In 1964, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James R. Eure opened a pizza and hamburger restaurant in his hometown of Stephenville, Texas.

In order to identify themselves from the rest of the pizza places, Eure undertook a naming contest.

[4] In 1974, Eure sold his chain of 18 Mr. Gatti's restaurants to a group of investors but held on to a few franchises.

[1] In 2011, Blue Sage announced that they would construct four new super-sized Gatti's restaurants based on their GattiTown model.

In addition, two former Gatti's Pizza restaurants were scheduled for renovation into smaller-sized variants of the GattiTown model in Corbin and Lexington, Kentucky.

[13] As of 2024, the Mr. Gatti's website lists 75 locations — 44 in Texas, 14 in Kentucky, 8 in Louisiana, 3 in Indiana, 2 each in Alabama and Tennessee, and 1 each in Ohio and Oklahoma.