So, I want to thank the people for chiming in to say we want to support the business and all the customers coming in and supporting us. That’s what I really want to.”

CEO and President Randall Winger

Broadway Pizza
909 Vermillion St.
Hastings, MN 55033
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Hastings welcomed a new face to its dining scene earlier this summer, and last week, Broadway Pizza officially marked its arrival with a ribbon cutting event that drew an unexpectedly large crowd. CEO and President Randall Winger, who also serves as one of three owners of the franchise, stood before the gathering to thank the community for its support and to reflect on the journey that brought the restaurant to town. Winger is joined in ownership by partners Ron Erickson and Ron Crank, though he is the one actively managing the franchise.
“I’m the CEO, President and part owner,” he said, adding with a smile that the others are “kind of silent partners.” The Hastings location, which sits in the former Green Mill space, had been on Winger’s radar for some time. “My girlfriend Stephanie Frederick and I had come here when it was still a Green Mill. We thought the location was great,” Winger explained. “And then next thing you know, they’re closing up after 20 years in business. We would maybe see Pat Regan down at the Confluence, and we started talking about the lease and getting one together. It took a while, but with my girlfriend just living across the way, and being around Hastings, thinking that it’s a good market, it turned out it was. It’s been a very good decision so far.”
Broadway Pizza quietly opened its doors with invite-only events on May 16 and 17, giving staff and management a chance to settle in before the official opening day on May 19. Winger recalls those first days as hectic but rewarding, a time when the dining room was packed and customers were eager to try the menu.
“The comments on the food have been tremendous,” he said. “Obviously, right off the bat, service is a little slow because you’re super busy and everybody’s new. But the food overall, the comments have been great.”
Delivery and takeout proved to be strong right away, surprising even Winger. “One of our best delivery stores right now,” he said proudly. “And the takeout is good. Just like any restaurant, you have some old hiccups, obviously. We’ve had them and we are just getting to some of the fine tuning.”
To help smooth out those early wrinkles, Broadway Pizza brought in a kitchen manager from the Blaine store, someone who has been immersed in the business for years. Winger credits that experience with making noticeable improvements.
“We brought in a kitchen manager from our Blaine store that has, I think, eight to 10 years of experience with his dad as a kitchen manager. So, he’s been trained by a dad, right? And it’s up to this point, probably been our best store,” Winger said.
Still, he is quick to acknowledge that none of the progress would have been possible without patience from the Hastings community. “I want to thank the community for having patience with us to get through some a little bit of slower service times across the way, and also on social media,” Winger said. “The good comments talking about the bad comments and saying, you know, they’re brand new. You know, a couple of them were like, the second or third day, and right then people are backing us up. Let’s try to support the business. So, I want to thank the people for chiming in to say we want to support the business and all the customers coming in and supporting us. That’s what I really want to.”
By late summer, service times had already improved. “I think it’s tremendously faster because of all the experience plus the kitchen manager that we brought in,” Winger said, before stopping to reflect honestly. “Is it perfect? No. But it’s a lot faster than it was.”
And truth be told, it was faster, significantly faster. Even with a busy dining room over lunch, the addition of the chamber crowd caused no delays in getting lunch. The solo pizza ordered was out before the interview even started.
The ribbon cutting event, held months after the official opening, gave Winger and his team a chance to pause and celebrate. What struck him most was not the formality of the ceremony, but the size and spirit of the crowd that gathered to welcome them.
“It means the world to me and Broadway, all our corporate team,” he said. “The amount of people that turned out for the ribbon cutting is probably the most that I’ve seen. I really wasn’t expecting that.” Hastings, he admitted, knows how to do ribbon cuttings right.
“I am surprised and very appreciative of how many people showed up to support that moving shot. I didn’t expect it.”
As the restaurant settles into its new home, Winger is already looking ahead. Football season is around the corner, and Broadway Pizza plans to offer specials that make game days even more festive for fans.
“Just stay tuned this fall for football specials,” he said. “And hopefully we can have a great fall with the city of Hastings and do a great job for them. We’re all about doing a good job and bringing you in to serve customers at Hastings and let us know if we need to make some improvements.”
That openness to feedback is something Winger values, not just as a business practice but as a philosophy. From his perspective, a restaurant’s success depends on more than recipes and service times. It depends on relationships, on the steady give and take between the people making the food and the people enjoying it.
And if the turnout at the ribbon cutting was any sign, those relationships are already off to a strong start. Hastings showed up, Broadway Pizza noticed, and now the stage is set for many shared meals in the years to come.