1-on-1 with Pizza Leadership

Spin Pizza thrives on long history, chef-driven recipes

Spin Pizza is based in Kansas City and has 15 units. Though the company has grown slowly, Spin officials have ensured the brand has sharp operations and a solid menu to drive traffic.

A rendering of a Spin store. Photo provided by Spin Pizza.

August 21, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Spin Pizza has a lot going for it. First, there's the brand's longevity in the industry. With nearly 20 years to its name, Spin Pizza's 15 locations throughout Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas have a long history to back them up. Then there's the brand's chef-developed recipes that make it a standout in the industry.

Founded in Kansas City in 2004 by Richard and Gail Lozoff and Ed Brownell, the team wanted to bring an upscale fast casual pizzeria to the market. Though the Lozoffs have since retired, Brownell serves as CEO of Spin Pizza, and he developed a pizza recipe they thought was missing in the area.

On the menu

"I think the crust is the most important part of the pizza," Brownell said. "I actually developed the crust myself, and its actually a complex formulation of dough and different ingredients."

To formulate their sauce and combinations of toppings, as well as the salads and sandwiches, the team hired local James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Smith. Brownell said the quality of the product sets Spin apart from its competitors.

Ed Brownell, CEO of Spin Pizza. Provided by Spin Pizza

"Certainly, the crust is going to differ from any other crust you're going to find out there, and the toppings are all roasted in our ovens," Brownell added. "We spent a lot of time making sure they're not just raw ingredients, but they're caramelized. They're oven-roasted, and they're made fresh every day. You're going to find that Spin Pizza is going to be very fresh (and) flavorful, and the salads are every bit as delicious as the pizza. We have what I believe are the best salads in Kansas City."

The crust is similar to a Neapolitan dough, so it's thin and crispy. The dough has a lot of flavor to it, Brownell said, which differs from a true Neapolitan pizza, which typically lets the toppings shine. "I think Americans like a little more flavor," Brownell said, keeping what gives the crust its signature flavor a proprietary secret. After all, that's what separates Spin from its competitors as well. Brownell did say the dough uses a blend of flours, and sweetener is added.

"Pizza dough when you're making it needs something to feed the yeast," Brownell added.

Aside from red sauce, the brand makes a "Spin Blend" – a garlic oil filled with spices — that makes up Spin's white pizzas. The Chicken & Goat Cheese, which uses the Spin Blend base and is topped with chicken, goat cheese, cremini mushrooms, caramelized onions and a proprietary blend cheese is popular, as is the 5 Cheese, which is also sauced with a herbed olive oil glaze and topped with fresh mozzarella, parmesan, mozzarella, provolone, fontina, pine nuts and Spin's cheese blend.

Much is made in house. They caramelize their own onions, roast pecans and tomatoes, slice apples and marinate pineapple on site. Dough is made daily. Even salad dressings are made fresh.

"You can buy pre-made ingredients like (cut) red peppers, but we buy fresh ingredients, we cut them, we use our own Spin oil, and then we roast them in our ovens. We just enhance the flavors of the vegetables before they're put on the pizzas and it just makes for a better, more flavorful product," Brownell explained.

Pizza accounts for more than half of Spin's sales, while salads account for 30%.

The Very Berry salad, composed of spinach, blueberries, strawberries, goat cheese, red onion, glazed pecans and a honey mustard dressing is popular. The Chicken Cobb is also a fan favorite. It's topped with roasted chicken, romaine, avocado, grape tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, bacon and gorgonzola with a house-made ranch dressing. But the Chicken Caesar is the No. 1 seller with roasted chicken, romaine, parmesan and croutons and a Caesar dressing.

Aside from pizza and salads, the brand also has a line of fresh artisan delicatessen sandwiches and paninis and appetizers.

Operations

Making so much in-house, how does the brand keep its labor costs down?

"Having been in this business a long time, we obviously want to watch our labor," Brownell said. "We focus on quality both at the food level and the service level. We just feel like the guests respond to coming back frequently enough, and it makes it work. If you go into a Spin, you'll always see that there's plenty of support staff there. But we also have some guidelines for keeping track of our sales and how to staff the restaurant, so we feel like we have a fairly sophisticated labor management tool that both controls the labor and allows us to have great service."

To maintain continuity across the brand, Brownell said Spin has a seasoned management team and there's a comprehensive training program. Recipes are embedded in tablets so everything made in-house has a solid recipe behind it. There are line cards for the pizzas to ensure consistency as they are being built on the makeline.

"We're very consistent from store to store in the way our products are put together and delivered," Brownell said, adding that the Dallas store posed a bit of a challenge because Spin doesn't have many stores there and some of the items are proprietary to Kansas City. A vendor brings the products down to Dallas so that store can be consistent as well.

Spin has had a loyalty program since the brand started called the Spin Club. When a customer joins the program, he or she gets a free Mini Mia — which consists of an eight-inch pizza and a salad. A free Mini Mia is also given on a customer's birthday. Points are earned by ordering items at Spin, and the brand uses its loyalty program to communicate with its customers.

Delivery is made via third-party vendors.

"When COVID hit, obviously they weren't allowing us to work in our restaurants. We pivoted to carryout," Brownell said. "Before COVID, carryout was about 20% of our sales. But now that COVID has ended, we're (doing) over 40% carryout. We've really put a lot of effort into making our carryout product great."

That includes using dedicated carryout cabinets in Spin stores and utilizing heated bags. When the pizzas come out of the ovens and into a box, they then go immediately into a heated bag "and we maintain that temperature so when you pick up your pizza at Spin, it hasn't been sitting on a shelf getting cold," Brownell added. "It's as hot as it was coming out of the oven."

Thought is also put into curbside pickup, where customers can pull up and text the store to bring the product out to them.

A pizzaiolo tosses dough at a Spin Pizza. Provided by Spin Pizza

In the future

The brand is looking at a couple of more locations in Dallas, where Spin's leadership team feels there's room to grow both in that city and in the state of Texas.

"Having 15 restaurants and being in business almost 20 years is not very fast growth," Brownell said. "We're more focused on our ability to execute than how many restaurants we can open."

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: