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Homegrown Tap & Dough growing from local joint to pizza empire

Homegrown Tap & Dough has three locations with another two on the way. The Colorado-based brand focuses on its food quality and customer service to ensure it's not just a standout in the pizzaverse but the restaurant industry as a whole.

Provided by Homegrown Tap & Dough

September 19, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Colorado-based Homegrown Tap & Dough was designed to succeed from the start. With the Gastamo Group, a restaurant company with multiple concepts, behind the brand, Homegrown Tap & Dough was bound to win.

The Gastamo Group was founded in 2014, though its flagship brand, Park Burger, had been around since 2009. Homegrown Tap & Dough became the restaurant group's fifth restaurant. The pizza company came about when Gastamo Group founder Jean-Philippe Failyau and partner, Peter Newlin, who both lived in the Washington Park area of Denver, found a great spot on a busy corner. The spot had been a pizza restaurant but was too close to Park Burger to be another burger joint.

"What we found was that a pizza place was needed," Failyau said in a Zoom interview. The brand has since grown to three locations with two more in development.

"Gastamo Group, to us, is how do we create brands based on the 99%, not the 1%," Newlin added in the Zoom interview. "It really starts with the core vision that we had with the first Park Burger which was to create this neighbor burger joint everyone can dine at. That's where I fell in love with hospitality."

Newlin said the group also focuses on the food that's been served for generations and cuisines with the highest demand on the market — burgers, pizza, etc. The group was founded on the belief that building community through exceptional food and service will make restaurants stand out amongst the competition.

"We're really trying to create restaurants that have a story," Newlin said, adding "and so the story of Homegrown is really an Italian restaurant with pizza as the main dish but also showing a lot of Colorado history and Colorado flair."

For instance, one location highlights World War II GIs returning to Colorado from service. Another has a ski motif. An upcoming location looks at what Vail was like in the 1970s.

"We're really focused not just on the food, but how do we highlight every detail across the concept," Newlin said. Each location has a hidden arcade for kids, ensuring that Homegrown Tap & Dough is a family affair.

Failyau said it is important to understand a location's demographics before they build a restaurant.

Homegrown Tap & Dough is the brainchild of Jean-Phillipe Failyau and Peter Newlin. Provided by Homegrown Tap & Dough

On the Menu

Still, the brand's food, especially its pizza, is an important part of concept. The pizza is built upon a dough similar to a New York pizza, "but with a little more puff and a little more flavor," Failyau, a classically-trained chef, explained. "We wanted to make sure we had a good hybrid dough that also traveled well. Neapolitan pizzas are incredible when they come out of the oven, but we all know they don't travel so well."

The top selling pizza is the Funguy with roasted garlic sauce, prosciutto, shaved parmesan, fontina, roasted mushrooms, arugula and truffle oil. The Pigs & Pears is another favorite with a roasted garlic base, mozzarella, parmesan, goat cheese, butternut squash, candied pear, bacon, arugula and a Balsamic drizzle. Folks also appreciate the Pete Za with red sauce, mozzarella, candied bacon, ham, pineapple and jalapeños.

Newlin credits Failyau for the brand's success.

"The only reason a restaurant works is because the food's spectacular," he said, adding that his own focus has been on designing the restaurants. "These aren't being stamped out. Yes, we're building more, but each one is totally unique. We're taking either the characteristics of the neighborhood, the characteristics of the building (or) the characteristics of the community and building them a unique Homegrown.

"We're partnering with some of the best architects and interior designers in the world and just building things that are special."

Pizza accounts for roughly 70% of food sales. The brand uses conveyor ovens that operate with stone slats that still impart the feel of a traditional oven. The conveyor ovens help with consistency and the sheer volume Homegrown puts out.

"We make as much as we can in house," Failyau said, "from the dough to the pasta sauce to the meatballs to all of the dressings and the candied bacon. I'd say 90% of the menu is made in house and from scratch.

"We find that we can get the best and the freshest quality can be made in house."

Newlin and Failyau recently hired a food and beverage director, Travis Everhart, to help ensure the consistency of the food and its operations as Homegrown expands.

And as the brand evolves, its leadership takes the time to make sure Homegrowns may have unique interiors but the food is consistent no matter at which unit a customer is dining. That feeling should carry through to the menu and website as well.

"Just because it has a different interior doesn't mean you don't instantly feel like you're inside of a Homegrown," Newlin said.

The concept also called for a sophisticated beer program with up to 45 drafts on tap.

"Now that we're up to four and five (units), the intention will be how do we increase the quality and spreads the consistency," Newlin said.

Operations

Training has become an important part of the brand's operations. "We make sure that we really hire people that are aligned with our values, and I think it goes back to not overworking the wheel," Failyau said. "It's good food with great service in a nice environment. Providing a value is always going to win."

Newlin said standardizing systems will continue as the brand grows. "Systems don't take the place of the incredible people who actually serve the food and how do we create a culture that keeps them stoked on a daily basis," he explained.

Like most restaurants, the brand struggles with recruitment and retention. Hiring people who want to work for the brand because they believe in the brand's core values is imperative to Homegrown's success.

Failyau said combating rising food costs is also a challenge many restaurants face.

"The only thing that's consistent with the future of restaurants is that you're going to have to constantly pivot," Newlin said, adding that even though Homegrown has seen success, it isn't finished. They're always improving on the quality of the food and drinks and the interiors.

"We have a belief that every new restaurant has to be better than the last, and we have to take those lessons back through the original groups," he added. "If you go in Homegrown now, it looks like nothing like Homegrown when it first opened."

For fledgling operators looking to grow their own pizza businesses Newlin suggests building a community around them. "What I love about the hospitality industry is for the first couple years, our heads were down in the business, and then we looked around and (realized) there's hundreds of people supporting you. They're there to help you."

Failyau said to be passionate about what you're doing and understand the community in which you're building your pizzeria.

"I've seen a lot of operators that do it as a hobby and then they become operators, but it's just a different ballgame," he cautioned. "They really have to understand what the community wants. What are the demographics? Don't put a fine-dining restaurant in a soccer field-filled suburb."

Provided by Homegrown Tap & Dough

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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