IN CRUST WE TRUST

Over the years, Home Slice has evolved from a scrappy local mom-and-pop pizzeria into an iconic Austin landmark. We vow, humbly and with devotion, to make the world a better place through pizza.

What is New York-style Pizza?

NY-style pizza has a crisp, stone-baked Neapolitan crust (as in from Naples, Italy), slices so large it’s customary to fold them down the middle to eat, and a variety of authentic toppings adapted from the kitchens of Italian grandmothers everywhere.

Still not sure what makes pizza New York-style? Here’s a quick lesson:

  • A cheese pizza with fried eggplant slices on top IS NY-style.
  • A classic “white” pie with ricotta and olive oil IS NY-style.
  • A flabby pepperoni and mush (room) delivered by [insert favorite chain here] is NOT NY-style.
  • A wood-fired gourmet extravaganza of lamb, cilantro and chévre may be delicious, but it’s NOT NY-style either.
  • And barbecue chicken kimchi pizza? We’re not even going to go there…

Our Team

Home Slice Pizza was created by three great friends — married couple Jen and Joseph Strickland and partner Terri Hannifin Buis — with a passion for food and hospitality and a vision for an Austin institution based on the original, unfailing goodness of authentic NY-style pizza; No compromise. The dine-in side of Home Slice was opened in November, 2005 and followed with More Home Slice, the takeout and slice operation across the parking lot in 2010. Our third location in Austin, on North Loop & Duval, opened in 2018.

Jen Scoville Strickland

 Founder / Owner

Jen is the creative inspiration behind Home Slice and the de facto Queen of Pies; the point person for all things food. Even after 13+ years in the restaurant business spent eating things that previously scared her and gaining a new sophistication about food culture, she’s still inspired by the dishes she grew up cooking and eating with her Italian-American family in upstate New York. Creating an experience that features delicious, unpretentious food; hand made with quality, authentic, ingredients, and love continues to be her main ambition, as is sharing genuine hospitality with everyone who walks through the Home Slice doors. Usually happy to make the dinner and start the conversation, Jen is driven by the other things we bring to the table with us: humor, drama, music, art, compassion, connection. She is thrilled to serve many walks of Austin life and to get to work with the Home Slice team every day.

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Terri Hannifin Buis

 Founder / Owner

When Terri was a wee baby, she scrubbed down the slats of her crib with a burp cloth and hosted a party for her lovies. Then, as a toddler, she started a successful curbside doughnut shop that put all the neighborhood lemonade stands to shame. As a teenager, she ran a yogurt shop and got her jollies by standing back before closing to survey her work: the gleaming chrome of the yogurt machine, which she had just gone over with a toothbrush. After that, she conquered fine dining with her bare hands, leaving a wake of satisfied regulars, restaurateurs who wanted a piece of her, and a long line of former employees and future success stories who owe her their badass work ethic and professional maturity. Finally it was on to Home Slice, which she birthed with glee, and nurtured with love, and where she continues to mentor and care for everyone in her giant wingspan.

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Joseph Strickland

 Founder / Owner

A pizza lover (favorite topping: ricotta) who also appreciates the communal aspect of pizza—a shared food that brings people together—Joseph leads the Home Slice team in the areas of growth, innovation, collaboration, and strategy.  A native Houstonian, he has resided in Central Texas since the late 80s.  Before co-founding Home Slice in 2005, he spent ten years working in the tech industry and also made an award winning documentary.  An avid music fan, he was instrumental in Home Slice’s annual SXSW day party, Music by the Slice, and is currently himself an aspiring musician/songwriter. This means he only needs to add politics to his resume to have officially done every Austin thing there is.

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Jeff Mettler

 Partner / Special Projects

Jeff Mettler proudly holds the title of “Special Projects” at Home Slice Pizza. A mysterious-sounding assignment that means he gets to incubate, innovate, instigate and motivate many of the unique experiences that Home Slice is known for… and he loves it. Hailing from the great state of South Jersey (not a state, but a state of mind), he has called Austin home for almost half his life. Though his career started on the kitchen side of the restaurant business as a professionally-trained chef, he now puts his attention towards hospitality and exceeding expectations for people in any way he can. Some of the passions he shares in this role include special events, curating the music experience, and developing the wine, beer and cocktail program. But being present and connecting with guests on a busy dining room floor is the real sweet spot for him… and hopefully for you.

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Adam Cooper

Partner / Managing Director

Adam’s professional career commenced at a small pizza restaurant in Maine, where he worked his way from dishwasher to pizza maker. Since, he has worked primarily in business operations and IT, and was thrilled to come back to the pizza biz when he joined Home Slice in early 2012. While he likens himself to the wizard behind the curtain, pulling levers and working gadgets, in reality, he’s just a technology and information dork with a penchant for detail. When not at the restaurant, he can be found playing music or adventuring in the kitchen.

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Jeff Fowler

Director of Operations

Jeff Fowler has spent the last 25 years of his life in the service industry and is truly grateful that he has never had to fall back on his college degree for employment. He credits his grandfather for telling him that “no matter what you do for a living, just make sure you love it.” With that as his mantra, Jeff pursued his passion of food and hospitality from Austin to the SF Bay Area.  However, there’s no place like home, and as such, Jeff has truly found happiness at Home Slice Pizza, where every day he gets to dork out about hospitality, food, and the love we put into everything we do. When he’s not trying to make Home Slice Pizza the best pizzeria in the country, you can find him singing karaoke, two-stepping, playing the guitar, or reading some form of fiction.

