Rise of an Empire: Plaza pizza spot that sparked a dozen concepts celebrates 10 years

With the launch of Empire Slice House in 2013, Oklahoma City gained a neighborhood spot for New York-style pies. When you visit Empire, the restaurant walls are plastered with posters meant to "mimic a New York subway wall," and the vibes of a New York City pizzeria.

But the well-known local restaurant almost never was.

The original concept of Rachel Cope, founder and CEO of 84 Hospitality Group, had nothing to do with pizza. However, a second chance phone call and a decision to pivot 10 years ago led to building the "Empire" that would become 84 Hospitality Group.

The origins of an Empire

Cope's food journey began as a waitress while still in school. She worked in stores and restaurants throughout high school in Tulsa and college at Oklahoma City University. When she decided not to pursue law school, Cope turned a deeper focus to the field that had carried her through school.

"[I] really fell in love with music, art, booze, food, people and decided that I wanted to kind of keep growing in that and climb a ladder in that group," Cope said.

In 2012, Cope entered a contest held in the plaza district looking for a new concept for a laundry mat.

"We lost. We had an idea that wasn't pizza," she said. "Then I went to Austin for the first time, saw Home Slice Pizzeria."

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Realizing the option would have been a better fit in the growing artsy neighborhood of the Plaza District in Oklahoma City, Cope came back and started looking for a place to do pizza. Then the landlords of the former laundry mat space called back with a request.

"Do you have any other ideas? We really like you but your idea is not good," Cope said. "I said pizza but, we didn't know how to make pizza, and so we had about four months to figure it out. I ended up flying to pizza school in San Francisco."

Tony Gemignani’s International School of Pizza, to be exact. Cope said "in typical restaurant fashion," she was the only woman at the school, but despite not being a chef Gemignani taught her a great deal and invested greatly in her learning.

When she returned, she shared everything she had learned with her friend and the two rolled with the knowledge gained at the school to create Empire Slice House in its original location on NW 16 Street.

"The dough recipe that we use is still what we learned at school," Cope said. "Now we just get to play with all the toppings and everything."

Expanding the Empire to new realms

After opening Empire, and working with others in the industry like James Beard finalist Jeff Chanchaleune, a series of other restaurant concepts joined Cope's portfolio — Goro Ramen, Rev Mex, Gun Izakaya, Remix Ramen, and Burger Punk, among others.

"We were young and so we were just doing our best, and once we saw we had success with that Goro actually came next," Cope said. "We'd also signed a lease for Rev."

With so much happening in quick succession, Cope and her partners realized an umbrella group to oversee the development of concepts might be the best choice. They created 84 Hospitality Group as a way to share resources and messaging across restaurants, creating a unified brand.

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Restaurants under the 84 Hospitality umbrella continue to expand and transition, Rev was recently sold to another Oklahoma restaurant group, Shared Plate Hospitality, and Burger Punk is just weeks away from opening a second location in the Britton District.

"We're always creating and even though most of our concepts are casual, casual plus style dining experiences, a lot of us in 84 actually came out of finer dining and I think that we would like to try our hand at a more refined style of dining at some point," she said. "I was looking at a list earlier of all the places we've had over the years, and we've closed or helped create six others that don't exist anymore, or that are shelved for later."

Celebrating 10 years of slices and pies

Today, Empire is serving up signature pies with unique topping combinations across the metro and in Tulsa. From the Evil Empire to the Foghorn Leghorn and the Rocksteady to the Notorious P.I.G., the pizzas at Empire tie into a love for pop culture, music and fun you'll find embedded into the playful nature of all 84 Hospitality restaurants.

"All of our pies are really rooted in very traditional New York-style pizza, but it doesn't have to be that serious. You can still serve really quality food that follows some rules in parts of it, but then play with the rest of it," Cope said.

With six locations and a seventh in development, Empire Slice House remains the cornerstone of a growing 84 Hospitality Group portfolio.

"We'll take it as far as it can go, as much as our team can handle too, that's really important," Cope said. "We have a really big team here and they are the ones that make it possible, and as long as they can handle it, and they want to keep growing."

The original Plaza District location was outgrown and in 2018, Empire relocated down the street to a larger space and built out a headquarters for 84 Hospitality on the second floor.

Continued success and growth now has the group gearing up for the 10-year anniversary celebration for Empire on Oct. 28.

The event will, of course, feature pizza and because it falls the weekend before Halloween, costumes are being encouraged. In addition to music, a local wrestling outlet has also partnered with the restaurant to provide entertainment.

"It's like WWE not like State Championship Wrestling, so there's literally like a ring and they're gonna have some props that we're going to provide that are pizza driven," Cope said. "We don't know what we're doing, it's gonna be hilarious. It's going to be amazing."

Guests can also look for pizza discounts, skateboard decks and merch and the event will also have a pizza eating contest, which is still open for submissions from those looking to participate. Plus, Stonecloud Brewing is set to release the first Empire beer, that will be available in stores throughout the month of October.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Empire Slice House Plaza celebrates 10 years with anniversary party