Paul Hibler

The Recognition Pitfire Artisan Pizza began in North Hollywood in 1997, with Hibler as founder; that same year, he co-founded Pitfire Pizza in Southern California. The achievement rests in a clear proposition: casual pizza could be treated with more care, stronger design, and a local social purpose. Hibler put it simply: "I remember wanting to create a higher-level casual pizza place." The brand’s motto, "Food, Art and Community," matched restaurants that featured unique design elements chosen with their surrounding neighborhoods in mind. His favorite dish at Pitfire is the Burrata Pie, a specific marker within a career built on making neighborhood restaurants feel intentional rather than interchangeable. Quick service, for Hibler, has never been only a format. "I don’t think quick service gets its due for being able to build a community around the brand." That sentence explains why the founder credit matters: the work joined food, design, and local identity in a model meant to gather people, not merely feed them quickly.

The Work

Behind It Neighborhood restaurant concepts built around food, design, and community are Hibler’s specialty. He founded American Gonzo Food Corporation in Venice, Los Angeles, a company that specializes in hyper-local neighborhood restaurants with top-tier food and design, with each location retaining a distinct sense of place. That same thinking runs through Superba. Hibler is owner of Superba Food and Bread, also styled Superba Food & Bread, in Venice, Los Angeles. Its menu includes an upscale breakfast sandwich made with linguiça, slow-cooked egg, and braised kale on housemade bread, a dish that shows the same interest in everyday formats handled with care. In 2012, he became partner at Superba Snack Bar in Venice. Hibler describes it as a pastaria with small plates that is casual but elevated, a phrase that fits the through-line of his work: accessible restaurants made with discipline in the details. His restaurant-building also includes founding Superba Food + Bread in El Segundo and opening American Beauty in Venice. Across those projects, the consistent subject is not a single cuisine or room style, but the making of places with a neighborhood address and a distinct point of view.

The Road The path behind the restaurants includes Stanford University, where Hibler received an economics degree, and work as a dishwasher. "I never thought I would be an owner of a quick-service restaurant brand; I actually received my economics degree at Stanford." That distance between training and outcome gives his career its shape. The founder of a pizza brand, the owner of a Venice bakery-restaurant, the partner in a small-plates pastaria, and the founder of a restaurant company all point back to one operating idea: restaurants can be local gathering places designed with purpose. Hibler has described the ambition in durable terms: "I’m trying to build a sustainable company, and there’s no doubt in my mind that I can build that company around bringing people together through food and experience."