You may say it began with Wu-Tang Clan.
Though the group’s track “C.R.E.A.M.” (“Money Guidelines Every part Round Me”) cemented itself into the minds of longtime pals and faculty roommates Clint Grey, Derrick Moore and E.J. Reed, they by no means knew it might at some point encourage the enterprise mannequin for his or her fast-casual restaurant empire.
For the co-owners of Nashville’s Slim + Husky’s Pizza Beeria, PREAM (“Pizza Guidelines Every part Round Me”) is their enterprise mantra. To them, it encompasses every little thing they will obtain by means of pizza, which incorporates utilizing meals as a automobile for social change.
To know how the buddies went from dwelling collectively at Tennessee State College and sharing a love for WWE wrestling, to spearheading a enterprise that grew to become a 2023 semifinalist in the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards for Outstanding Restaurateur, you should first perceive one factor: Every part is less complicated whenever you’re doing it together with your greatest pals.
That’s what Grey, Slim + Husky’s (S+H) chief advertising officer, believes. And it’d simply be the key sauce of the trio’s exceptional success.
“It doesn’t really feel like work,” he says, virtually making the lengthy journey to get to the place they’re immediately look simple. It was, after all, removed from it.
Slim & Husky’s origin story
Grey recollects the time the buddies began their first enterprise collectively—The Inexperienced Truck Shifting & Storage Firm—in 2010.
“We had $3,000 and an concept,” he recollects. “We every put $1,000 into the pot and rented vehicles as a result of we didn’t have cash to purchase one. As soon as we made a greenback from the enterprise, it went proper again within the checking account. That’s what allowed us to purchase our first truck, then our second and third.”
They went on to personal many vehicles and had 45 workers on their payroll earlier than promoting the corporate for seven figures in 2017, all the time understanding that enterprise was the seeding floor for one thing a lot larger.
Greater means various things to completely different folks, however for Grey, Moore and Reed—S+H’s chief monetary officer—it didn’t imply more cash. As a substitute, their sights had been set on amplifying their community in every way possible, with a concentrate on showcasing the work of Black artists, providing scholarships to highschool college students who work for the corporate and increasing into neighborhoods which were traditionally handed over for financial growth alternatives.
How Slim & Husky’s transitioned to pizza
Some might imagine the transition from transferring vehicles to pizza ovens is a disjointed leap, however years of on-the-ground analysis fueled their most profitable enterprise enterprise up to now. As a result of it was low-cost and moveable, the buddies discovered themselves consuming a lot pizza throughout transferring gigs, they deemed themselves connoisseurs.
“We knew what good pizza was,” Grey laughs. “It got here into the image once we began to consider our exit plan within the transferring business. Everybody sooner or later thinks about proudly owning some type of restaurant or hospitality enterprise. We’re from the land of scorching hen, and there are tons of burger joints and taco retailers, however we didn’t wish to try this.”
Pizza, artwork and music
Moore, S+H’s president, recommended a pizza store that performed nonstop hip-hop. Then, the group mentioned their shared love of the humanities, and all of a sudden the enterprise concept (and subsequent tagline) was solidified: pizza, artwork and music.
“We wish the artwork and music facet of our enterprise to be on the identical taking part in discipline because the pizza,” Grey says. “We’ve acquired Music Row [in Nashville]—Sony, BMG, Common and Empire—and wish to give rising artists platforms and function a bridge to [those studios]. We’ve hosted our S&H Unplugged music series at Analog at Hutton Lodge and the Nationwide Museum of African American Music on Broadway [volume 7 was in June], and Domani, the son of rapper T.I., closed out a previous efficiency for us. We’re additionally trying to create our personal music label.”
The music they play of their retailers is distinctive for a lot of causes. For one, it’s loud, and initially garnered complaints from prospects not used to the vibe. However as ’90s youngsters, Grey says he and his companions had been commonly requested by their mothers to show their music down. It’s a request they ignored then and proceed to disregard, out of respect for music they consider deserves consideration.
It’s the artists, after all, whom the trio believes deserve essentially the most consideration, and so they wish to be intentional as to whose music they showcase.
“It wasn’t a standard factor to stroll right into a pizza store and listen to Southern-based hip-hop,” Grey says, “so we now have an enormous concentrate on Southern artists like OutKast, Grasp P and Goodie Mob. We’ve even acquired a mural on the ceiling of our unique location in North Nashville, with the third stanza from the Arrested Improvement track, ‘Tennessee.’”
Slim & Husky’s artwork gallery
The artwork featured of their areas grew to become complementary to the music, with murals and canvases including vibrance and persona to every location.
