Story by Tracy Morin | Photos courtesy of Pizzeria Coco
In just a couple of years, Emily Kwak and Christina Cord, owners and operators of Pizzeria Coco, have made their mark as mobile pizza business owners in the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia) area. From the start, the duo balanced a clear vision with a willingness to learn, experiment—and, yes, even fail as they learned the ropes.
“Pizzeria Coco was born out of love: for community, for connection, for great food, and named after Christina’s dog, Coco, who happily taste-tested every crust along the way,” Kwak says. “We launched our mobile pizzeria in the DMV in 2024 after training with a professional pizzaiola and deciding we wanted to build something that was about more than just pizza. We came from the tech world, we’re a women-owned business, and we do things a little differently.” (For in-depth coverage of their concept, see their profile in PMQ’s 2026 “Women to Watch” series.)
Still, as any mobile owner would expect, the journey hasn’t always been a smooth one. In this exclusive interview, Pizzeria Coco’s owners discuss how they overcame the unique challenges of running a mobile operation, what marketing and menu tactics have paid off most, and their top advice for operators who are considering going mobile.
PMQ: What are the unique challenges of running a mobile pizza business?
Christina Cord: For us, being taken less seriously as women has been a challenge from the beginning. We’ve had experiences with vendors not taking us seriously when we were ready to buy, or people at events assuming that a male team member must be the owner. When it comes to vendors, we’re not afraid to walk away and find one who treats us with respect. It’s always worth the extra time.
We also navigate a uniquely complex regulatory landscape: the ability to quickly hop between Maryland, D.C. and Virginia means every event can come with different permit requirements. On top of being in the D.C. metro area, we do a variety of events, like farmers markets and events on county parks’ properties. Different event types require specific permits. We’ve learned to build admin time into our prep and go straight to the source to get it right if we’re ever unsure.
PMQ: How do you reach customers in a mobile operation, then keep them coming back and referring friends?
Emily Kwak: Reaching customers without a fixed address can be a challenge. We get asked, “Where can we find you or your brick-and-mortar?” more times than we can count. Our foundation is a monthly schedule posted on Instagram and Facebook so followers know where to find us for our public events. We post some reminders on social media leading up to events as well. Consistency matters when you don’t have a storefront.
We get a lot of support from the communities we’re already part of: Our farmers market promotes vendors through neighborhood listservs, and county event partners share us on their social media, putting us in front of audiences we couldn’t reach alone.
On the digital side, we’ve invested in both SEO and running ads on social media. SEO has been a game changer for catering. When someone in our area searches for a unique catering experience, we show up. Social media ads have helped us get in front of new audiences beyond our existing followers. Together, they’ve built a marketing engine that works for us, even when we’re busy running events.
And honestly? Our most powerful marketing tool has always been our focus on community and customer service before pizza. The pizza has to be great, but to us, it’s secondary to how we want to make someone feel. When we make someone’s experience great and take the time to connect with them, they want to tell people, and that’s the kind of marketing you can’t buy. Word-of-mouth and referrals drive more business than anything else.
PMQ: What marketing and operational tactics have been most successful?
Cord: Ads and SEO for marketing are fine, but word-of-mouth is queen. Getting customers one time isn’t too challenging, but that first visit to one of our events is critical—we really want to wow people with our attention to detail, not just with our pizza but with our hospitality. All of our team members are engaging, friendly and proactive, and all of that goes a long way when wowing guests. When hosts and event organizers have a great experience working with us, they become our most powerful advocates—they refer us to friends, book us again, and talk about us in ways that no ad can replicate. We’re intentional about positioning ourselves as something different from a food truck or delivery service and lean into what makes us unique.
PMQ: What are the biggest mistakes you made early on?
Kwak: We made lots—and that’s OK and normal. Coming from the tech world, we have a “fail fast” mentality. We don’t beat ourselves up when something doesn’t work. We do a “retro” (retrospective) after every single event we do and ask ourselves, “What went well, what didn’t go well, and how can we improve?” We view mistakes as learning moments and opportunities to quickly change and improve. We’re also pros at staying calm, being resourceful, and quickly coming up with a solution if something does pop up. A positive mindset and the desire to continuously improve is everything to us.
