vegetarian frozen and convenience meals - soups, burritos, pizzas, bowls and mac and cheese - all built from organic, non-GMO ingredients. A Certified B Corporation, Amy's has grown from a kitchen-table pot pie into a roughly billion-dollar retail brand without ever going public.
Terrence Morash is VP, Head of Marketing (Brand and Creative) at Slice, the New York-based technology platform powering independent pizzerias across the United States. A veteran creative and marketing leader with deep roots in digital advertising, he has shaped Slice's transformation from a consumer pizza-ordering app into a full-service B2B partner for local pizza shops - building brand campaigns, a loyalty program, a POS system launch, and the 'Slice of the Union' thought leadership series. Before Slice, Morash led creative at Shutterstock, where his trend-forecasting work reached global audiences, and held senior creative roles at Rosetta, Again Interactive, and Zeta Interactive.