Mark Lee built Mozzi's from a top-secret sauce.

In 1982, Mark Lee opened the first Mozzi's Pizza in Greenfield. He built it on three things: a top-secret pizza sauce he developed himself, a homemade dough recipe, and a willingness to feed Hancock County families one Friday night at a time.

What made Mozzi's stand out wasn't gimmickry. It was that the food was *good* — and consistent. Mark added locations one at a time as demand grew. By the early 2000s, Mozzi's had become a Hancock County institution. The Greenfield flagship — with its banquet room and basketball-themed Fieldhouse — was the place families went after games, after church, and on Friday nights when nobody felt like cooking.

Mark Lee passed away unexpectedly in 2016. The brand stayed open under different hands.

Greenfield Flagship

The Era That Almost Ended

"End of an Era," they called it.

By 2024, Mozzi's had drifted from what Mark built. New ownership had moved away from his original recipe. Quality slipped. Customers noticed. And in August 2024, the Greenfield flagship closed.

The Greenfield Daily Reporter ran a piece literally titled "End of an Era: Mozzi's Pizza closure marked by passionate public discourse." Hancock County wasn't done with Mozzi's. The community grieved a place where birthday parties had happened, where teams celebrated, where decades of pizza nights were lived.

A Mozzi's specialty pizza fresh from the oven

Reopened January 2026

The Comeback

The Vail family — and Mark's recipe — bring it back.

In December 2025, Ron and Rane Vail purchased Mozzi's. Lifelong Hancock County residents, the Vails have been running Vail's Classic Cars in Greenfield since 1985 — and were Mozzi's regulars for forty years before that.

The first thing they did was bring back Mark Lee's original recipe. The top-secret sauce, the homemade dough, the cinnamon dessert pizza, the four-cheese calzone. Everything. Their daughter, Victoria Johnson, runs the business as General Manager. And the brand is back — with the same locations across Greenfield, New Palestine, and Fortville, and the same pizza Hancock County grew up on.

"Original Mozzi's reopens under new owners with deep local roots," the Daily Reporter wrote in January 2026. That's exactly what it is. Same recipe. Same kitchens. Same Hancock County families running them.

What We Won't Compromise On

The four things Mark Lee got right.

The Original Recipe

Top-secret sauce. Homemade dough. Same as 1982. We didn't tweak it. We restored it.

Real Ingredients

Fresh mozzarella. Hand-rolled meatballs. Real produce. The cheese blend Mark spec'd in '82.

Local Owners

Vails in Greenfield. Rob Smith in New Pal. Andy Clifton in Fortville. Hancock County, all four.

Family Service

The Vails. Their daughter Victoria. A team of locals. We answer the phone ourselves.

The Trophy Case

Best Pizza in Hancock County. Four years in a row.

Voted #1 by Hancock County readers in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. We don't put that on the sign. But we work hard to keep it true.

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Forty-two years. One recipe. Two families that wouldn't let it go.