Here's where a top Austin pizza team eats on their yearly New York trip

"There's a saying in the pizza world: "smooth is fast." No yelling, no chaos, no sprinting across a kitchen. Just calm, practiced movement, one slice at a time. It's a philosophy Home Slice Pizza has tried to bottle since their very beginnings. Every year, to make sure this message lands, the team flies to the Big Apple to watch it in action."

"In late April this year, 17 Home Slice employees including kitchen managers, front-of-house staff, server trainers, and lead servers boarded flights from Texas to New York for four days of eating, walking, subway rides, and the kind of bonding that only happens when you're crammed around a table at a legendary Brooklyn pizzeria at 9 pm on a Monday."

""You can serve New York-style pizza," says Sara Ronder, who has made the trip more than a dozen times. She works as an executive assistant to founding owners Terri Hannifin, Jen Scoville Strickland, and Joseph Strickland. "But there's a whole other level you just soak in when you go.""

"The tradition dates back to 2006, a year after Home Slice first opened its doors. The restaurant's founders, Hannifin and Strickland, met as roommates at NYU. New York pizza was a way of life for them. They had no idea at the time they'd open a New York-style pizzeria in Austin one day. But after they did it, they knew bringing the team back to where it all began would be important. The team has made the trip every year since - minus a few during the Pandemic."

Smooth is fast, with calm, practiced movement replacing yelling, chaos, and sprinting. Home Slice Pizza preserves this approach by sending employees to New York to observe New York-style pizza culture firsthand. The tradition began in 2006, a year after the restaurant opened, when founders Hannifin and Strickland met as NYU roommates and shared a New York pizza lifestyle. The team has traveled every year since, with pandemic exceptions. Trips include structured meals at iconic pizzerias and restaurants, subway and ferry rides, and group bonding through shared dining experiences. The itinerary combines pizza crawls, sit-down dinners, and local breakfast stops across multiple boroughs.

Read at CultureMap Austin