Emily Hyland
Emmy Squared | New York
October 2019
The odds of Emily Hyland succeeding in the specific way she has seems infinitesimal. Here’s the story: Two pizza-loving college kids move to New York City to start their lives. They end up making their mark with the very thing that brought them together—pizza. And they manage to get the most jaded diners in the world—New Yorkers—to embrace their pizza with a level of fanaticism seldom seen in restaurants. Even more, they do it in three different restaurants with three completely different styles of pizza—wood-fired Neapolitan-ish at Emily, Detroit pan-pizza at Emmy Squared, and grilled Rhode Island-style pizzas at recently opened Violet.
A food life hadn’t always been on her radar though, and before all that Emily was a New York high school teacher and yoga instructor. Her former business partner Matt Hyland attended the Institute for Culinary Education, and after meeting mentor Luca Arrigoni and learning the craft of artisan pizza-making, the two opened Emily in 2014 and Emmy Squared just two years later. Since then, Emily is still teaching yoga and has helped open Emmy Squared locations in Nashville in addition to those planned to open in Philadelphia. Both Emily and Emmy Squared have been mainstays on year-end and best-of lists from Eater and Bon Appétit to TimeOut and Zagat, and many more.
