Operations
Emmy Squared Pizza ditched the standard company menu mannequin by empowering native basic managers to develop and launch customized, regionally-inspired recipes that remember the distinctive flavors and cultures of the varied communities they serve.
Picture: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group
January 22, 2026 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
In a transfer away from the “one-size-fits-all” company mannequin, Emmy Squared Pizza just lately handed the artistic reins to its native groups by a brand new regional menu initiative for the month of January.
Kevin Stoeffler, the model’s director of culinary, mentioned the marketing campaign was born from an inside dialogue with basic managers who stay and work within the various communities the restaurant serves.
By empowering these native leaders to pitch and develop their very own recipes — starting from a Miami-inspired “Miracle Mile” pie to Nashville’s “Candy Melissa” — the 30-unit chain aimed to keep up its “mom-and-pop” spirit whereas competing with neighborhood pizzerias.
This collaborative method not solely highlighted regional flavors and cultures however has additionally considerably boosted employees morale by guaranteeing that these constructing the pizzas within the kitchen are the identical ones defining the model’s native id.
The regional pizzas included:
- The Mambo Crispy Hen Pie featured fried rooster, Mambo sauce and scallions.
- In Nashville, Louisville and Birmingham, The Candy Melissa is impressed by a “meat and three” idea, the pizza brings collectively grass-fed beef, American cheese, Sammy Sauce, greens, pickles and whiskey bacon jam.
- In Charlotte, Virginia and Atlanta, DJ’s Southern Pizza combines BBQ rooster, gouda, barbecue sauce and pink onions.
- In Philadelphia, Min, Do not Be a Jerk tops the crust with jerk rooster, pink onion, bell peppers, miso inexperienced ranch and inexperienced onions.
- In Miami, The Miracle Mile Pie stacks black forest ham, mojo pork, yellow mustard, cilantro and pickles.
- In Las Vegas, The Excessive Curler delivers steak, gouda, caramelized onions, parsley pesto and thyme.
We reached out to Stoeffler by way of a telephone interview to study extra concerning the distinctive program and what it meant for it employees.
Q: This initiative strikes away from the one-size-fits-all company menu mannequin. What was the interior light-bulb second that led the model handy artistic management over to native staff?
Stoeffler: We had been having a dialog, an inside dialogue, with our basic managers who stay in these communities. They work in these communities. They’re consultant of those communities. And truthfully, they’ve some actually good concepts for some native pizzas. So, we had been capable of capitalize on their ideas, their feelings about being in that neighborhood after which representing one thing for the neighborhood that they work and stay and they’re part of.
Q: Within the restaurant business consistency is normally king. How did you stability sustaining the Emmy Squared model with the whole artistic freedom given to those native groups?
Stoeffler: That is the place the operational providers piece kicks in. We have these completely different pockets of basic managers, and so they’re primarily based of their areas and so they all had actually, actually nice concepts. And it is sort of my job to make it possible for they execute it at a excessive stage and requirements.
We had been fascinated by the menus and the concepts and for this promotion. They got here up with some nice pizzas after which it was my job to make it possible for they may execute them by the area to Emmy Squared’s requirements.
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Picture: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group |
Q: Stroll me by the submission course of your managers went by whereas arising with their pizza concepts.
Stoeffler: We did it collaboratively. The GMs would submit their pizzas, after which I’d workshop them. We do not have an R&D facility, so after we do R&D, we’re in shops and we attempt to make it as shut to what’s truly going to occur.
So, we have got to make it operationally related, but in addition actually cool and particular, like our regional director in New York, when he got here up with that Thyme Squared pizza, he actually purchased into it. And people are individuals truly constructing and making these pizzas within the restaurant. Then we’ll work on operational strategies on how we execute that to quantity.
Q: Have been there any native substances that had been notably difficult to adapt to the Detroit-style metal pans that you simply guys use?
Stoeffler: Truly, no — and that is actually cool — is that Detroit-style base that we use is the proper canvas to color completely different flavors. So, you have got a base pizza after which we will add complexity and funky native issues to that pizza.
We get actually excited — at the least I do — I get actually, actually enthusiastic about including that complexity to our pizzas. The Miami pizza, the Miracle Mile pie that we’re doing — after we opened Miami, I used to be there and I completely fell in love with that delicacies. And I wished to make it actual and really genuine to what’s truly occurring in Miami. So, we labored with the final supervisor there and it was simply sort of primarily based on a few of the identical style profiles that I had (in Miami) to provide you with a few of these pizzas.
Q: Past the pizza itself, how did this initiative impression employees morale and the tradition inside the particular person restaurant kitchens? Was it sort of a aggressive spirit?
Stoeffler:It was extra collaborative, I actually assume, as a result of we had April Harris in D.C., you had a few completely different individuals add to the collaborative spirit on that. We end that pizza with inexperienced onions and that inexperienced onion was a callback to the sort of the Mambo sauce that is occurring in D.C. and the way that had its roots in Black tradition in and likewise in what the Chinese language takeout eating places there that may put these inexperienced onions on high of their dishes.
Q: Emmy Squared Pizza began as a mom-and-pop operation however has grown to 30 shops. How do you retain it feeling like an unbiased in every of the communities it serves?
Stoeffler:We began as a mom-and-pop 2016 after which grew from there. That sort of entrepreneurial spirit stays with us. I do a number of openings for the corporate, too, and after we go into the communities, we get to know our neighbors. We do small little pizza drops to our neighbors, get to grasp what the boutique throughout the road is about, what the restaurant subsequent door – what they’re about. And we attempt to be a part of that neighborhood and I believe that is one in every of our keys to our success.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the location editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise protecting meals, individuals and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent practically twenty years protecting the pizza business, from unbiased pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each dimension enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has gained quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant business. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and might inform you the place to seek out the very best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a residing.