Nevertheless it was the PREAM mantra that continued to push the companions into new territory as gallery homeowners. Their NKA Gallery has two everlasting areas, one subsequent door to the unique S+H location in North Nashville and the opposite on the ground above their Memphis location in a constructing the companions personal.
“It was cool to have artwork within the restaurant, however we wished a spot the place we might home completely different occasions that help the humanities,” Grey says. “We concentrate on native African American artists and provides them a platform to showcase their skills, rotating one present every month.”
Supporting Black-owned companies & schooling
Yet one more space of focus for the staff is schooling. Since 2018, they’ve supplied $1,000 PREAM scholarships to S+H workers who’re graduating seniors carrying a 2.5 GPA or increased. The trio additionally provides talks in native faculties, serving as mentors for teenagers and sharing about their entrepreneurial journey.
“We’ve all the time devoted our success to offering alternatives and schooling to others,” Grey says. “We bust the parable for teenagers that it’s important to have cash to begin a enterprise. The wealth they should begin their enterprise resides inside themselves. By bootstrapping and collaborating with these round them, they will make up the assets they lack.”
The chums are actually greater than certified to offer recommendation. They created the S+H model in 2015, turning an previous storage right into a take a look at kitchen in order that they might excellent their recipes. When on the lookout for their first location, they researched extra developed sides of city like Midtown, close to Vanderbilt College, East Nashville and 12 South, which Grey says is a gentrified space with rising companies. However one thing didn’t really feel proper.
“It felt like we weren’t wanted,” Grey says. “It didn’t really feel like our objective. All of us have household in North Nashville, an space of the town that has been uncared for for years. What contributed to its downfall was placing Interstate 40 in the midst of it, reducing off financial progress and resulting in the identical stuff you’ll see in any African American neighborhood throughout the nation not supported by the town.”
Grey says their first location on tenth Avenue North and Buchanan Avenue was a meals desert and had no eating places close to it for 10-15 blocks.
“Since we opened [in 2017], there’s a clothes retailer and two eating places and bars throughout from us, and two eating places down the road—all Black-owned,” he says. “We’ve seen an enormous illustration of Black-owned businesses, which was crucial to us. All of us went to Tennessee State College—a traditionally Black faculty and college (HBCU)—and this 12 months, we opened a location at Morehouse Faculty, an HBCU campus.”
Slim & Husky’s: greater than ‘simply’ a pizza firm
What began as one retailer in North Nashville has became 11 brick-and-mortar areas, two meals vehicles and 10 concession stands—at FedExForum, Nissan Stadium and Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium—in three states. The momentum seems to haven’t any finish in sight, as Moore, Grey and Reed plan to expand into more cities within the subsequent 4 years, hoping to make S+H a family identify throughout America.
“We’ll proceed to open brick-and-mortars across the nation and ship our pizzas nationwide however hope to be in native retailers with frozen pizza,” Grey says. “We’re heading out on a PREAM tour across the nation, introducing ourselves to the remainder of America. We’ve acquired a number of plans.”
And whereas Wu-Tang Clan had an affect on the S+H staff as youngsters and, later, as pizza business influencers, the celebrities gracing their Instagram show that the style for expertise goes each methods. CeeLo Inexperienced needs to attempt their namesake pizza (the “Cee No Inexperienced,” with floor beef, pepperoni, Canadian bacon and Italian sausage), whereas singer and vegan activist Mýa enjoys the “Nothin’ However A ‘V’ Thang,” with plant-based pepperoni and sausage and vegan cheese.
Everybody from H.E.R. and Bell Biv DeVoe to DJ Jazzy Jeff and Gayle King has proven up for the TLC-inspired “Purple Mild Particular” and the “Rony, Roni, Rone!” However the S+H founders know folks come for extra than simply the meals.
“We’re not only a pizza firm,” Grey says. “We’re dreamers and risk-takers, however the general definition of who we’re is group guys. The extra you change into profitable, the extra you attain down and pull folks up with you. We wish to do issues otherwise, and pizza is our instrument to have the ability to join with the lots. We knew if all of us simply caught collectively, nothing might actually cease us.”
This text initially appeared within the September/October 2023 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photograph courtesy of Anderson Group PR.
Stefanie Ellis is a meals and journey author, in addition to PR strategist and content material creator for her personal firm. She has bylines in The Washington Put up, BBC Journey, Consuming Properly, Saveur and extra, and her shoppers are thought leaders in finance, branding, healthcare and the meals and beverage house, with a former NBA participant and duct work firm thrown in for good measure. You may get in contact at stefanieellis.com or on Instagram @40somethingunicorn.
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