Despite offering full-service seating and a complete bar at most of its locations, Texas-based Detroit-style pizza chain Via 313 has quietly spent the past few years optimizing its pizzerias’ off-premises operations.
Via 313, a 2026 Food On Demand Outstanding Operator, reports that just under half of its overall sales come from off-prem consumers across its more than two dozen locations in Colorado, Utah and Texas.
Jessie Galioto-Grebe, Via 313’s Director of Marketing
A mission to better serve customers beyond the restaurant walls has reshaped the restaurant operation, both figuratively — by rolling out AI assistants to streamline processes — and literally — by restructuring the restaurant layout for simplicity and efficiency.
“We’ve migrated our to-go and pick-up (areas) to be like an extension of our bar,” said Jessie Galioto-Grebe, Via 313’s director of marketing. “It really enhances the guest experience, so it’s streamlined and easier for them to actually come in. We really changed the construction of the restaurant to make that entrance really clear for where they actually get the to-go (orders).”
One of the significant boosts to the brand’s off-prem sales, according to Via 313 president Kiplan Welsch, came in the form of catering.
“Because it is such a big chunk of our business, catering has been one of our biggest focuses, especially over 2025 and now into 2026,” Welsch said. “We actually grew about 40 percent in catering year over year, which was really good to see.”
Kiplan Welsch, Via 313 President
The pizzeria chain launched new catering packages in 2024 and introduced a catering lead position focused on local marketing inside each location.
“With those catering leads going into our restaurants, we provided them with a six-week training,” Galioto-Grebe said. “We took a high performer in the restaurant who was more operationally focused and trained them in how to be a sales and marketer — how to go out into the field and have that knowledge of connecting with potential catering partnerships.”
Via 313 boasts an extensive tech stack for an operation of its size, demonstrating a willingness to test new technologies and implement them on a wider scale when appropriate.
“We are using AI to assist with our sales forecasting,” Welsch said. “We are pulling historical data, and we are using an AI model to help basically smooth out those numbers, looking at history and then taking into account trends, holidays, things like that. So that is generated each week and then given to the area leaders in the restaurant.”
Last year alone, the brand onboarded and integrated with Olo for catering sales and rolled out voice AI agent Kea across all of its locations.
“It frees up hands inside of the restaurant, but it also allows for a little bit more of a seamless experience,” Welsch said of Kea. “Sometimes if a guest gets a newer team member, or somebody doesn’t know how to answer the questions, they’re not going to have that same experience on the phone or trying to place an order.”
Instead of operating its own fleet of drivers, Via 313 depends on third-party delivery platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash to meet customers where they are. Galioto-Grebe holds monthly calls with delivery partners to discuss performance, gather suggestions for restaurants in lower-performing markets and explore potential promotion campaigns.
“We don’t do internal delivery — we don’t have our own drivers — so it is an important part to have really good partnerships with the third-parties, even the third-party (platform) that we use is our first party delivery partner,” Welsch said. …“We’ve expanded the portfolio of the third-party options and platforms that we were on in 2025, so it gave the guests more options.”
Via 313 leadership said the brand intends to continue leaning into tech and tailoring aspects of its operation to better serve off-prem guests while expanding throughout 2026 and into 2027. Welsch reported plans to add about three brick-and-mortar locations this year and approximately double that next year.
The Outstanding Operators Program highlights 20 innovative brands taking creative paths to success with all things off-premises. Each winner receives a $1,000 charitable donation to their organization of choice and will be recognized on-stage at the 2026 Food On Demand Conference. Register today!
 |
 |
 |
