Brian of Pizzaspotz
There’s a family restaurant in downtown Scottsbluff you must try the next time you need good food. The restaurant is Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria. Owner and Scottsbluff native Melissa Schneider was kind enough to share some time with us and answer questions about the restaurant, her love of pizza and more.
Eaten at Sam & Louie’s in Scottsbluff or just want to say hi to Melissa. Do so in our comments section below?
Thinking way back, what is your first pizza memory?
My family used to eat pizza every Friday night at the Woodshed (which is still around and just around the corner from our restaurant). We had our own table in the corner. I have a younger brother and sister – my parents told my older brother and me about them while at that corner table of the restaurant eating a pepperoni and mushroom pizza.
Today, what are your favorite pizza toppings?
I love just about anything on pizza, but my favorite is probably black olives and bacon.
When did you open your Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria in Scottsbluff?
June 10, 2013. One of our requirements to starting this restaurant was finding a location in downtown Scottsbluff. We haven’t had a family restaurant downtown for as long as I remember, although there were great places in the past. We figured that being downtown would be something that would set us apart from other chains that just set up shop by Walmart.
We ended up finding a building that was built in 1914. It was a jewelry store with a vault, but when the vault came out we found these great brick walls behind the plaster. It has given the store are really authentic and warm feeling that people seem to really appreciate. Many of our older customers love that we restored the original look of the building.
Why Scottsbluff?
My husband and I grew up in Scottsbluff. We are high school sweethearts and we have lived in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, Colorado and Wyoming before we managed to make our way back home to start a family. We have been back since 2005.
There are many different pizza franchises so why Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria?
We visited their store in Sidney, NE and were really impressed with the food and the atmosphere – without knowing they were a chain. After the second or third trip, we figured out it was a chain store and given that there are very few Italian restaurants (the Woodshed is the only other one and they no longer serve pizza) it seemed like something that would work in Scottsbluff. I went home and called Sam and Louie’s the next day and the idea kind of took off from there. I was always worried about franchises because I thought they wouldn’t give us any freedom, but Sam & Louie’s has been awesome! We use their model as a base, but we are allowed to tailor our store to our community and our personalities. It makes it a lot more fun because we have room to be a bit creative with our business.
How does Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria make the life of a franchisee easier?
They made it almost too easy! They helped us find a building, had a contractor in mind and helped me along every step of the way. They also had lots of people on hand for our opening and the weeks following. They didn’t leave us until we felt like we could handle it ourselves. I still talk to them all the time whenever I need help with anything.
How many people does your store employ?
Right now we employ 16 people.
Is this your first restaurant or have you run others? If this is your first restaurant, what type of work were you in previously?
I have never even worked with the public before, let alone a restaurant. I have my own graphic design business and have worked from home since 2003.
What are the challenges of owning a restaurant in the economy of 2014?
We had a pretty great year. The community has been extremely supportive of our store and we have had strong sales with the exception of January and February, but even that hasn’t been too bad. It will be interesting to see how our first year finishes up. I feel like having the first year under our belts will help us be better prepared for sales trends.
About the Sam & Louie’s menu, what are your most popular pizza and pasta dishes?
Pepperoni pizza is our top seller, but our carnivore is a big favorite too (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, beef and sausage). People also really love our lasagne.
For our readers who have not yet visited a Sam & Louie’s New York Pizzeria, what else do you sell other than pizza and pasta?
We also offer strombolis, calzones, burgers, sandwiches and a variety of appetizers and sandwiches. We also do a lot of catering.
How is Sam & Louie’s involved in the community?
We have at least 2 small fundraisers a month to help local clubs and groups and we try to have a big event every month. We work with the United Way a lot and recently had a catering event that helped them raise over $1000 in a day (not bad for a small town). We also sponsor different sports teams and donate gift certificates to just about anyone who asks.
How do you use social media such as Facebook and Twitter?
We try to post something on social media everyday. Sometimes it is just our specials, but we use it to promote our fundraisers, and we do lots of pizza portraits (see the attached Cat in the Hat picture from Dr. Seuss Day) just to keep things fun! We’ve run customer contests on Facebook and have had cooking contests on Facebook too.
What would you say to those people in the Scottsbluff area who have not yet tried Sam & Louie’s in order to get them in the door?
I would let them know that we make our dough fresh daily and we also make our signature pizza sauce in house. We also hand assemble our lasagne every day. We are a family friendly restaurant and we have a lot of fun! I also try to emphasize that the restaurant is locally owned by Scottsbluff natives; that seems to matter to a lot of folks around here.
Do you plan on opening any other Sam & Louie’s stores? No.I have enough on my plate learning how to run this one, while still running my graphic design business!
Any last words you would like to share with our readers?
Don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t get me wrong, we did a lot of homework before we started this venture and knew it was a good opportunity, but it was still very much a leap of faith. I cannot believe how much I enjoy this business and I really like working with such great employees and meeting people in our community every day. Sometimes opportunity depends more on availability than just ability.
Visit the official Sam & Louie’s Pizzeria website.
Sam & Louie’s is one of the best pizza franchises in the nation. Learn more about franchising here.
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