Steven Barrantes talks Slice of Homage Pizza in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Milpitas, California
Concept:
At Slice of Homage we are currently serving 3 different styles of pizza: Detroit, Sicilian and NY-inspired rounds. We have been working on fourth and fifth styles in a tavern and deep dish Chicago style pizza. The concept is to bring different styles of pizza to the South Bay area in San Jose, CA. Hom.age /’(h)ämij/ special honor or respect shown publicly.
We aim at paying tribute to different styles of pizza domestically and world wide.
Pizza Style & Dough:
Each style of dough we make takes a different approach as we aim at honoring each style respectfully. Our NY-inspired rounds and Detroit’s go through a cold ferment of 48-72 hours. Our Sicilian goes 5 days and then panned for an extra 12 hours for a slow rise. All the styles of pizza we make always have a preferment in pâte fermente.
Your branding is top-notch. How do all the elements come together so seamlessly?
Our branding strategy comes from understanding the way we want our community to recognize us, so we use those tools to find out who core guests are. We make an effort to brand in every way we can from customized pizza boxes to featuring local artists to bringing to life our apparel. We also use all the platforms and data collected from them, such as Instagram, in order to present a true-to-life experience of what to expect as a visiting customer of Slice of Homage. Just like our pizza, everything is in the details.
Working your way from dishwasher to owner, what has been vital to your professional growth?
It has always been the people who have taken the chance and time to train me. As I have worked my way up from dishwasher to owner I have learned very useful tools that have helped me understand every position in the pizzeria. These days I rely on the vibrant pizza community of operators and pizza makers and attending Pizza Expo where I always learn something new. My professional growth has come from learning the lessons that come from success and failure, and taking risks. Thankfully there are only lessons to be learned even though they may not feel that way at the moment. Being able to pivot and adjust through any situation that presents itself has really been vital to my professional growth.
What’s Next for Slice of Homage?
We currently have three locations in the Bay Area — South Bay San Jose, Milpitas and Sunnyvale CA. We plan to place our product where it is best received by the demographic we are aiming to reach. The plan is to open a store a year; we are currently in contract negotiations in the areas of Los Gatos, Mountain View and a second store in San Jose in the Willow Glen area. We plan to use a central kitchen to distribute to all of our stores to ensure consistency and quality.
