FEBRUARY 2024

ECONOMICS & ENTERPRISE
That’s Amore
Tania’s looks to expand its ‘stuffed pizza’ footprint
BY PAUL NATINSKY
Above: Tania’s famous stuffed pizza.
Right: Amos Sheena with parents Muntaha and Ihsan.
Tania’s Pizza has long been an
iconic Royal Oak institution.
Nestled in an unassuming little
strip mall behind a Sunoco station at
the corner of 13 Mile Road and Crooks,
Tania’s has been dishing out its signature
stuffed pizza since 1987.
The then-beer and wine shop began
feeding hungry Kimball High
School (now Royal Oak High School)
students during their lunchbreak and
after school, then the high schoolers’
families on weekends and eventually
the broader community.
Today, the store has expanded into
an adjacent space, has added liquor
to its offerings and is moving forward
with plans to move its made-fromscratch
pies onto grocery shelves.
Despite its growth and ambitious
plans, Tania’s remains a family business.
Owner/operator Amos Sheena
runs Tania’s along with parents Ihsan
and Muntaha. Amos’ sister, Tania,
handles the accounting, invoicing and
other administrative duties. One other
brother is a minority partner, and another
is not presently involved in
the business.
Ihsan says all four children
worked for the business until
they were married. Ihsan chose to
name the store for Tania, his only
daughter and eldest child.
Amos returned to Tania’s after
graduating from college and starting
a career in financial planning. He
intends to expand the business and
provide members of the community
with career opportunities. He hopes his
legacy will be sharing the business opportunity
and a positive work culture
with a larger family—the community.
However, Tania’s and its stuffed
pizza almost never happened. Ihsan
worked selling real estate and operated
grocery, beer-and-wine, and liquor
stores in Detroit beginning in 1969. He
ultimately sold his liquor store and
began delivering pizzas for Domino’s
Pizza with an eye toward becoming a
franchisee.
Then fate intervened. The Domino’s
opportunity never materialized. At
the same time, the business that was
housed in the space Tania’s now occupies
was going broke and selling. It was
a beer-and-wine store that sold pizza.
Ihsan and Muntaha took the money
from the liquor store sale slated for a
Domino’s franchise and put it toward
buying the failing Roberto’s store.
Ihsan had a longstanding fascination
with pizza. He was now free to
develop his unique blend of dough,
sauce, cheese, and spices. He read
trade magazines, talking to suppliers
and other vendors. He worked with
Muntaha to develop the stuffed pizza
that only Tania’s serves.
The pizza from Tania’s is difficult
to describe. It is stuffed, but not super
thick like Chicago-style pizza. It has
a buttery, light, but sturdy crust and
a construction that stays together in
one’s hand. Tania’s pizza is delicious
and addictive. Connoisseurs of Detroitarea
pizza will not find anything like
it. Not even close.
Ihsan says many pizzerias over the
years have tried unsuccessfully to imitate
Tania’s pies. Amos, who says the
recipe can be taught and the ingredients
acquired, isn’t worried about anyone
succeeding in eclipsing Tania’s.
The business is about more than the
pizza, he says.
Tania’s works with Royal Oak High
School administration to help students
learn about business and sponsors
sports teams and other community
ventures.
Involvement in the community is
a direct outgrowth of traditional Chaldean
culture for Ihsan, Muntaha, and
family, who still get together every
Sunday.
As Tania’s professional family
grows, it will take the road less traveled.
Instead of expanding into multiple
carry-out locations or sit-down
restaurants, Tania’s has begun to
move into the grocery and grocerydelivery
space.
Amos says Tania’s has received
the USDA approval needed to sell
meat products in grocery operations.
This allows Tania’s to sell
cook-at-home pizzas through grocery
outlets. The pizzas are sold
fresh, not frozen, in a vacuum
seal-looking package that Amos
says gives the pies a long shelf life,
verified by lab-testing. They cook
fast, in 6-12 minutes, and retain the
quality and flavor of the cooked-toorder
version (I home-tested one).
Tania’s has arrangements with two
Door Dash-owned stores that supply
grocery items to the delivery service.
Amos is working to get Tania’s into
traditional grocery stores and expects
this to happen “soon.”
Even in grocery expansion, Amos
says Tania’s considers family values.
Rather than ordering a pizza to go or
going out to a pizza restaurant, Tania’s
business plans encourage families to
cook pizzas at home and spend time
together, he says.
The story continues for the pizza
place that almost wasn’t. And it continues
its own way, keeping family and
community values at its core.
30 CHALDEAN NEWS FEBRUARY 2024