It is a family affair at one of the best pizza places in Fort Lauderdale.

Omar and Nicole Maldonado are the owners of Coast To Coast Pizza Company along with their children Omar III and Madison. Coast To Coast, which was recently featured on Deco Drive, is located at the Victoria Park Shoppes.

This is the second location for Coast To Coast Pizza Company, which was started in Marathon, in the Florida Keys, in 2022.

“We really like the area. I knew the Las Olas area was nice, and Nicole had a lot of good memories growing up and coming up here. When this location became available, we jumped on it,” Omar explained.

Omar (who is from Detroit) and Nicole (who is from Marathon) originally met in Tampa and started their restaurant career when they worked together and opened the Macaroni Grill location on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

Their life together has led them on an adventure that has taken them all over the country from Florida to Michigan to California and now back to Florida. They both have a long list of amazing accomplishments along the way.

Omar, who has been with several impressive companies over his career including Philip Morris and Dr. Pepper, always worked his way up and held important roles. Nicole, who graduated from U.S.F. and the Thomas Cooley Law School in Lansing, MI, is a practicing attorney for over twenty-five years.

Omar started his career with Dr. Pepper in Orlando in 2004 while Nicole worked as an assistant public defender for Orange County where she gained a lot of trial experience and won a lot of cases.

“In 2007, I interviewed for National Account Executive for Costco at Cadberry Schweppes, and I got it,” Omar said.

The family re-located to Southern California and the Redondo Beach area.

“I loved it because I worked at home and could come and go as I wanted. The kids were younger so I was able to take care of them and take them to their sports,” Omar said.

Omar got promoted to Director of Regional Accounts for the Kroger team in the West. Nicole was busy working for a law firm in West LA near Santa Monica where she eventually became partner.

Nicole handled mass tort litigation involving pharmaceutical and medical device companies for injuries sustained to consumers and patients.

“I was a check and balance in the system, and it was important work to keep these large companies in check. My firm was responsible for getting black box warnings on pharmaceutical drug labels,” Nicole said.

In 2021, after Nicole’s mother passed away in Marathon, Nicole decided she wanted to come back to the Florida Keys in order to care for her dad. Nicole reminded Omar that he always wanted to have his own restaurant. So, they started looking.

“That’s when we bought the S.S. Wreck & Galley Grill (in Marathon), and we closed on it in July, 2021,” Omar said. “Everything is the same, but we added a few things to the menu like fresh fish. We are using better ingredients, and we have doubled the sales.”

After hearing many people around town wanting a good pizza place in Marathon, the Maldonados bought a sandwich shop and turned it into Coast To Coast Pizza Company. The rest, as they say, is history.

The community loved it.

“Did I think I was going to get into pizza … No,” Omar said.

“It seemed fairly easy to manage and had good margins. Then, it really took off with Dave Portnoy (of Barstool Sports) coming in. He gave us a good rating, and everyone started to come down to see the place.”

What separates Coast To Coast Pizza Company from other places is the quality and how they do it.

“It’s the dough. We use good quality ingredients and do things the right way. The flour in our dough is amazing,” Omar emphasized. We moved to a non-bleach, non-bromated flour and now it is coming from regenerative farmers. We shred our own cheese, and the sauces are all homemade. At heart, I am a foodie. I want people to come in and enjoy the experience and enjoy the food.”

Another area of importance for their success is a great culture for their employees.

“We have been lucky to keep the bulk of our employees,” Nicole says. “It is about giving them a great environment to work in. We let them know that we appreciate them.”

Moving ahead, Omar and Nicole want to open more locations so they have a track record and can build off of their experience.

“Long term, my real goal is to help veterans who are transitioning from the military to get into their own pizza shop,” Omar, a veteran himself, says. I will help them and want them to have a path to ownership.”

Omar and Nicole are excited about the future and being able to work together as a family.

“It is a breath of fresh air to be in this business with your family and then to be able to make people happy,” Nicole says.