Operations

NYC’s Williamsburg Pizza builds following in Omaha, Nebraska

Williamsburg Pizza has five locations in New York, and the brand recently opened its first restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska. Co-founder Aaron McCann says the Omaha opening exceeded expectations. They've got a managing partner in the city to help maintain the quality and consistency for which Williamsburg Pizza is known.

Courtesy of Williamsburg Pizza

July 25, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

What happens when a popular pizzeria hits the road? You get New York City's Williamsburg Pizza, which opened its first satellite location last month.

Founder Aaron McCann's first job was working at a pizzeria in Omaha, Nebraska, when he was 15 years old. He moved to Boulder, Colorado, for a time and worked for a pizzeria there.

Aaron McCann, co-founder of Williamsburg Pizza. Courtesy of BFA.

The original Williamsburg Pizza started in South Williamsburg, New York in 2012. The landlords didn't want to renew the lease to the tenants who were there before, and they ran it by McCann to see if he was interested in the spot. He used to work in real estate, and the location was easily worth twice what he would be paying in rent.

McCann said he would have to have to walk six blocks to get a slice of pizza, and he saw the perfect opening for a pizzeria. "A 12-block radius with no pizza at all in a densely populated up-and-coming part of Brooklyn like Williamsburg is a pizza desert by New York standards," McCann added. "Here, I had a nice corner real estate space on a busy corner being offered to me at 60% below market. I just decided to sign the lease and decided to open up a pizzeria there, but not really having any idea how to make pizza.

He put an ad on Craigslist for a pizzeria manager and Nino Coniglio — a wunderkind on the New York pizza scene – simply sent a message for McCann to check him out on Google. McCann did, and by the time Williamsburg Pizza was set to open, he and Coniglio had become partners. Coniglio is head chef and co-owner while McCann is founder and co-owner.

Today, the brand has three units in Brooklyn and two in Manhattan, and recently opened one in Omaha last month.

Why Omaha? "I've wanted to take the pizza concept back to my hometown for a long time," McCann said. "I know the geography and … it's been commonly known in Omaha that Omaha is a fairly major test market for larger chain groups to either roll out new limited-time offers of new products or even try working at new chains."

Omaha also has well-rounded demographics. But mostly, McCann said, it would be fun to bring his own pizza brand back home. Matt Hodges serves as the local partner in Omaha, but the pizzeria is corporate owned. McCann said he chose Hodges because "he's a really solid, local operator here" and he'd been friends with Hodges for several years. Hodges, a Jimmy John's franchisee who brought that brand to town, has plenty of restaurant experience to get Williamsburg Pizza off the ground in Omaha.

"I knew I'd have to have a local partner who was a strong operator to do this at the early stage of our development," McCann said. Hodges and his family were open to a partnership to help Williamsburg Pizza grow.

On the menu

The Paesano, which features mushrooms, Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, homemade fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce on a Grandma crust, is a top seller in Omaha. In New York, a meat-lover's pizza is popular, as are the create-your-own pizzas and cup-and-char pepperoni pizzas.

"Obviously, the classic cheese pizza always sells," McCann said. "Our grandmas with the cup-and-char pepperonis are neck and neck with The Paesano."

In Omaha, the Tartufo, which features fresh mozz, Parmigiano-Reggiano, rosemary, cremini mushrooms and white truffle oil is gaining traction, as is the Apple Bacon, which is topped with smoked fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, bacon, crushed walnuts, gorgonzola, apples and parsley.

"In our wildest dreams we thought maybe it could be as busy as our busiest one in New York right out of the gates, which all took five years to build that kind of numbers, but week one we would have achieved double our sales of the busiest two in New York. It was as busy as putting two of those (in New York) together," McCann said. "It was a pretty exhilarating couple of weeks."

The dough, which has a 48-hour fermentation and requires equipment to house it, ran out quickly during Omaha's launch. Hodges and McCann quickly realized they could only be open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. McCann estimated he worked up to 105 hours a week during those first few weeks in Omaha.

"The reception was way wilder than any of us thought it could be," McCann added.

Dough is made in-house, as is sauce, garlic knots and more. McCann said the longer the fermentation process the better the digestibility of the dough. "We just feel like we need to take control of that product so that people don't feel like they have a brick in their stomachs," McCann said.

In Omaha, the meatballs and the garlic knots sell better than they do in New York. McCann estimates that pizza accounts for 85% of sales, with the other 15% being a mix of salads, garlic knots and meatballs.

The pizzerias use a variety of ovens, including decks, conveyors, electric and gas, depending on their locations.

Courtesy of Williamsburg Pizza.

Operations

To maintain consistency across the brand as it grows, Hodges sent people and went to New York himself for training for six weeks. Hodges, operates 28 Jimmy John's outlets in five states and is experienced with consistency. A couple of people from the New York team also spent time in the Omaha store as well.

McCann said he doesn't know how much of sales comes from the honeymoon phase of being new in town, but they've put stock in marketing. If sales stay even at 60% of what they were during Omaha's first few weeks, McCann said he can see the team opening a second location in Omaha, and there's still room to grow in NYC. Down the road, McCann said he can see entering markets that Hodges has already trailblazed for Jimmy John's, but keeping the currently locations operating smoothly is the current task at hand.

The biggest challenge for the brand has been finding a good team, much like other players in the industry. Hodges told McCann that many restaurateurs are so focused on the customer service aspect of their businesses that they tend to overlook the employee experience. The end goal is to make a workspace that is comfortable and fun, with team members treated well.

So what sets Williamsburg Pizza apart from the competition, especially in pizza-rich locations like Brooklyn and Manhattan? McCann said they're offering the same quality pizzas as the nicest of dine-in pizzerias in towns serve, but they're doing it in a takeout and delivery format.

"I feel like there's a ton of people out there who aren't making that great a pizza who claim that their secret is really quality ingredients," McCann added. "We're using quality ingredients, but we're not really joking when we say that."

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.

Connect with Mandy: