Here's why a top Texas pizza team makes a yearly pilgrimage to New York

Smooth, practiced movement and calm service guide how New York-style pizza is prepared and served. Home Slice Pizza sends employees from Texas to New York each year to observe the approach in person. The trip brings kitchen managers, front-of-house staff, server trainers, and lead servers together for shared meals, walking, subway rides, and team bonding. The tradition began in 2006, after the restaurant opened, and reflects the founders’ New York pizza roots from their time as NYU roommates. The annual visit continues except during the pandemic. This year’s itinerary included multiple iconic Brooklyn and New York pizzerias and pizza-and-sub crawls, reinforcing consistent service standards while preparing for new locations.

"“Smooth is fast.” No yelling, no chaos, no sprinting across a kitchen. Just calm, practiced movement, one pie at a time. It's a philosophy Home Slice Pizza has tried to bottle since its very beginnings. Every year, to make sure this message lands, the team flies to the Big Apple to watch it in action."

"“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."

"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. The trip includes employees from the store's Houston location in Midtown, and Home Slice is busily working on its new location in the Heights that will open this fall."

Read at CultureMap Houston