Co-founder of Hong Kong’s home-grown pizza chain Dough Bros. Ed Rolston speaks about his journey launching and serving great sourdough pizza

Ed Rolston calls a neck injury that ended his professional rugby career and began his life in F&B “slightly serendipitous”.

The Hong Kong-born Brit was an ex-professional rugby player for the Leicester Tigers in the UK and Hong Kong’s senior rugby team, ending his sporting journey at age 27 out of necessity. During his rugby career, Ed, alongside Matt Lamming and chef Jack Lamming, opened Euro bistro Three Blind Mice in 2017.  

“We would finish work with rugby at 2PM or 3PM daily, hit the laptops, and work on the business,” Ed recalls in an interview. Closing in April 2020, the restaurant was a fresh addition to the Ship Street foodie ’hood, serving meaty, European-influenced sharing plates.

“This serendipitous injury thrust me into a life of being a general manager of a business, of which I knew nothing about in the beginning. We cut our teeth with that small restaurant in Wan Chai and learned a lot about what we loved about the industry.”

Ed Rolston Dough Bros
Matt Lamming (L) and Ed Rolston (R)

In the late months of 2019, Ed and Matt ventured into the pizza space, opening the first Dough Bros. store in Happy Valley. The hole-in-the-wall shop was painted and decorated, constructed, and managed by the pair. Ten-inch pizzas were crafted using 24-hour-proofed sourdough, the same starter now used today at all Dough Bros. locations. 

Soon after, Dough Bros. found a home in Soho on Elgin Street in July 2020, Kennedy Town near the waterfront in November 2020, and outside Wan Chai’s Starstreet Precinct in February 2021. When Hong Kong dining evolved during the 2020s world shut-in, the city went Dough Bros. crazy.

Dominated by delivery giants Pizza Hut and PHD and certified Italian rule-based pizza experts Fiata, Little Napoli, and BACI, Ed and Matt sought to define what Dough Bros. could offer to a busy market: “a unique style of sourdough pizza”.

“A Dough Bros. pizza is slightly chewy and fluffy, with a raised crust around the outside. I know a big thing with pizzas is a lot of people leave their crusts. We serve every pizza with a garlic and herb dipping sauce just to make sure everybody enjoys the whole pizza. Also, our crusts are delicious!”

Ed Rolston Dough Bros

Why does Hong Kong need another pizza brand? It is all in the business model and culinary innovations, Ed states. “I am a huge pizza lover, and I will always try and smash a pizza wherever I go. It is great to share memories and collaborate over pizza.”

“We wanted to create a brand that fell into the space of high-quality, fun, affordable, and aspirational pizza. People found out about us quickly, resonating with what we were trying to do. Our shops are glass-fronted with open kitchens, promoting transparency on what you are eating.”

“In Hong Kong, you have a customer that’s really open to trying lots of new things and the latest trends. We don’t cook at home with our 140-square-foot apartments with no kitchens.” Serving top-quality sourdough pizza on delivery was a self-evident plan for Ed, Matt, and the Dough Bros. family.

Yet nothing about Dough Bros. and its constantly evolving menus goes stale. Executive chef Jack Lamming and the founders run weekly tastings to sample new pizza, doughnut, and wing recipes.

Ed Rolston Dough Bros

As the “global original pizza and doughnut shop”, Dough Bros.’ fluffy, sweet sauce-filled desserts are integral to the mission of Dough Bros. “Doughnuts are a huge part of what we do. Making our doughnuts fresh to order, piping them with filling, and serving them hot is something very unique about what we do.”

Equal to their pizza game, Dough Bros routinely launches special doughnut flavours to coincide with seasonal festivities, such as a red velvet flavour for Valentine’s Day, a Baileys milk chocolate filling for Christmas, and spooky white chocolate and pistachio doughnuts for Halloween.

Ed resonates with the Shake Shack model of localising their product in each market and collaborating with local F&B vendors to deliver novel flavours and fuel local engagement with his items. Collaborations and flavours such as the Lotus Biscoff and banoffee pie doughnuts and Philly cheesesteak, Mexican chicken, and The Big Breakfast pizzas have been sold in recent years. 

Ed Rolston Dough Bros

Dough. Bros has marked Tung Chung as their latest neighbourhood opening in a rapid expansion across all corners of the city, a strategy not formed in the early days of the Dough. Bros story. “I’d be probably lying if I said that we were trying to launch a big chain of independent pizza restaurants,” Ed admits.

In 2023, the pizza company opened stores in Kowloon Bay, West Kowloon, Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsuen Wan, Lok Fu, and Hung Hom, cementing their status in Kowloon serving funky flavours. Ed is resolute on his plans to penetrate residential-heavy Sha Tin, Fanling, Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, and Tai Po, preaching Dough Bros. pizza northwards in the city.

“We want to be embedded in our communities. Pizza is about having fun and sharing memories and golden moments. When we launch new Dough Bros. locations, we are proud to be in people’s neighbourhoods, representing the wishes and states of our customers.”

Under a blueprint of “spreading mass intimacy connections with our customers”, Dough Bros. has become ingrained in 17 (and counting) distinct neighbourhoods in Hong Kong.  

Ed Rolston Dough Bros

The next big chapter of Dough. Bros. is arriving in Bangkok in May, the pizza chain’s first location overseas. “Bangkok has a booming food scene at the moment, and we really want to capture the energy of the city,” Ed says in relation to the international plans. A new Thai doughnut flavour will be launching alongside the Bangkok opening too.

Ed believes that Bangkok holds a special connection with Hong Kong, in both its love for food and brand recognition. Located in a newly built mall, Dough. Bros’ first Thailand location will house 40 seats and launch on local delivery platforms to serve pies citywide. The sourdough starter will also be flying over to serve the same authentic taste of Dough Bros. in the Land of Smiles.

When you’re not in Bangkok or Shenzhen eating, find your closest Dough Bros. location for a taste of great sourdough pizza.

Rubin Verebes is the Managing Editor of Foodie, the guiding force behind the magazine's delectable stories. With a knack for cooking up mouthwatering profiles, crafting immersive restaurant reviews, and dishing out tasty features, Rubin tells the great stories of Hong Kong's dining scene.

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