At one of our first larger events, we didn’t have a solid ordering system in place. Orders kept coming in faster than we could make pizzas, and wait times got out of hand. After that event, we implemented a system where the front person takes only a certain amount of orders before they jump on the line to help, which essentially pauses ordering until we get our queue of orders caught up. We still use this system today, and it’s crucial for keeping our wait times down. Make sure you create strong processes, train your team on them, and make sure the team understands why each of those processes matter.
PMQ: What are some other major challenges you face, day to day, when running a mobile setup?
Cord: Make sure you love the work, not just the idea of it—the setup, the breakdown, the long days in crazy weather, the physical demands are all part of the job. There’s a big difference between loving to cook for people and being ready to run a business. You have to be prepared for both. Burnout is real, and it sneaks up on you fast in this industry, so make sure to make time for rest and build a strong team around you. There have been days when we got caught in flash floods, soaking everyone and all of our equipment, or days when we’re running on three hours of sleep and the thing that keeps us going is knowing why we started.
PMQ: What have been your biggest hidden costs as you establish your mobile business?
Cord: Opportunity cost. We’re a small team, and we have to turn away a lot of catering and event requests because we can’t be in two places at once—yet. Some seasons, we’ve turned away multiple bookings in a single weekend, simply because we were already committed elsewhere. Every one of those is real revenue walking out the door. We’re working toward having two teams in order to successfully handle more than one event on a given date, which will be huge for us.
PMQ: What menu items have you found to be most profitable, and what have you decided was not worth the effort?
Cord: Just because we’re mobile doesn’t mean we cut corners on quality. We’ve prioritized quality and clean ingredients since day one. Companies like Corto and Stanislaus are especially important to us, not only for their commitment to the highest quality ingredients, like olive oil, but also for their dedication to the Women in Pizza community. Each year, Corto partners with our friend Christy Alia, founder of Women’s Pizza Month, to sponsor the Women’s Pizza Month scholarship. We love working with companies that value community and prioritize quality as much as we do.
We are very serious about keeping a focused, tight menu, maximizing throughput and minimizing waste. Our Seoul Street pizza is a signature story item that’s earned its place even if it’s more complex, because it differentiates us, and it’s a real part of Emily’s story. We keep our core menu extremely small. We truly believe that simplicity is best—there’s no decision fatigue for a guest, it’s easier to train our team, less complicated prep and less waste! That’s a win-win. Specials and LTOs might seem like a way to keep things exciting, but we’ve found the opposite is true. A tight menu keeps our team sharp, our guests happy and our operations clean. Simplicity is a strategy, not a limitation.
PMQ: If you were starting over tomorrow, would you do anything differently?
Kwak: Nothing major. Starting small and iterating frequently works. The one thing that comes to mind is getting our catering pricing model right from the beginning. We started catering early on, and it wasn’t planned. In the beginning, we assumed that we’d stick to pop-ups and then quickly and unexpectedly started getting lots of catering inquiries. That was great, but we didn’t have any catering pricing ready at first, and figuring out our numbers and staffing quickly was a challenge. If you’re unsure, get help with this early on. Build a sales process before you need it, not after you’re already overwhelmed with inquiries. People assume pizza in general and pizza catering should be cheap, but there is a ton of behind-the-scenes work to prepare for an event, and paying staff a decent wage means a lot to us. You need to know your numbers in order to build a sustainable pricing model.
PMQ: What advice would you share with someone thinking about a mobile operation?
Kwak: Find a mentor. A good one will guide you, support you and be your cheerleader. Our mentor, Nicole Bean, has been one of the greatest gifts of this journey. We both believe that even with hard work alone, we wouldn’t be where we are today without her initial training and continued support. She’s the best.
Start small. Test your concept at a small farmers market or a friend’s backyard event before investing in a larger setup. You don’t need to have everything perfect before you launch—perfection is the enemy of progress! Talk to other mobile food operators before you start (they don’t necessarily need to be people in the pizza business). The pizza community is more generous with advice than you might expect. Find your people—whether they’re other small business owners or other mobile vendors—because community makes this journey so much more manageable.
Beyond that, invest in people and systems early, even when it feels expensive. The right team members and the right software will give you time back, and time is everything when you’re wearing all the hats. And, finally, make sure your “why” is bigger than the pizza. Ours is. That’s what keeps us going on the hard days.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
