We were lucky to catch up with Eric Hollander recently and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

It started when I met my wife in a French bakery. I had been working in this bakery for over 11 years when one day she walked in looking for a job. I immediately fell for her. She was fearless and beautiful, but not intimidating as she made everyone around her feel comfortable. Yeanny has such a big heart and is a genuinely kind woman who enjoys seeing others do well. A woman of principle and unbelievably hard worker.

I found myself hanging out later in the afternoon just so I can offer her a ride home, even though I started at 4 in the morning and she started at 10 am. After getting to know each other I was able to rediscover the American dream through her drive and passion. At this point I had been working in the bakery for over a decade and was a bit burnt out. The idea was always I would be the one to take over but at some point, I no longer wanted it. My passion was gone.

The more time I spent with Yeanny the more I realized I had all the tools I needed to do what I want and pursue my own goals, not someone else’s. I had gotten comfortable in my routine working at the bakery. I felt unappreciated but just complained about it and never did anything to change the situation. My family has an entrepreneurial spirit, from both of my grandfathers who started their own businesses. They were hard workers, who started from nothing and built their own businesses. Something anyone would be proud of. My wife brought the spark back into my life.

I always wanted to have my own business. In Latin culture owning your own business is more than a dream, it’s the ultimate goal. She was determined and set to do it on her own. I would not be where I am today without her! Long story short, we left our jobs at the bakery together and set out to open our own restaurant, a pizzeria to be precise. Everyone loves pizza, I already had some experience and we had the bakery thing going for us. We both were entertaining the idea but were struggling to dial in the concept, menu, etc. We set out to work in different pizzerias over the next 2 years as we developed our plan.

After the time we worked in other pizzerias we were ready to open our place so the search for a brick and mortar location started. We stumbled on an abandoned pizzeria in Miami Beach by sheer luck. My realtor told me there was a restaurant for lease in the beach and I immediately told him “not for us”. We were looking at other places around Miami. When we decided to go visit, we knew right away that this was a good opportunity. This part of Miami Beach still has a neighborhood vibe, which is harder and harder to find nowadays. My wife and I fell in love with this community. We spent almost a year getting the place together with the vision we both had of creating the neighborhood pizzeria for all to enjoy.

The question was how did I start and how was the process from idea to execution. For me it all started with meeting my partner in life. Without her, this doesn’t happen. In life and in business it’s all about who you surround yourself with. You want to make sure that your immediate circle keeps it honest and pushes you. This plan never would have been executed if Yeanny wasn’t there to motivate me. If I hadn’t met her, I would still probably be a disgruntled worker at a french bakery.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Manhattan and grew up in New Jersey. My mother is from France, and her culture was instilled in me at a young age. French was my first language. I spent every summer as a kid going to Biarritz in the basque region of France spending time with my mom’s side of the family. Food was very important in my family. I fell in love with the culture and the appreciation of ingredients at a very early age. I was intrigued by restaurants and envied the chefs. Even early on I knew that I wanted to work in hospitality, not sure at what level but knew that I really enjoyed making others happy.

As a kid and up through college, I worked every odd job from driving an Italian ice truck to framing houses. After graduating from Johnson & Wales, I found an entry level job in a French bakery. There were 2 owners, had two retail stores on the beach, and sold some products wholesale to restaurants and hotels. I really enjoyed the wholesale side of the business. I got to meet chefs and talk about products. I loved walking though side entrances and back doors to get into the kitchen of these big restaurants and hotels to meet with some of the top chefs of the city. I felt like Henry Hill walking into the Copacabana. But I was walking into a hot kitchen with a bag of baguettes.

I learned a lot from my experience working in the bakery. In Miami at the time we were one of the only ones offering artisan breads wholesale. I was passionate about the product. The enjoyed work, labor, and technique that went into the products. I also learned the logistics, inventory, purchasing, and overseeing a team of employees in a bakery. I saw that bakery grow from 2 stores to 10 stores and into a multi million dollar wholesale operation.

At some point, once a company grows that much and that quickly things tend to get tricky. For me the most difficult part was the lack of consistency and a lesser product being served. I was losing the relationships that I had built with these chefs and desperately wanted to get back to dealing with the customers face to face and being proud of what I was offering them. I see a lot of owners who get greedy. End up cutting corners in attempt to lower their costs and ultimately the client suffers. I had lost my passion and need to get it back. The bakery business had burnt me out.

Marc’s Artisanal Pizzeria is my new restaurant that I own with my wife. The restaurant is named after my father and our ultimate goal is to honor him with a neighborhood pizzeria that’s honest with it’s customers and serves damn good pizzas and make people happy! I am striving for a sense of nostalgia from my childhood. I remember every Friday going to the neighborhood pizzeria with my family and I want to create that experience and feeling for the people of Normandy Village, Miami Beach.

We are very ingredient driven. I feel it’s important to source as much as we can locally giving our customers the freshest product possible. With our experience working in the bakery and other pizzerias, the dough is the heart and soul of our pizzeria. We naturally leaven all of our pizzas, also known as sourdough. We use organic flour and traditional techniques. No short cuts here! We take pride in hand crafting our products we are serving our customers.

My wife and I worked hard on building the restaurant as well. Yeanny is from Venezuela, and hospitality just some natural to her. Family is a priority. We wanted to create a space that you wanted to dine in and we want our guests to be comfortable. I didn’t want to open a slice joint or take out pizza shop. We want you to come with family and friends and enjoy your freshly baked pies here with us, in an extension of our home. We do offer take out & delivery as well. We get it, sometimes you just want to sit on the couch and watch TV.

We want to make honest, approachable food that everyone can enjoy. To quote Chris Bianco, “Here’s the secret. sh*t in, sh*t out. You put crap in there, crap’s comin’ out. Put good things in an oven, then we have an opportunity to make something special happen.”

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot for me was leaving my career (our thought it was) in a bakery. As I’ve mentioned before I worked in a bakery for over a decade. This is where I met my wife. The owner dangled the carrot of ownership in front of me for the last few years until I didn’t want it anymore. I was burnt out and needed to turn the page and start a new chapter.

The goal for my wife and I was to do something on our own, our own place. We weren’t sure if it would be a bakery, or Yeanny wanted to serve her food from Venezuela. I said, let’s do pizza. I had experience with pizza plus growing up a kid from New Jersey, pizza was always important to me. Everyone loves pizza.

Yeanny and I needed to learn the pizza biz before opening our own shop. And that’s what we did.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Please see the first question & answer. This is a husband & wife team!

Contact Info:

• Website: marcsartisanpizzeria.com
• Instagram: marcspizzeria