A chance connection with the CEO of a large vegan food company led the owner of a Richmond restaurant to launch a line of frozen vegan pizzas.
Evan Byrne launched The Hop Craft Pizza & Beer with a partner five years ago in a former gas station on Cary Street. The restaurant has a large beer selection and serves pizzas, sandwiches and salads.
“We have a big vegan clientele,” Byrne said. “I have been living in Richmond for 12 years, and I know Richmond has a big vegan base, and I wanted to be as inclusive as possible. I wanted everybody to have an option.”
The restaurant was originally getting its vegan cheese through Unmoofoods, a Richmond startup. Byrne said he had a good relationship with the company, and people liked the vegan pizza. But Unmoofoods started to have problems and eventually went out of business.
The restaurant was not able to offer vegan pizzas with a locally produced vegan cheese, so Byrne decided he would try to make his own.
“I just started experimenting and trying to figure out a cashew-based cheese,” he said. “I ordered stuff off Amazon and did research online. It took me like two years to get something that we thought was passable. Then it started getting really good.”
It is not uncommon these days for restaurants to offer a line of sauces or other packaged goods. Byrne thought he might sell the cheese. While researching the idea, he got connected with Tiffany Perkins, who runs Plant Perks, a major vegan food company in Montana. She wanted to test the cheese, so Byrne packaged a frozen pizza and shipped it to her.
“She loved the cheese but was more blown away by the pizza as a whole,” he said.
That got Byrne thinking. What about selling the pizzas rather than just the cheese?
That led to the creation of Udderless, which launched earlier this year. The frozen vegan pizzas are offered at 11 locations around Richmond, including Ellwood Thompson’s, Libbie Market and several Stella’s Grocery locations. They sell for between $7 and $8 and Byrne said they produce between 200 and 250 of the frozen pizzas a week.
Byrne has been amazed at the response. People have always loved the pizza at the restaurant, and the frozen pizza line has given more people access to the product.
The pizzas are made at the restaurant and shipped to grocery stores. He has the capacity to fulfill the current number of orders but can foresee having to find a better process of producing the pizzas.
Udderless currently offers three styles of pizza — plain, vegan pepperoni and a Greek-style pizza with spinach, tomatoes, onions and olives. Byrne plans to launch a vegan lasagna and a pineapple and jalapeño pizza soon.
He is not looking to raise money in the short term. He has access to enough capital to grow Udderless as a local or even regional brand. But if he launches into a national chain like Whole Foods Market, he might need to start a funding round.
Right now, he is growing the business slowly. He wants to understand which products are most in demand and gauge the reaction from the retail community.
“At some point we would like to grow it, but I’m not sure,” Byrne said. “It’s really early on and, I’m not sure we are ready for it. I would like to be in a big store.”
Byrne said the journey has been fun. It is a much different experience than running a restaurant.
“The response has been overwhelming, and we love doing it,” Byrne said. “It’s a great product.”
