Operations
Brothers bring taste of Detroit to Austin, Texas
Can Detroit-style pizza work in Austin, Texas? Yes, say the owners of Via 313, which has eight units in the Austin area.
May 20, 2022 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Via 313's story is unique: two brothers from Detroit (313 is Detroit's area code) making the city's signature pizza pizza work in Austin, Texas. Would Texans learn to love Detroit-style pizza, with its slightly fried crust, thick slices and fragrant sauce on top? Zane and Brandon Hunt hoped so — if they could get a loan from a bank.
The brothers started Via 313 as a food trailer after banks wouldn't loan them enough to open a brick-and-mortar location. They raised $10,000 to open the trailer, and sales started slowly. Their first night open, they did just $212.
"We had ideas but no confidence," Zane said in a phone interview with his brother, Brandon. They had experience, as both had worked in pizzerias during their youth. For assistance, the Hunts found people with extensive knowledge of the pizza industry, including restaurant consultant Big Dave Ostrander, and Tony Gemignani, who owns several restaurant concepts in California.
"We learned really early that we needed to surround ourselves with people who were having success in the pizza industry," Zane said. With the help of these experts, the brothers — who by then had two pizza trailers — learned how to write a business plan and were ready to open their first pizzeria.
They wanted their brand to be old school, with full service in the vein of legendary pizza places like Buddy's in Detroit, Lou Malnati's in Chicago and Grimaldi's in New York, but they weren't sure about the pizza. Would Detroit-style pizza work in Austin, Texas?
"If we're going to do it, let's just use the best ingredients we can find and go for it," Zane said.
Having been raised just south of Detroit, Zane and Brandon wanted the kind of pizza they grew up with — the hand-topped, deep-dish pizza baked in rectangular pans originally made from blue steel. The brothers cut their teeth on Italian bakery pizza, now commonly referred to as Grandma-style or Sicilian, and Detroit-style pizza pioneers like Buddy's Pizza and Cloverleaf Pizza as they got older and could drive to the iconic restaurants.
Now, with six restaurants and two trailers in operation, both the pizza and the concept are clearly being embraced, despite the health-conscious residents of Austin. When they cheat on their diets, the brothers laughed, they want to make it worth their while.
"Thankfully, we make a very gluttonous, cheesy pizza," Brandon said. "It's good cheating calories."
The Detroiter, which has smoked pepperoni under the cheese, is a top seller, as is the The Cadillac, which features gorgonzola, fig preserves, prosciutto di Parma, Parmesan and a balsamic glaze. Pizzas are baked on Montague deck ovens, while the pizza trailers utilize Bakers Pride tabletop deck ovens. They bought their first Bakers Pride in 2011, which has turned out more than a million pizzas, according to Brandon's calculations.
The brothers charge a premium for their pizza but use top-notch ingredients with brands like Fontanini, Stanislaus and Grande not found in other local pizzerias. Dough is made fresh daily at each location, sauces are blended and some cheeses are shredded in house.
"I think what sets us apart is we're better," Brandon laughed, adding premium ingredients not used by other restaurants gives Via 313 a leg up against the competition.
In Detroit, said Zane, brands in the midst of $5 price wars couldn't afford to use the best ingredients, but being in Austin, people are willing to pay more for better ingredients.
"We could afford to do it here, so we took a chance and did it," he added.
Consistency is key when it comes to growing the company outside of Texas. After opening a second pizza trailer just a year after their first, Zane and Brandon learned it was a good idea to start putting systems in place should the brothers ever open a brick and mortar store. They put together training and recipe books as the company expanded.
These days, those manuals and the training — "everything has gotten so refined," Zane said. "And then we've got so many good people within the company now that can go out and train the new crop of people now at each new location."
"We really can't grow without good people," Brandon added. "We can only grow when the team is right."
Via 313 hasn't had many problems with hiring, but Brandon said retention is the bigger issue they're facing right now.
"Keeping people happy is harder," he said, "and it's about listening to what people want and being there for them. It used to be 'what can you do for me?' and now it's 'what can I do for you?' and changing that mentality and learning how we can be better employers."
Four more stores are projected to open by Q3 of 2022. The brothers have a goal of 40 stores in the next few years, all of which will be company owned and operated.
They've also got an investment company behind them now, and Zane said the brothers know what their strengths and weaknesses are.
"Brandon and I have gotten okay at opening restaurants, but scaling a restaurant is a whole different ball of wax," Zane said. "That's not something Brandon and I have any experience with."
When the company had five units, they were pushing the limits of their own comfort zones. To grow beyond that, perhaps organically in Austin with one or two more stores, "we thought maybe we were sitting on something that was bigger than just the two of us," Zane said. "Maybe it was something that had the legs to grow outside of Austin into different states, but we don't have any experience doing that."
Bringing on a partner that does have that expertise and "just being honest with ourselves with what we're doing, where we want to take it and who we need to work with to get it there just seemed logical," Zane said.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
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