May 16, 2025 • 19 mins
Avery Ward, CEO of Little Italy Pizza, shares how he transformed his family's business from a small pizza shop into a multi-million-dollar restaurant group. In this episode, Avery talks about the power of content marketing, building lasting relationships with customers, and staying true to core values while innovating. From the “Slice of Life” series to the challenges of creating a great guest experience, Avery dives into what’s worked for Little Italy and what’s next on their journey.
Zack and Avery discuss:
- Avery’s journey from Apple Genius to CEO
- How creating content helped Avery transform the culture at Little Italy
- The impact of "Slice of Life" series on employee and customer engagement
- Why relationships with customers are key to success in the restaurant business
- Avery’s strategy for balancing technology and hospitality in a growing brand
- The importance of doing the hard work consistently in business
Thanks, Avery!
Links:
Follow Avery on LinkedIn
Follow Little Italy on Instagram
Visit Little Italy Website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover theirstrategies and tactics to help
you create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the insightsyou need, with none of the
(00:21):
annoying surveys for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
Today we have a hero of mine,someone who not only is in the
pizza industry, but somebody whowears it on their sleeve the
man with the shirt, avery Ward.
He went from Apple genius toCEO of Little Italy Ristorante.
He's also the creator of Sliceof Life series and just digital
(00:46):
master.
You do such incredible videosand content and it's an honor to
have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Avery Well, thanks for having me, thanks for the
kind words.
I love that you recognize whatwe've been working on over the
last few years.
It's been a lot of growth, alot of hard days, but it makes
it all worth it to come talk togreat people like you.
And thanks for the shirt inspo.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So there's a pizza neon sign behind my head that
Matt Platt gave to me, and Matt,he saw my shirt, he liked it.
You work with Matt.
You saw the picture of theshirt, you liked it.
So Matt found a guy and you nowmake your own custom pizza
shirts with drippy pizza andpepperonis and your logo on it,
(01:26):
and they look awesome and it'ssuper cool, man, because I think
that it makes a lot more sensefor you to be rocking a pizza
shirt than me well, I mean, Isaw you.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I was like man.
That's because so matt, youknow, always talks about wearing
your brand.
Right, he's always like.
You know, you got to live thebrand, you got to wear the brand
, you got to be able to talkabout the brand and his thing is
orange.
You know, he's got the orangecars and he's got the orange
shirts and the orange shorts andeverything's orange.
And I'm like man.
I need something like that.
So I was on the search forprobably six or so months and he
(02:02):
was doing a podcast.
I saw you in the pizza.
I was like the pizza shirt's it, I can wear it, it's open.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
It's free game.
Oh, that's yeah, becausethey're done.
They don't make the pizzashirts anymore, and so it's
great that you did your own newand improved version of it.
But I want to talk Avery.
I know that we're maybe we'llsee how the timing works out on
this, because we just have somuch to talk about.
I want to talk about guestexperience, but first I want to
talk about content.
There's a lot of restaurantsout there who are like afraid to
(02:31):
make content, and I feel likethere's very few who are just
crushing the game.
You're doing it, sean Walchefis doing it, there's a few
others, but what is the benefit?
Like, have you seen morebusiness by doing social media?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's one of the hardest questions to answer,
right?
I get asked that question sooften of what's the value that
it brings you and it's trulyimmeasurable.
I can't necessarily translatethe work that we're doing online
to a dollar value that it'shelped us grow and everybody's
always, like you know, they hearmy story and they see that we
went from this $500,000 a yearpizza place hole in the wall mom
and pop to this five and a halfmillion dollar restaurant
(03:13):
location which is soon to be arestaurant group with multi
locations in the pipeline plan,and we're going to be a $24
million restaurant group in 10years or less.
And so everybody sees thatgrowth and they're like how are
you doing it?
And I can't give you an answerbecause there's a hundred
thousand things that we've goton our plate that we're working
on to make that happen Right,and social media and our content
(03:35):
game is just one of thosestrategies in that pipeline that
allow us to get to that endresult.
But what I can measure is thepeople that come in our store
and have a conversation with megoing, hey, I saw what you guys
did last.
