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How Detroit-Style Pizza Grew from a Trailer to 25 Locations in Just Seven Years

·40 min·2 clips

Via 313 grew from a trailer on 6th Street to 25 locations after opening its first brick-and-mortar in 2015.

1. The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast covers Via 313 Detroit Pizzeria and its growth from a trailer to 25 locations. 2. Jeremy Julian, the host and CBS Northstar chief revenue officer, interviews Jeremy Julian, the president of Via 313, because he oversees the brand’s expansion. 3. The episode asks how Brandon and Zane Hunt built a Detroit-style pizza brand in Austin and scaled it without losing the original concept. 4. Julian says the Hunts started in Austin in 2011 after craving Detroit-style pizza they could not find locally. 5. He explains that the first trailer opened with very limited cash, nights-and-weekends labor, and a goal of about $200 a day to break even. 6. The first brick-and-mortar opened in Oak Hill on West 290 in Austin in 2015 and later reached 10 years of age this month. 7. Julian says the brand repaid investors, then opened a second store near the University of Texas and a third on East 6th Street. 8. He describes Detroit-style pizza as a thick, airy crust with white cheddar at the edge, grande mozzarella in the middle, and room-temperature black-pepper sauce on top. 9. He links the style to Sicilian immigrants in Detroit who discovered dough baked well in blue steel pans used on automobile assembly lines. 10. He says the formula feels different from New York, Chicago, and other deep-dish styles because the cheese wall and sauce placement change the eating experience. 11. Julian says the brand spoke with at least nine or 10 potential investment partners before selecting Savory Restaurant Fund. 12. He says Savory was attractive because it wanted to protect menu, ingredients, design, music, uniforms, and overall guest experience. 13. He notes that Savory bought in during 2020, which he describes as the middle of COVID, and then supported the next phase of expansion. 14. He says the company now has three locations in San Antonio, five in Houston, two in Colorado, and growth underway for the 2026 pipeline. 15. He says off-premise still accounts for about 45% to 48% of business even with full-service seating and a full bar. 16. He describes packaging changes, liner changes, air-fryer reheating advice, Favor in Texas, and a DoorDash $12 meal test in Houston. 17. The tone is conversational and operational, with Julian giving detailed answers about growth, menu decisions, and unit economics. 18. The format is a long-form interview with frequent examples, numbers, and brand-specific anecdotes. 19. People who follow restaurant expansion, pizza concepts, and off-premise strategy would value this discussion. 20. Listeners looking for celebrity stories or heavy theory may skip it.

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