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Charles Corprew

Director Kitchen Operations

Charles is a kitchen Jedi who came to Home Slice with a variety of food service backgrounds. Hailing originally from the cultural melting-pot that is Houston, Texas, he developed an early passion for different types of cuisines. It was there he started his restaurant career, and his journey through culinary hyperspace has led him through the backdrops of Cajun style seafood, Asian fusion, and authentic Texas barbecue. Now he has found a home with us obsessing over NY-style pizza.  The kitchen is his domain, where he bravely uses the force to maintain the highest standards of quality, execution, cleanliness, and love, in our food.

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Julie Pearson

General Manager, South Congress

Julie is a South Austin native who earned her chops at two Austin institutions: At Trudy’s, where she started her restaurant career, she was promoted through all the front of house positions to become assistant GM and was even voted ‘Best Server in Austin’ by the Austin Chronicle. She also spent considerable time at Matt’s El Rancho, another beloved family-owned business that is equally fast and furious and puts a high priority on hospitality. Julie is a natural at taking care of people, but she takes hospitality to a new level at Home Slice, where she prides herself on working with people that derive true pleasure from doing nice things for others, just because it makes someone’s day better. At the same time she imparts this noble mission to her staff, she’s also inspired by them: a vibrant and spontaneous group who loves to turn guests on to the experience of Home Slice. Julie wouldn’t be a true Austinite without a couple of rescue dogs, so when she’s not at work you might find her hanging with her pups, or dining out, or another Austin tradition… dining out with her pups!

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Marla Davis General Manager, More Home Slice

Marla Davis

General Manager, More Home Slice

Marla brings nearly 20 years’ experience in the restaurant business to her role as GM of More Home Slice. She started at Pappadeaux while studying English at UT Austin and found her calling in hospitality. The ability to turn someone’s day around with one gesture made it impossible for her to want to do anything else. That passion has been the driving force throughout her career, and it has led her to feel at home with Home Slice. When not pursuing her hospitality dreams she has made it her mission to adopt neglected dogs and now her family shares their home in Taylor with a multitude of furry family members. She lives her life attempting to be one of the helpers that Mr. Rogers told the world to look for in a crisis and hopes to inspire the world to do the same.

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Mario De Leon

General Manager, North Loop

With a degree in microbiology from UT Austin, Mario thought he had a sound direction for his career.  But larger-than-life stories that his mother, Celia, craved only Pizza during her pregnancy and ate her way to an Italian first name for her son, predicted a different course: Mario was destined for the pizza business.  A self-proclaimed good-times-aholic, Mario is drawn to the hospitality industry for the social aspects and the ability to touch so many different people’s lives. As the GM of Home Slice North Loop, he loves that he gets to throw a party every day at work, and also as a leader has the opportunity to inspire his team and teach them nuances to exceed expectations at every interaction. It’s important to Mario that everyone in the joint is having fun, customers and employees alike! When he isn’t recreating at the shop, you can usually find Mario fly fishing, bow hunting or listening to rap music, hobbies he plans on continuing well into his golden years.

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Cristina “Cristi” Contreras Avila Head Kitchen Manager Home Slice/More Home Slice

Cristina “Cristi” Contreras Avila

Head Kitchen Manager Home Slice/More Home Slice

Cristi hails from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, where she studied cosmetology and esthetics. She moved to Austin in 2008, and after a 5-year stint at the Tavern and Sullivan’s Steak House, she joined the Home Slice team in 2012. She started out on the salad and sub station—she makes one of the best Italian Assorted subs you’ll have—but her passion for learning new skills and techniques led her to master the other line positions in short order. In fact, you have probably seen her showing off her craft tossing giant pies high into the air. Cristi loves working side by side with her teams, and now feels like Home Slice has become her home away from home. She takes pride in knowing that the food she prepares is made with a lot of love, and she hopes that our guests can feel that in every bite! From pounding dough to parenting, she puts 110% in everything she does. In her free time, Cristi spends time with her two sons, freelances as a makeup artist, hangs with friends, and participates in the community.

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Marvin Mendez Head Kitchen Manager Home Slice/More Home Slice

Marvin Mendez

Head Kitchen Manager Home Slice/More Home Slice

Marvin is not only our resident pie flying expert, he is also one of our favorite success stories! Marvin started with Home Slice Pizza in 2010 as a dishwasher and worked his way up through the ranks. Never missing an opportunity to learn, he has earned his spot as a Co-Kitchen Leader of our South Congress restaurants. He credits his mother for first making him passionate about food, and he’s still working on making mole like his grandma did in Guatemala. Marvin’s goal is ensuring that Home Slice Pizza remains the best pizzeria in Austin and that his employees have a great place to work every day. He is grateful for being appreciated, supported, and loved by all in the Home Slice family, and is excited that it is now his chance to provide that same appreciation, support, and love to his teams. When not making HSP the best it can be, Marvin enjoys time with his wife and three children.

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Eric Wood

Head Kitchen Manager, North Loop

Eric has done most of the jobs in the restaurant world over the last 16 years, from server to GM to everything in-between.  After tiring of the corporate dining scene he landed in the Home Slice kitchen on South Congress, where he settled into the mom-and-pop, hand-tossed ethos and quickly became a standout teammate and leader. His dedication to producing consistently delicious food and inspiring his coworkers to go the extra mile garnered him the position he holds now, and you can find him at the North Loop store, continuing to hone his craft.  When he’s not wrestling dough, Eric spends his time, uh… wrestling. Actually as video director and editor for Austin-based Inspire Pro Wrestling. The guy may dig throwing things around, but his mission that everyone who works in his kitchen leave a better person, professionally and personally, keeps him grounded.

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