Or I saw where my salad comesfrom and the lettuce that's on
my plate.
That was crazy to see howthat's grown.
And those are what's measurable.
(03:57):
What's also measurable that Inever anticipated the slice of
life series would bring us ourculture change.
We've always had a really goodculture and I've always known
the restaurant culture that Iwanted to have for my space.
I didn't want to have aworkplace where employees would
grab the door handle and sighbefore they open that back door
to come to work that day.
Right, I always knew the typeof workplace I wanted to have,
(04:18):
but I always struggled gettingeverybody in my business and
especially as we grew from apoint of 12 employees to now 95,
getting everybody in thecompany to understand not only
where we've come from, wherewe're going, but more
importantly, the work that theydon't understand.
Their managers and leaders doevery day to make this place
better.
And so Slice of Life has quiteliterally allowed us to showcase
(04:40):
that to them in a visual waywhere they're seeing the work
that goes in week after week andthe growth and the change in
front of their face in therestaurant, but also they're
seeing the story of how thosechanges come to life.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And it's been really powerful stories sell, and it's
not.
They don't just like sellpizzas, but they sell vision,
they sell engagement, they sellloyalty, and I love that you're
sharing these stories, not justof the food, but of the origin
of the food and of your storytoo, of, like, the origins of
the ideas and stuff it's it'spowerful, 1000%.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And you know, the thing about slice of life is
we've been going at this for alittle over a year now.
I think we're up to 60 episodeslast week.
It's not about just us.
It truly pulls back thecurtains to allow us to showcase
our team members and the great,great work that they're doing
in the dish communityinvolvement, what we're doing in
(05:35):
our community and of differentorganizations that we partner
with on a regular basis.
But then also, my favorite partour industry people like
yourself, people like the guywho makes my sub buns to the
company who makes my lettuce.
I want to showcase the hardwork that they do that goes into
that piece of lettuce, becausesometimes people get a plate of
(05:56):
food and they don't reallyrealize how much work, love and
care goes into each ingredienton that plate.
And we've been able to take theslice of life into some amazing
places and we have some greatepisodes coming up in the next
few months where we go in tosome food service partners of
ours and show the process, showthe people that go in to that
(06:18):
bun, that lettuce, thatpepperoni, that sausage, all of
the things.
There's a people and there's aprocess and people are really
curious about that.
But we're ultimately curiousabout it because we know that
we've picked the right customersfor us to serve, but also the
right vendor partners yourself,and there's people behind these
brands that we work with and wewant to share the amazing things
(06:39):
that they're doing.
I love that.
And so last piece on that ourcommunity.
Because we're doing all that,they get to feel a part of our
story and they don't just seethe food.
They see not only our values butthe care and the detail that we
put into everything that we do,and that's been immeasurable.
So how do I measure it?
I can't but the conversationsthat I have and the work that
(07:01):
we're doing with slice of life.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
that's measurable and it's beautiful to see, it's
like Gary V, one of the thingsthat he tellsa story about his
head of marketing, who was likewhat's the ROI of a follower?
What's the ROI of a follower?
And he finally goes to her andsays what's the ROI of your mom?
How do you just put a value onall those little things that she
did for you?
What is the ROI of a fan?
(07:22):
What's the ROI of the media?
Some things are hard to track,but in aggregate, they create a
brand, they create a experiencethat helps people feel connected
, and when you feel connected,that is what drives true loyalty
.
And so I think that what you'redoing is incredible.
What would you say to anyonewho's worried about creating
(07:44):
content for their restaurant,not sure if they could do it or
if they should do it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Get uncomfortable.
Every business has an evolutionand a revolution.
The revolution is that we needto do something.
We're at this point and werealize there's opportunity and
then you get to that point of anevolution.
It's like, oh, we did that.
We look back and go oh, I can'tbelieve we were struggling with
that.
Right when we were at 60 weeksago with slice of life, it
turned into this.
(08:09):
It was this little fun sideidea, side story of this I
always wanted to be a TVpersonality.
When I was a kid, I wanted tobe a weatherman.
