NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Emily Hyland of the Pizza Loves Emily group owns restaurants in Brooklyn and the East Village.
She founded Pizza Loves Emily in 2014 with Matt Hyland, head chef at their EMILY restaurant in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
"It wasn't so much as we were trying to do something new and different in the pizza world as much as we love pizza so much we just wanted to be part of it," she said. "When we were in school together a long time ago we ate pizza together a lot. It was our first meal, our first three meals in fact, our first proper date was pizza as well and so it was always a dream."
This year they became the official pizza vendor of the New York Mets at Citi Field and they are expanding the brand into Nashville, Seattle and other markets.
"The growth of the company, I don't think I've even processed what it means to be at the level and caliber that we are. We had a lot of momentum the first year and a half at EMILY Original in Clinton Hill," Hyland said.
They gained a lot of traction after adding a burger to the menu and gained a huge following on Instagram.
"As that grew we had opportunities with investors and friends who wanted to help us grow the brand so we opened our sister concept Emmy Squared in Williamsburg and then from there had a lot of success and so we took on some growth partners who are very strategic and wise business operators which we are not, we're just the people who tried put it in motion," Hyland said. "They've helped us strategically turn it into a proper organization with the prospect of growth on the horizon."
Even with tremendous growth, Hyland is candid that she is not a prototypical entrepreneur. She tells Joe Connolly in this week's Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by BNB Bank -- "Community Banking from Montauk to Manhattan," that she still approaches her business as if she has company over for dinner.
"Our fundamental premise when we were opening our restaurant was that we wanted the restaurant to feel like an extension of our home," Hyland said. "It's always been about the community for me and I do think that's what separated us in the beginning because people saw there was a genuineness to what we were offering."
She hopes to continue to grow and expand into other key cities including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
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