Along with a new Conroe location, Crust Pizza Co. has locations slated for Bridgeland, Katy and several other Houston areas, according to its website.
Community Impact spoke with Comeaux in August about the history of the business and its future plans in the region.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is your background?
I was raised in Louisiana, and my mom and grandma, they loved cooking, so I adopted cooking ... and became a chef. I started off in the fitness industry; I had a couple personal training studios [and was a] serial entrepreneur. I switched from franchising Fix My Phone to franchising Main Squeeze. I became friends with the founders [of Crust Pizza] in The Woodlands; I was living there, and this is at the time I was scaling Main Squeeze. [Crust Pizza had] only had a few locations but they weren’t sure how to scale. ... I helped them with that process.
How did Crust Pizza get started?
We started off at Panther Creek in The Woodlands in 2011 and we decided to start franchising in 2018. [We] started in 2020 dialing in the franchises, and now have 27 stores open with seven more to open this year. ... We’ll be well over 30 and next year ... and our ultimate goal is to achieve 25 openings per year, two per month.
We're definitely in it for the long haul, [we're] debt-free as a franchise ... we’re doing things the right way, growing slow and steady, and we’re doing that because we want to make sure every guest no matter what location they are at has the same experience.
What economic challenges are you seeing in the restaurant industry?
The cost of goods, food and inflation has always been an issue in our industry lately, but the good news is with a franchise like ours we have buying power, we’re able to keep our cost of goods in that 28% range. ... We tell every franchisee, we have great profit margins because of all the work we’ve done, with scalability we can achieve that.
What impact has The Woodlands community had on your business?
The Woodlands is really ... the reason why we’re at 27 stores [Editor's note: 28 as of press time]; when we opened Panther Creek, they really embraced our business. We had to open up a second location in Alden Bridge to relieve the pressure because it was so busy. We appreciate everyone in The Woodlands, we’re grateful we had the opportunity to serve and we’re happy we can give back to the great community that supported us to get us to where we are.
What is your favorite menu item?
I love the Carl’s King which is the supreme pizza; I love the calzones, to me they are the best I have ever had. The best thing on the menu that sells the best is the cheese bread with homemade ranch and marinara on the side. We have our own proprietary cheese; I’ve tried 30 cheeses, and we have the best I’ve ever tried in the nation.
