Served by the Slice

A Poll of LASA Students’ Favorite Pizza Restaraunts in Austin

By Emily Laux

East Side Pies

East Sides Pies is a local pizza restaurant in Austin, Texas. There are three locations, including one near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Out of the 70 LASA students who contributed to the poll, 32 said that East Side Pies was their favorite pizza restaurant. East Sides Pies has a good gluten free crust and many toppings to choose from. “I like all the different topping options and the general flavor of the crust and sauce,” Maxine Teleki-Avery, a LASA freshman, said.

Located on Hargraves Drive in Austin, Texas, Pieous is a local pizza restaurant. 5 out of the 70 LASA students who participated in the poll agreed that Pieous was their favorite pizza restaurant. “I love how droopy and thin the pizzas are. The cheese is really buttery and the ambiance is really good,” a LASA student said after answering the poll.

East Side Pies 47.1 %

Pieous

The LASA freshman took a poll asking what their favorite local pizza restaurant in Austin was. The four choices avaliable were East Sides Pies, Via 313, Mangieri’s, and Pieous. As seen below, East Side Pies was voted favortie pizza restauraunt among the LASA students. What is your favorite pizza restaurant?

Via 313 36.8% Via 313

With five locations, Via 313 is a popular pizza restaurant in Austin. It was voted favorite pizza restaurant by 25 out of the 70 LASA students who took the poll. Via 313 has unique pizza as Jette Campbell mentioned. “It(‘)s the style of pizza is much different from you(r) average pizza around Austin,” Campbell said. Via 313 is also known for its incredible Detriot Deep Dish Pizza.

Mangieri’s 10.3%

Mangieri’s

7 of the 70 LASA students who took the poll chose Mangieri’s as their favorite pizza restaurant. Located on Slaughter Lane, Austin, Texas, Mangieri’s is known for its square cut pizza. “The ambiance is inviting, and it’s a great place to go with friends, or family, ‘’ LASA freshman Summer McCurdy said. “I really like the crust on the pizza more than others, because it is sturdy enough to hold all the toppings.”

Barbecue in Business

What barbecue means to Texas and what being an owner of a barbecue joint entails.

By: Nico Campanell

Sausages fresh from the smoker are put in a tray. Photo by: Nico Campanell

It’s five in the morning and the sun is coming up. You put the meat on the smokers and proceed to fire them up. The strong aroma of barbecue creeps into your nose, as the day has started for you. Barbecue has always been a staple of Texan culture ever since it’s been around. However barbecue is no longer just a “Texan thing” anymore. Texas barbecue has been popularized around the world with Austin at its center. Owning a barbecue joint in Austin is a very tough job. The restaurant Stiles Switch was opened in 2011 by Shane Stiles and has since been one of the best places to get barbecue around town. When asked about why he started the restaurant, the answer was simple. “I grew up in a small town called Taylor, and we were fortunate to have a really great barbecue restaurant growing up called Louie Miller. [I] didn’t realize how good of barbecue we had until I got a little older and traveled. Lance Kirkpatrick, who worked at that location, retired from that location in 2008. And then in early 2011, I called him and asked him if he would join me to open Style Switch in Austin,” Stiles said. However, for Bryan Bracewell, the current owner of Southside Market, Texas’ oldest barbecue joint, it was a different story. Southside Market was founded in 1886, and Bracewell was given the responsibility of keeping the restaurant alive as it is a family business and tradition. He is the third generation of his family to run the restaurant. Barbecue is a major part of Texan culture, and it has a long, rich history that goes back hundreds of years. Wyatt McSpadden is a photographer that has worked in the barbecue industry taking pictures of barbecue and everything barbecue related, who experienced years of barbecue history, even working with Texas Monthly many times. “I loved barbecue when I was a kid. However, in Amarillo there wasn’t really any remarkable barbecue,” McSpadden said “When I moved here, I was befriended by a Courtesy of Cuisine | 27

man named John Morton, who is a writer, food writer, music writer, and he took me to cool barbecue places, in small towns in Lockhart and Taylor- beautiful spaces that had been feeding the local people for years.” Ever since then, he has fallen in love with barbecue. Stiles has felt the same way with barbecue being a big part of his life since a young age. “[It] reminds me of my childhood, and what me and my father did together,” Stiles said That was one of the things we really enjoyed doing together. He liked to cook, and I liked to eat it. Just a lot of great memories from being with my dad.” Being an owner of a restaurant and business demands one major thing, leadership. The ability to find and support a hardworking team is a big part of a business. “Our number one priority in our business is our own team,” Bracewell said. “That’s easy to say, it’s hard to do, but we believe that if we take care of our team members, and give them what they need, and support them properly, then that puts them in a position to give our number two priority our guests, our customers, what they need, with our customers at the top of the list, and if we fail to take care of our home team, then in my mind, turns things upside down.” Bracewell had a very simple and easy way of taking care of his employees. “We try to treat them as partners, and like equals, and like family. It’s easy to say and people treat you like family but, it’s harder to live that out on a daily basis, so that starts with serving leadership or tentative serving leadership is respect, and so we respect walk into every day, attempting to respect every individual, for who they are and what they can provide,” Bracewell said. Stiles, too, believed that a company’s employees are what make up your business and that you must treat them well. “The most important part of running a business is the integrity of how you treat your employees,” Stiles said. “If you are a person that your employees and team want to work under and be led by, you’re gonna have a lot more success in the business and you’re gonna have a culture

Brisket being smoked on smokers at Stiles Switch BBQ. Stiles Switch BBQ is a local barbeque business in Austin, Texas.

Photo by: Nico Campanell

Southside Market’s sign in Elgin, Texas.

wwPhoto by Winston Wanders

that people want to stay and be a part of.” Businesses also need to be able to adapt to overcome obstacles. This was a major road bump for many businesses. Bracewell and Stiles had very similar reactions and adapted in similar ways. “We went from doing counter service, always, to where we had to create an online ordering system overnight,” Stiles said. However, Bracewell took it a step further. “We added drive-throughs at three of our restaurants,” Bracewell said “We started offering curbside service; we started offering pickup service through online ordering; we offered not only our restaurant items, but our meat market items through those services as well. We also worked with third-party delivery services like doordash. Things like that helped us sell our products and distribute sauce and barbecue to grocery stores,” Bracewell said. COVID-19 is just one of the many obstacles businesses face. Competition with other businesses is another big challenge restaurant owners have to tackle. There are many ways you could deal with competition, but Bracewell had one that has stuck with him. “Those who do a good job with quality and customer service, and take care of their teams and build a good team, those who do that will be successful, and so I don’t try to inhibit my competitors from doing that. I don’t try to undermine them, talk bad about them or anything. They do a good job, they’ll be successful; If we do a good job, we’ll be successful,” Bracewell said. However he has not always thought like this. “When I was younger, I used to really worry about the competition of who’s gonna win and who’s gonna do this as I’ve matured, I’ve learned that I’ve come to believe that there’s enough business out there for everybody, ” Bracewell concluded. Stiles Switch will continue going strong in Austin. Bracewell’s Southside Market is continuing to open new locations and expanding, and McSpadden will continue to be a successful photographer. They will proceed to shape modern Texas barbecue and barbecue culture as we know it, and especially in Austin.