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Lawrence Longo is for certain about one factor: America wants an amazing nationwide pizza model.
Not only a chain that cranks out slices, however a reputation that stands for high quality, heritage and the sort of taste individuals will journey for. “Our objective is to be that premium slice store in America,” he tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef.
That mission is on the coronary heart of his work rising Prince St. Pizza from a single store right into a model with places throughout the nation.
The story began on a block in New York Metropolis’s SoHo neighborhood, the place the unique Prince St. Pizza has been drawing crowds for years. Its pepperoni sq. slice is an icon: crispy-edged, overflowing with curl and dripping with taste.
Longo was a fan earlier than he was a accomplice. “I used to go in as a buyer,” he says. “I beloved the pizza; I beloved the vitality within the store. I might really feel how a lot it meant to individuals.”
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That connection changed into conversations. Longo received to know the homeowners, studying not simply concerning the recipes however concerning the satisfaction and historical past behind them. “We began speaking about what it may very well be,” he remembers. “I instructed them, ‘This is not only a slice store. It is a model that would imply one thing in each metropolis.'”
Finally, that dialogue turned a partnership, grounded in a shared dedication to maintain the product and tradition intact. Now the enlargement is actual. This interview befell inside a brand new Prince St. Pizza in Las Vegas, simply steps from the Strip.
The gang here’s a mixture of locals and guests, however the slice of their palms tastes identical to it will in SoHo. “That is the objective,” Longo says. “Irrespective of the place you might be, while you chew into it, it ought to really feel such as you’re in New York.”
The Las Vegas store is only one of a number of new places, every chosen rigorously. “We do not simply go wherever,” he explains. “We search for cities the place Prince St. can slot in and nonetheless stand out. After which we construct the best crew to guard what makes it particular.”
For Longo, it’s not merely about rising larger. It’s about making a nationwide pizza model with out shedding the soul of the unique.
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The following nice American pizza model
Prince St. Pizza’s footprint is getting larger, and the momentum is actual. New places are opening in markets like Miami and Dallas. Every one matches the standard and tradition of the unique SoHo store. Movie star clients have develop into a part of the story. Usher. Adam Sandler. Dave Portnoy. They are not there for picture ops. They arrive in as a result of they just like the pizza.
“They struggle, and so they come again, and so they just like the model,” Longo says. Being in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago means crossing paths with individuals who stay for good meals, whether or not they’re well-known or not.
Progress additionally brings noise. “The larger you get, the extra haters you get,” Longo says. “You’ll be able to’t take heed to the noise. You need to take heed to everyone, however you gotta simply preserve your head down, fear about your self, do the most effective job you possibly can and focus in your clients.”
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That mindset is what permits Longo to maintain increasing with out shedding the flavour and tradition that made Prince St. Pizza a vacation spot within the first place.
Each new retailer is one other likelihood to show {that a} premium slice store can scale nationally with out shedding what made it particular.
“Each time you open a brand new restaurant, you be taught one thing new about your model,” Longo says, “and we’re solely getting higher.”
It is the identical objective he set from the beginning — to take Prince St. Pizza from a single store in New York to a real nationwide model. And for Longo, the recipe for getting there’s easy: defend the product, defend the tradition and preserve serving slices value touring for.
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