Key Points:
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- Home Slice Pizza pays for employees to visit New York City and experience its pizza and hospitality firsthand.
- Managers and full-time employees with no disciplinary issues are prioritized for the trip.
- Arranging twice-yearly visits for smaller groups makes it easier to secure reservations.
Texas-based pizzeria takes employees to New York for pizza education
When the owners of Home Slice Pizza founded the slice shop in 2025, New York-style pizza was not as ubiquitous in Austin, Texas, as it is today. So, the following year, the owners – two of whom studied at New York University – took full-time staff members to New York City to gain an understanding of New York pizza through visits to their old haunts.
The trip became an annual ritual for full-time staffers who had been with Home Slice for at least a year without any disciplinary issues. The trip eventually grew to include up to 35 staffers per year, until the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to the tradition.
New York Pizza Trip
In 2024, Home Slice resurrected the New York City trip for employees, but with a few tweaks:
- Two trips are held each year, with smaller groups attending each one. This allows Home Slice locations to continue operating during the trips, and reservations are easier to obtain for smaller groups.
- The visits are intended not only to introduce staffers to the pizza style but also to experience the service culture in New York, where it is more common to find career servers and bartenders.
Management Incentives
When Home Slice Pizza resumed the trip in 2024, the owners prioritized taking leaders – general managers, kitchen managers and assistant general managers – who previously had not visited New York City with Home Slice. As of this spring, the pizzeria’s roster of leaders with one year of service under their belts all have been able to experience the trip, and Jeff Mettler, a partner in the business who operates the Houston shop, says the new generation of New York City trips has come with an added benefit: identifying future Home Slice leaders.
“When people making decisions about whether or not Home Slice is going to stay ‘just a job’ for them, or if they’re going to grow and make a career out of it, that trip helps them decide which way to go,” Mettler tells Pizza Today. “They often have an epiphany saying, ‘Oh wow! This is the kind of company that I want to grow with.’”
Teambuilding
With three shops operating in Austin, one in Houston and another on the way, the New York City trip can be where Home Slice employees meet for the first time. Mettler says he is moved by “the amount of respect and protection that they show each other” during the days away from home. (See “Secrets of the Best Workplaces” here.)
“Home Slice is one of those places that exudes family,” he says. “I think all restaurants kind of do that, but Home Slice has done it on a level that I’ve never experienced anywhere else.”
Groups of about 15 employees travel to New York, and those groups are further broken up into smaller teams. One group might be Spanish speakers paired with a translator, while another could include an employee who has been on the trip before paired with someone who has never visited New York City.
While the founders who started Home Slice Pizza always hoped to build management strong enough that they could step away from day-to-day restaurant operations, they realize the team members want to know them on a personal level. The New York City trip provides a days-long backdrop to make those connections.
Pricey or Priceless?
Between flights, hotel rooms and meals, the trip works out to around $2,400 per person. After the group returns home, the experience is all anyone wants to talk about for weeks, Mettler says.
“The people love each other so much and protect each other and stand up for each other and learn from each other,” he says.
KATE LAVIN is Senior Editor at Pizza Today.
Photo by Denise Greer; design by Katie Wilson
Read the July 2026 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine
This issue of Pizza Today magazine is dedicated to the employee experience. From our cover story – “Secrets of the Best Workplaces” – to columnist Nick Bogacz’ first-person account of debuting employee programs, we cover everything from creating employee pay scales to restaurant technology that makes your staff’s lives easier. Plus: We dive into the practice of teaching dough-making, local sourcing and pesto. It’s a delicious issue from start to finish.
Check out the full Digital Edition – Pizza Today July 2026.
