Operations
How Emmy Squared made its mark on Detroit-style pizza
Emily Hyland just opened the 14th Emmy Squared, a Detroit-style pizzeria with a menu as diverse as its clientele. The company has grown down the East Coast but remain in proximity to one another.
October 18, 2021 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
It's been a fast shot to success for Emily Hyland, whose Detroit-style Emmy Squared Pizza dots the landscape along the Eastern coast in NYC, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and several other states.
The company has grown to 14 stores, a departure from its roots as Emily, a mom-and-pop shop in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood that opened in 2014. Founder Hyland opened her first restaurant with her ex-husband, the company's original chef, and "that has some very unexpected, meteoric success which completely changed the course of my life," Hyland explained to Pizza Marketplace by phone.
Emmy Squared first opened in Brooklyn in 2016 to bring Detroit-style pizza to the market. The original location opened as just a small 26-seat location, but future growth has been in areas where they can build much larger stores. When expanding the concept, Hyland said she wanted to be unconventional and serve pizza in pans, so they chose and perfected Detroit-style rather than more conventional pizza.
The company's CEO Howard Greenstone has "led this trajectory of unexpected national growth for the brand," Hyland said. "We had an entrepreneurial spirit and we saw that there was an opportunity to try to do this. That was really the impetus. We love pizza, and we were very well-received by our communities. We just went for it."
Knowing their clientele
They chose full service because they wanted to build restaurants over a takeout concept, but carryout and delivery are available as well. "Even though part of our menu is pizza, we're not a pizza joint," Hyland said. "We are a proper restaurant and part of the impetus for founding the original location is that I love dining in a restaurant, and we wanted to create a dining experience both in food and service that was more like what we loved. It was really about building a place that we loved to be in.
"I like that when we open Emmy Squareds now, even though we are growing, at our heart, we are a neighborhood restaurant. We try very consciously to root ourselves in neighborhoods so that we will be able to build clientele who knows the bartender and the bartender is already pouring their drink as he sees them coming in, so it has that kind of spirit to it."
Menuing comfort food
The menu has "lots of really elevated food, comfort food that I certainly could eat every day and sometimes do," Hyland said, laughing. "It's the type of food that everybody wants to be eating. Who doesn't want to be eating pizza and burgers all the time? We try to serve high-quality consistent, delicious food in a really professional but laid-back atmosphere. And I think that combination of variables really adds to what makes folks attracted to being part of our restaurant."
Dough is made in-house using organic flour. A classic red pizza is topped with sauce and mozzarella. The Colony Pizza features pepperoni, pickled jalapenos and honey. The Big Ang is topped with house-made vodka sauce, ricotta, double pecorino, meatballs and banana peppers.
White pizzas range from the Quinn with smoked mozzarella, pecorino and ricotta to the namesake Emmy with banana peppers, red onion, ranch and a side sauce.
Salads, dishes ranging from eggplant parmesan to Chopped Cheese Waffle Fries and the company's signature burgers with grass-fed beef patties, American cheese, a signature sauce and greens are also available.
Building systems
As the company grows, maintaining continuity across the brand is an important aspect of Emmy Squared's operations. "That's certainly the challenge in terms of the growing pains of being a small company," Hyland said. They've put together a "mini corporate team" to assist in the day-to-day activities of running a now mid-sized company.
"A lot of us are wearing different hats and trying to normalize the systems we're putting into place (and) really trying to over communicate but at the same time stay in our lanes but be collaborative in spirit," Hyland added. "I think being on the ground at the openings is also really important for training and education purposes. That's one of the biggest things we can do for consistency, not just in the quality of the food but in the culture of the restaurant. As the founder, that is imperative to me. I want that energy and environment not just for the patrons but for the employees as well to feel as sweet and special as that original (location) did."
Hyland recently relocated from NYC to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she is opening two new locations. She liked the neighborhood feel of Charlotte, and she said it is important to be present as the stores are under construction. There's a team that comes in and does staff education when new restaurants open and that collaborate spirit is evident in training and operations. The company has not franchised, and "we're very much a restaurant group," Hyland said. "We are in control of everything and building systems to keep that consistency from unit to unit."
Emmy Squared had grown regionally down the Southeast so the stores are in proximity to one another and the executive team is not trying to fly across the country should problems arise. "I feel like you lose some of that authenticity when you start to franchise," Hyland added.
Ambition can often outweigh ability for many operators. Initially Emmy Squared's staff were making dough and cutting mozzarella fresh by hand every day, and "in a utopia that's amazing," Hyland said, "but in the middle of a bustling New York City restaurant that becomes incredibly challenging from an operational perspective."
The number one piece of advice she gives? Don't go into business with family. "No matter how secure and well-founded you think your relationships, there are a lot of business divorces, whether it's siblings or spouses," she cautioned.
Finally, pay the extra money in legal fees to have all the paperwork done in the early stages. Many restaurants start with a dream but need the initial legwork to stand on their own two feet.
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.
