Operations
Chevy Chase Pizza Co on verge of greatness
Glenn Milano makes pizzas by hand, freezes them and sells them at market. Now he's ready to take the next step by opening a manufacturing plant and pizzeria of his own.
August 22, 2024 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
What's the best way to break into the pizza business? Glenn Milano, owner of Chevy Chase Pizza Co. in Chevy Chase, Maryland, knows — he began selling pizzas from home during the pandemic just to cover his costs.
Those costs grew as did his fan base, and Milano moved his operation to a commissary where he now makes hundreds of pies each week using high-quality ingredients and a lot of sweat.
Those pizzas are then frozen and sold in markets, but that isn't where his story ends.
Milano is in the planning stages of opening a manufacturing plant with a pizzeria built inside. Think brewery — which makes beer but also sells pints at a bar. He wants to manufacture frozen pizzas for market sale and sell them piping hot to the residents of Chevy Chase.
It's a lofty — but not insurmountable — goal, and Milano is up for the challenge.
Milano, who's of Italian descent, lived and studied in Italy for a time when he was younger but has been living in the Washington D.C. area for about 20 years working for the state department.
"I've always cooked and baked," he said in a phone interview. "I've always had very particular standards for pizza and it was over COVID that I started baking some bread and then I started doing some pizza. I just felt like there was a certain style and quality of pizza missing locally."
He started thinking about an artisan frozen pizza product that could be sold locally and if there was a market for that.
Milano started learning the basics watching videos and spending time in the kitchen experimenting with different flours making dough. He started giving pizzas away to friends and family in the neighborhood in 2022, and eventually started charging a little just to cover his costs.
"People were very happy to pay that," Milano said. He slowly began charging more to see if folks would buy the pizza at a higher price point.
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Photo: Chevy Chase Pizza Co. |
On the Menu
Milano said his pizza is a mix between New York style and Neapolitan. He's been selling pizza in grocery stores and will launch in a bar and grill who will sell his pizzas hot to customers soon.
Everything is made in-house. "I like continuing to experiment with the dough," Milano said. He has a spreadsheet with the measurements of every single batch of dough he's ever created to calculate the specs and get the dough just right. He's always making adjustments, whether its hydration, fermentation times or a new type of flour.
Milano works out of a commissary kitchen in a nearby town that has pizza ovens and he can use the shop on certain days when the restaurant is closed.
Milano says he sells a couple hundred frozen pizzas a week out of five locations.
"I have a serious local fanbase," he said. "People are always asking me when I'm opening a pizzeria. … It's been a fantastic response. I take the time to do it well, and I've learned how to really well so I can work with my team to make sure the quality is always really high."
That includes quality sauce and cheese and premium ingredients. The pizzas bake in high-heat deck ovens.
He's got between two and four people working to help create pizzas depending on how many they're making a week. Most of them have industry experience, but Milano trained them to make his pizzas to spec.
The Pepperoni & Parmigiano has DOP San Marzano tomato sauce, select pepperoni, fresh fior di latte mozzarella and DOP Parmigiano-Reggiano to finish. It's Chevy Chase Pizza Co.'s top seller. The pizza uses a sandwich-cut pepperoni so it's larger on the pizza.
The Margherita is a very close second with DOP San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh fior di latte mozzarella, DOP Parmigiano-Reggiano, large leaf basil and extra-virgin olive oil.
Milano said the quality is what makes the pizzas sell well. "There really isn't anything else like it out there," he said. The pizzas are fully cooked when sold, so they're convenient to heat up at home. When defrosted, the pizzas bake at 500 to 550 degrees for three and a half minutes.
"We've worked really hard to tweak every part of it so that the consumer gets the best quality pizza at home," Milano added.
That same quality sets Chevy Chase Pizza Co. apart from other pizzas in the region. Chevy Chase as a neighborhood is upscale, with two Supreme Court justices and various power players from D.C. living in the town. It's an old community, "so what we're really trying to do is take that spirit of the community that's a high quality of life and really trying to embody that in a pizza," Milano said.
Milano prefers his style of pizza because it's less heavy than a traditional New York style, and Neapolitan can be "sloppy," he said.
Future plans
The operation hasn't been without its challenges. Milano's biggest obstacle now has been finding the right space to expand. He's built out a production model that he believes will allow Chevy Chase Pizza Co. to scale.
Milano would like to open a pizzeria within that production center to get closer to his customers. "If it's possible for me to do both a production facility that has the ability to sell pizza to consumers — think of a brewery where they might have a taproom where you can go and have the beer – but this one would be a pizzeria."
Real estate is difficult and expensive in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, so he's working with several people to try to find the perfect spot.
Milano said he does worry about losing the handmade quality of his pizzas should he start manufacturing them in mass. "There's a version one, which is using a lot more machinery than you'd ever find in a typical pizzeria, but more in line with an artisan bread manufacturer where they're still putting out this extraordinary product," he said.
It's an automated process with manual parts that help the brand maintain that quality and look. The irregularities found in Chevy Chase Pizza Co.'s pizza are part of its charm.
For those aspiring pizzaiolos thinking of getting in the business, Milano recommends focusing on quality first. Food is competitive, and testing is imperative.
"Try out different recipes and test different locations and models," Milano said, adding that take-and-bake pizza is still an option. "If people are in your pizzeria and they like your pizza, they'll probably buy it and take it home, too. … When you feel like you've hit on a formula that really seems to resonate and make sense for you then look to expand, which is where I'm at right now."
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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