A 10-inch pepperoni pizza and a can of soda for $5.99 sounds like a price tag from decades past, but it is the daily lunch special at Maly's Pizzeria, a month-old shop on North Maroa Avenue in Fresno. The deal runs every day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it is the centerpiece of a no-frills operation run by a husband-and-wife team who already spent nearly two decades building a pizza business before this one.
Maly's Pizzeria sits at 3131 N. Maroa Ave., and according to the Fresno Bee, the shop had been open about a month as of this week. Owners Doug and Maly Vang keep the lunch combo cheap by running a bare-bones setup and making much of their own food from scratch, including dough and sauces, the paper reports. The lobby reflects that same stripped-down approach: six white folding chairs for customers waiting on their orders, with walls covered in photos of menu items and prices.
A Second Act After Douggy Fresh Pizza
This is not the Vangs' first pizza venture. The couple owned Douggy Fresh Pizza for almost 20 years before selling it about a year before the Bee's article published, after health issues convinced them it was time to sell. Doug Vang told the paper the new restaurant tries to keep prices as low as possible, a philosophy that shows up in the $1 charge for a cup of ranch dressing or jalapeños and the 25-cent price for red pepper flakes or parmesan cheese.
Doug Vang's retirement did not last. Maly Vang tried getting another job after the sale but left it after just a month, telling the Fresno Bee she missed her customers. Doug Vang came out of retirement himself to join her at the new shop, and the business has become something of a family affair — one of the couple's college-age children, who attends Fresno State, helps out on weekends. The Vangs have four children together, two in college and two still under 18.
A Menu With Maly's Name On It
Beyond the lunch special, the menu carries a personal stamp. A seafood pizza topped with shrimp, a calzone stuffed with cheese inside and out, and a salad are all named after Maly Vang herself, per the Fresno Bee's report.
Customer Brooke Bohny visited the pizzeria with her two children, including a three-year-old, on a recent Wednesday afternoon, marking the second time her family had ordered from Maly's. Her husband, who teaches at Fresno State, had already picked up a pizza from the shop about a week earlier. Bohny told the Fresno Bee, “These days you can’t find good food for a good price,” and said both the food and the price were good.
Why a $6 Lunch Stands Out Right Now
That sentiment lands against a backdrop of rising costs across the restaurant industry. The National Restaurant Association estimates that total expenses for an average restaurant jumped 36% between 2019 and 2026, with food and labor each eating up roughly 33 cents of every dollar in sales. Other costs — utilities, occupancy, supplies and credit card processing fees — add up to about 29% of sales, the trade group says, leaving a typical restaurant with a pre-tax profit margin of around just 5%.
The association notes that expenses have climbed sharply across nearly every major category since 2019, a trend that makes a sub-$6 pizza-and-soda combo something of an outlier in today's market. Against that pressure, Maly's Pizzeria is betting that in-house ingredients and a stripped-down dining room can keep a scratch-made lunch within reach of Fresno diners looking for a deal.
