Cascadia Pizza Co., the American Crafted Wood Fired Pizza™ brand founded in Washington state in 2015, has returned to Square as its unified commerce platform after reassessing the technology company’s expanded restaurant and franchise capabilities. The move represents a significant step in Cascadia’s efforts to create a more connected operating system as the business continues to expand across multiple formats and markets.
What started as a single food truck has developed into a growing multi-format restaurant business that includes 17 corporate restaurants, franchise locations, food trucks, and event catering operations. Today, Cascadia Pizza Co. operates across Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, and Texas, giving the brand a diverse footprint and a complex range of technology requirements.
In 2026, Cascadia brought its core restaurant technology back onto Square, implementing Square for Restaurants, Square Franchise Suite, and a comprehensive hardware ecosystem across its various operating formats. By consolidating these functions on one platform, the company aims to improve operational visibility, streamline management, and create a stronger technology foundation for continued franchise growth.
From a Food Truck to a Growing Restaurant Brand
Cascadia Pizza Co. was built around a simple idea: exceptional pizza, prepared with traditional techniques and quality regional ingredients, is best enjoyed with family, friends, and the wider community.
The company’s journey began with a food truck equipped with a wood-fired oven imported from Italy. Co-Owners Thomas Reinhard, Christian Buck, and Calvin Freatman developed the concept around old-world pizza-making methods while incorporating ingredients and influences from the Pacific Northwest.
Locally sourced produce, wood used to fuel the ovens, and house-made recipes became important elements of the Cascadia identity. The brand eventually transformed its original food-truck concept into brick-and-mortar restaurants while also developing a growing franchise business.
That expansion brought new operational challenges. Managing corporate restaurants alongside franchise locations, mobile food trucks, and catering operations requires technology that can provide consistency without limiting the flexibility needed by individual locations and formats.
Cascadia had previously used Square during the earlier stages of its development. However, as the business became more sophisticated, it moved to another platform to accommodate its expanding restaurant and franchise requirements.
As Square continued developing its restaurant and franchise products, Cascadia’s leadership decided to take another look at the platform.
For Reinhard, the reevaluation highlighted how substantially Square had evolved since Cascadia’s initial relationship with the company. Rather than simply providing mobile payment capabilities, Square had developed a broader ecosystem designed to support restaurants operating across multiple locations and business models.
“Cascadia operates everything from brick-and-mortar restaurants to food trucks and franchise locations, so we needed technology that could work across all of those environments while giving our team the visibility to grow,” said Thomas Reinhard, Co-Owner of Cascadia Pizza Co.
“We had used Square earlier in our journey, when our business needs were less complex. But seeing how much Square’s full-service restaurant and franchise platform has advanced gave us full confidence that it was the right partner to support the next stage of Cascadia’s growth.”
A Unified Technology Platform Across Formats
One of the most important considerations for Cascadia was finding technology capable of supporting its different operating environments through a unified system.
The company’s business includes traditional dine-in restaurants, counter-service operations, patio service, food trucks, and large-scale event catering. Each format presents different requirements for payments, ordering, kitchen operations, connectivity, and customer engagement.
Square’s hardware ecosystem allows Cascadia to use technology suited to each environment while maintaining a common platform.
Square Register and Square Stand support restaurant and counter-service operations, while Square Handheld provides greater mobility for patio service and line-busting. Square KDS helps coordinate kitchen workflows, while kitchen printers can be used at locations where printed order information remains necessary.
Mobile operations represent another important area for Cascadia. Food trucks and catering units frequently operate outside traditional restaurant environments, where internet connectivity can be inconsistent. Square’s offline capabilities give these teams additional flexibility when operating at events or in locations where connectivity is limited.
For a company that combines permanent restaurants with mobile and event-based operations, maintaining reliable technology across these environments can help reduce operational fragmentation.
Supporting Franchise Growth
As Cascadia continues to expand its franchise business, centralized oversight has become increasingly important.
Square Franchise Suite gives the company’s corporate leadership centralized reporting and menu orchestration capabilities across corporate-owned and franchise locations. At the same time, franchisees can maintain their individual Square accounts, allowing them to operate their businesses while remaining connected to the broader franchise ecosystem.
Multi-location reporting gives Cascadia the ability to aggregate performance information across its locations and examine results based on different criteria, including geographic region and corporate versus franchise ownership.
For leadership, this visibility can provide a clearer picture of how individual restaurants and regions are performing. It can also help the organization identify trends and make decisions as the franchise network becomes larger and more geographically diverse.
Menu management is another important component for a growing franchise organization. Centralized capabilities can help Cascadia maintain greater consistency while managing the operational differences that can exist among individual locations.
The company is also using Square’s customer engagement tools to strengthen its relationship with guests. Square Loyalty, Square Gift Cards, and Square Marketing are part of the technology ecosystem supporting Cascadia’s customer engagement strategy.
Delivery integrations with Uber Eats and Postmates further extend the platform’s role beyond in-store transactions, connecting restaurant operations with off-premise ordering channels.
Technology Designed for the Next Chapter
Cascadia’s decision to return to Square illustrates how restaurant technology requirements can change as a business evolves. A platform that may initially serve the needs of a small food truck can eventually need to support a complex network of restaurants, franchises, catering units, and mobile operations.
For Cascadia, the return to Square is based on the belief that the platform now provides the infrastructure necessary to manage that complexity while supporting future expansion.
“Cascadia Pizza Co. is one of the most operationally complex restaurant stories we get to tell, with all concepts running on our single platform across five states,” said James Schonzeit, Head of Food & Beverage at Square.
“Thomas’ advanced operating model required powerful infrastructure to scale, and Square’s evolution gave Cascadia a compelling reason to come back. That trust is something we take seriously, and we’re committed to being the foundation that continues to grow and innovate along with them.”
With its restaurant network continuing to expand and its franchise strategy gaining momentum, Cascadia Pizza Co. is positioning technology as an important part of its next phase.
The company’s return to Square brings its corporate restaurants, franchise operations, food trucks, and catering activities into a more unified technology environment. By combining restaurant management, franchise oversight, hardware, kitchen operations, customer engagement, reporting, and delivery integrations, Cascadia aims to create a scalable foundation capable of supporting its evolving business.
From its beginnings as a Washington food truck to its growing presence across five states, Cascadia’s story reflects the operational transformation that accompanies restaurant growth. Its renewed partnership with Square is intended to help the brand manage that complexity while preserving the flexibility and craftsmanship that have defined Cascadia Pizza Co. since its founding.
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