By Tracy Morin
While setting its sights on further growth, Parlour Pizza + Pints is not only adding traditional stores—it’s exploring nontraditional locations, too. Since opening its first location in downtown Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 2017, the brand has expanded to six locations in Kentucky and Indiana, and it recently joined the concessions offerings at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.
The stadium menu will feature Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza, Pepperoni & Sausage Pizza and the company’s new Smoked Chicken Tenders. Food bundles for the stadium’s suites will also be available for purchase.
But transitioning from traditional brick-and-mortar locations to concessions isn’t always easy. To find out more about the move, PMQ recently sat down with Jason Wade, VP of strategic operations and marketing for Neace Ventures (owner of Parlour Pizza + Pints), to discuss the foray into local stadium service—including its benefits, possibilities and potential pitfalls.
PMQ: What inspired your pizzeria to partner with a local stadium, and how did the collaboration come about?
Jason Wade: Parlour Pizza + Pints already had a smaller partnership in place with Lynn Family Stadium and the soccer clubs from the previous season, along with its sister brands, Falls City Beer and Hectare’s. When the previous concessionaire’s contract was up for renewal, we jumped at the opportunity! We’re all big fans of LouCity and Racing Louisville clubs, and there’s excitement about the upcoming season and the continued ascension to come. It’s a no-brainer of a partnership extension.
PMQ: How will the stadium menu differ from what customers experience at your restaurant location?
Wade: Our menu is pretty robust and assembled from very talented culinary teams. The stadium setup does present some kitchen limitations—on equipment, capacity, storage and throughput. We are consolidating the menu to focus on individual-size pizzas, breadsticks and our chicken sides…for now!
PMQ: What challenges arise when scaling pizza production for game-day crowds, and how do you overcome them?
Wade: That’s the biggest challenge, as any concessionaire can attest: How can you consistently serve a fresh, high-quality product, worthy of your brand, but in an environment where patrons want to be served very quickly, so as to not miss any action? It starts with systems and resiliency. We want to put our teams in position to succeed by only providing menu items that can be executed quickly and consistently—but that still provide a unique and special experience.
PMQ: How are you maintaining the quality and authenticity of your pizza in a concessions environment?
Wade: The best way we are looking to overcome these challenges is to supplement staffing with our own trained team members at every opportunity. Many of the matches are on Friday and Saturday afternoons, so while we’d love to have all the team in our main locations, the stadium experience provides new patrons their first impression of Parlour Pizza + Pints, and we want it to be fantastic.
PMQ: What does this partnership mean for your brand’s growth and visibility in the community?
Wade: I think you hit the nail on the head with the mention of visibility in the community. We encourage all of our management teams to be active in their local communities, from youth sports and charities to schools and first responders. The stadium partnership provides Parlour Pizza + Pints the opportunity to put out our brand and product on an elevated stage, with thousands of patrons from across the country (and sometimes international visitors) able to get a taste of what Parlour is all about. We have growth interests far beyond the Louisville and Lexington regions; I think the patron curiosity will take root as well!
PMQ: Tell us about the exclusive or signature items you have created specifically for stadium fans.
Wade: That’s actually a very active discussion among the teams. We’re particularly excited to bring our new Smoked Chicken Tenders to the stadium, for starters. These are smoked in-house daily, then seasoned with our house dry rub and tossed in a choice of sauce—very crave-worthy. They will be a favorite at matches for adults and young fans alike. We’re proud to bring three of our Parlour-exclusive draft options to the stadium as well: an easygoing IPA, a unique Smoked Blonde wheat lager, and the ever-popular Parlour Red.
PMQ: Do you see this partnership as the start of broader expansion into venues or events in the future?
Wade: I could see that, depending on the venue and patrons. As we touched on earlier, we’re a casual dining pizza restaurant that prides ourselves on delivering an elevated experience. But if we can’t consistently deliver on that expectation, we will keep our focus on our traditional locations and guests.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
