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Lawrence Longo is for certain about one factor: America wants an excellent nationwide pizza model.
Not only a chain that cranks out slices, however a reputation that stands for high quality, heritage and the form of taste folks will journey for. “Our purpose is to be that premium slice store in America,” he tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef.
That mission is on the coronary heart of his work rising Prince St. Pizza from a single store right into a model with places throughout the nation.
The story began on a block in New York Metropolis’s SoHo neighborhood, the place the unique Prince St. Pizza has been drawing crowds for years. Its pepperoni sq. slice is an icon: crispy-edged, overflowing with curl and dripping with taste.
Longo was a fan earlier than he was a companion. “I used to go in as a buyer,” he says. “I beloved the pizza; I beloved the vitality within the store. I might really feel how a lot it meant to folks.”
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That connection become conversations. Longo obtained to know the house owners, studying not simply in regards to the recipes however in regards to the satisfaction and historical past behind them. “We began speaking about what it could possibly be,” he recollects. “I instructed them, ‘This is not only a slice store. This can be a model that would imply one thing in each metropolis.'”
Ultimately, that dialogue turned a partnership, grounded in a shared dedication to maintain the product and tradition intact. Now the enlargement is actual. This interview befell inside a brand new Prince St. Pizza in Las Vegas, simply steps from the Strip.
The group here’s a mixture of locals and guests, however the slice of their arms tastes similar to it could in SoHo. “That is the purpose,” Longo says. “Irrespective of the place you’re, whenever you chew into it, it ought to really feel such as you’re in New York.”
The Las Vegas store is only one of a number of new places, every chosen fastidiously. “We do not simply go anyplace,” he explains. “We search for cities the place Prince St. can slot in and nonetheless stand out. After which we construct the correct group to guard what makes it particular.”
For Longo, it’s not merely about rising greater. It’s about making a nationwide pizza model with out shedding the soul of the unique.
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The subsequent nice American pizza model
Prince St. Pizza’s footprint is getting greater, and the momentum is actual. New places are opening in markets like Miami and Dallas. Every one matches the standard and tradition of the unique SoHo store. Movie star prospects have develop into a part of the story. Usher. Adam Sandler. Dave Portnoy. They don’t seem to be there for picture ops. They arrive in as a result of they just like the pizza.
“They fight, they usually come again, they usually just like the model,” Longo says. Being in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago means crossing paths with individuals who dwell for good meals, whether or not they’re well-known or not.
Development additionally brings noise. “The larger you get, the extra haters you get,” Longo says. “You’ll be able to’t hearken to the noise. You need to hearken to everyone, however you gotta simply preserve your head down, fear about your self, do the perfect job you may and focus in your prospects.”
That mindset is what permits Longo to maintain increasing with out shedding the flavour and tradition that made Prince St. Pizza a vacation spot within the first place.
Each new retailer is one other probability to show {that a} premium slice store can scale nationally with out shedding what made it particular.
“Each time you open a brand new restaurant, you be taught one thing new about your model,” Longo says, “and we’re solely getting higher.”
It is the identical purpose he set from the beginning — to take Prince St. Pizza from a single store in New York to a real nationwide model. And for Longo, the recipe for getting there may be easy: shield the product, shield the tradition and preserve serving slices value touring for.
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