A new pizza restaurant with an app-based membership reward program will open on the corner of 23rd and Guadalupe street in October.

 Dollar Slice Club uses an app that charges a $5 monthly subscription fee, which reduces the prices of entrees, desserts and drinks to $1. Restaurant owner Paul Kolaj said nonmembers can still order, but items will be more expensive. 

Kolaj and his family run a pizza shop in New York, but he chose to expand their business and implement the app-based membership model for the first time in Austin since it’s a “growing city with high energy.”

 “The thought was really to offer a high-quality product in a great location with a great build,” Kolaj said. “And we think that could be a good formula for a really good business.”

 Kolaj did not use the app-based membership model at their other location at Columbia University but hopes it will be successful. 

 Given the competitive nature of West Campus businesses and the effects of COVID-19 on the economy, Kolaj said he hopes to draw in workers with wages starting at $18-$20 per hour. 

“It’s going to be a large presence of students working here,” Kolaj said “We’ll (also) have a core staff with full-timers as well who are not students (because) they’re going to be working 30, 40, 50 hours a week and it’s hard to get students to do that.”

 Finance junior Nosa Omorotionmwan said the app-based membership model feels like false advertising with the initial dollar draw of the restaurant’s name.

“When I first heard there’s a dollar place opening up I thought, ‘Wow, this place isn’t going to stay open for long,’” Omorotionmwan said. “(Because) corporations such as Dunkin’ Donuts or QDOBA end up closing. … This place only charging a dollar seemed unrealistic to me.” 

 Public health senior Oreva Oyelade said she is excited to attend the shop’s grand opening since she eats a lot of pizza.

 “I think even student orgs could capitalize on that subscription,” Oyelade said. “It would make it easier for people to buy pizza in bulk for meetings (and) I definitely think that it would help a lot of students save money.”