The Next Generation Taking Over

By: Kayla Anderson

In Incline Village/Crystal Bay, there have been a few instances of people starting a great company as well as a family, prompting the next generation of those entrepreneurs to realize that there’s no better place than Lake Tahoe to continue to run the family business. Here are a few instances that show the next generation taking over.

John Morrison opened MoFo’s Pizza in 1986 naming the restaurant to mean “Mo’ Fo’ Your Money” and his son Justin believes that MoFo’s is still the fairest priced pizza in town. In 2015, his dad sold the business to Justin and moved to Colorado Springs to open a restaurant there.

As the new owner of MoFo’s, Justin expanded its hours to serve lunch six days a week and dinner seven days a week, facilitated a remodel with new light fixtures, furniture, art, and a revamped kitchen and bathrooms. With the changes that Justin implemented, the summer of 2015 proved to be one of its biggest years ever.

Unfortunately, his father John passed away in 2017 but through that he learned the origin of the family’s famous marinara sauce…it came from his grandfather Walter Morrison who was a P-38 pilot during World War II. He was shot down over Italy and lived with sheepherders in the mountains hiding behind enemy lines when he learned how to make the sauce. Justin plans to put together a map of Italy and family history of this story with more detail to promote in one of their pizzerias.

Justin does say that the pandemic did affect them, especially in the first three months when they couldn’t be open.

“We went through most of our savings to keep our staff employed,” he says. However, that summer they became busier than they had ever been because of the onslaught of new homeowners that moved to Lake Tahoe.

“We had a killer summer with everyone remote working, and the community helped us a lot,” he says.

Then last December of 2021, Justin had the opportunity to buy a space in the Galena Junction Shopping Center. He opened a second MoFo’s and manages it with his sister, Melissa Negrillo. He says that they work together well and have the same ideas as to how most efficiently run the businesses. Justin is also now married, and his wife Keisha is intricately involved. Negrillo has two young children and when asked if he thinks they will ever take over MoFo’s, Justin replies, “We grew up in the restaurant, but her kids are a little too rambunctious so they’re never in there.

“I’m sure that will change when they get older,” he smiles.