Home Slice Pizza on East 23rd Street ‘BEST PIZZA FOR BEST PRICE’
Josiah Johnson got lucky when he named the vegetarian pizza at his new Chattanooga restaurant “Reggie the Veggie.”
He didn’t know the legendary pro football player Reggie White, “the minister of defense,” was from Chattanooga.
“I just picked something that rhymed with veggie,” said Johnson, who’s OK with rededicating the pizza after the hometown NFL star.
“That’ll be the word from here on out,” said Johnson, the general manager at Home Slice Pizza, which opened a month ago at 2000 E. 23rd St., in The Chatt Inn hotel.
The brothers who own the hotel, Jeff and Matt McFarlane, recruited Johnson to launch the pizza place, which is mainly take-out and has four tables inside.
Chicken wings by the pound, the “meat monster” pizza, and deep-fried Oreos are some the popular menu items, Johnson said.
“Our wings are killing it,” he said. “I sold four cases of wings last week.”
Pizzas come in three sizes: a 7-inch small, 10-inch medium and 14-inch large. The crust has real corn meal, Johnson said, and is baked on pans — not just slid through the rollers on the oven — to give a crunch to every bite, Johnson said.
It’s the best pizza in town for the best price, said Matt McFarlane.
“We just felt that we could provide a quality product at an affordable price,” he said. “I like that people are
“We just felt that we could provide a quality product at an affordable price. I like that people are pleasantly surprised when they come in.”
– MATT MCFARLANE, CO-OWNER OF THE CHATT INN HOTEL
pleasantly surprised when they come in.”
Johnson, 30, has worked in the restaurant business since he was 14, when he had to get his parent’s permission to bus tables at a Texas Roadhouse. Johnson moved around a lot, since his father is an evangelist pastor, and he’s worked at restaurants in seven states, including at two pizza places: as head of the kitchen at a Formaggio’s in Tampa, Fla., and as manager of J. Burns Pizza Shop in the Lakeland, Fla., area.
The McFarlane brothers got to know Johnson, when the McFarlanes went to a Lakeland-area church where Johnson’s brother is the pastor.
“That’s how we met,” Johnson said. “We’re not afraid to tell people we’re a Christian business, for sure.”
Home Slice Pizza just signed up for advertising on nonprofit Christian radio station J103. Before that, the advertising has been word-of-mouth and social media. A device on the front counter shows, in real time, how many Facebook “likes” the business has.
“It’s been a good first month,” Johnson said. “We’re busier every day.”