I was oh yeah, oh yeah, it'sbad, it's bad.
My dad, when he pulls out theVHS man, stuff goes wild.
I literally set up a VHSrecorder on a tripod and there
was a blizzard in 2008 thatwiped through Ohio and I was
(08:30):
literally outside like the windwas going wild, I was holding
onto my jacket and I was filmingthe weather at like yeah, it's
stupid.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
My creative marketing director saw that.
He was like dude, you're meantfor the camera and I had done
some other things with otherorganizations.
You know that one of thehighlight is and stuff.
But the first episode wascalled Avery goes back to school
and we went to the local school.
They wanted me to come in andtalk to some middle school
students about career path andstuff like that, and we filmed
it and I watched the episode.
(09:01):
I was like dude, this is killer.
And he's like we could do thisevery week.
And I was like let's do it.
And so that week forward.
Man, we have not missed a weekand it's been a beautiful thing
I'll tell you 2024 was over andwe did a recap on 24 and just
look back on what we did thatyear, because we started it
around January and it was soamazing to watch that video and
quite literally see my wholelife flash before my eyes over
(09:23):
the course of the year and allthe wins and all the struggles
and just it was a beautifulthing to watch, truly it was.
But what?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
great advice get uncomfortable, flip that camera
around and hit record and justdo stuff.
We were talking right beforethis podcast about like
recording equipment and weretalking right before this
podcast about like recordingequipment and how.
When I started this podcast, Iliterally didn't even have a
microphone.
And then now I'm trying to dolike in-person podcasts and so,
avery, you were the one whoshowed me the mics that you use,
(09:50):
so I bought those same mics andthen I don't have a camera yet
for that stuff, but I'm doingusing my laptop.
It's just a matter of like.
Just start with what you got.
It doesn't need to be perfect,it doesn't need to be polished,
but what it does need to be isconsistent and try different
things until you feel somethingthat fills your niche.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Critical right there.
It's restaurant owners all thetime.
They see all this contentonline, whether it's from
amazing coaches that are outthere like David Scott Peters, a
great friend of mine andawesome guy.
But people like that can quiteliterally change your life if
you let them and you take theiradvice and make change.
But sometimes people hearindividuals online talking or
maybe it's me right now and theyhear all the things we're
(10:30):
talking about Like I could neverdo that.
It's just another thing intheir bank deposit.
In the back of their head it'slike, oh, I want to work on that
.
Oh, I need to do that.
Oh man, I suck at that.
Oh, I got to do this.
But if you just keep lettingthose things bank up and stack
up behind you and you don't everstart to chip away at them or
document them somewhere andgoing, oh, I need to do that,
I'm going to do that and notthat you need to, you're going
(10:50):
to and so start tracking.
You're running what I callissues list.
You're tracking your issuesthat are happening in your
business, whether they're ashort-term issue or long-term
issue, and you're creating inyour head a process that you can
go down to fix it right.
And you just got to start doingit and put in the work to do it
.
You can't give up.
So when it doesn't work, youidentify how you make it better
(11:12):
or how you fix it right, andit's not just like, eh, that
thing didn't work as I tried it.
No, we'll work.
You just got to do it.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, I look at this podcast.
I mean probably our first 50episodes.
It was like me and my grandmawho listened to them, right, and
now we're closing in on 400episodes and you learn how to do
it and you learn how to getbetter and what works and what
doesn't.
But it's about that constantevolution and changing and
trying new things.
And, yeah, so tell me aboutyour philosophy of guest
(11:43):
experience.
How do you create a great guestexperience?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, so yeah, I think it's important to go back
to the beginning and I'll bevery brief with this.
We're a 45-year-long legacyrestaurant.
I started with my grandparentsin the 60s as a grocery store.
They were business owners atheart and always wanted to
venture into owning their owngrocery store because my grandpa
was a produce manager and theygot this great offer traveling
(12:08):
through town to purchase thisbusiness $18,000 and ran their
grocery store for almost 20years.
And my grandma's little side gigof love of cooking Italian
specialties meatballs, pastashome, you know, scratch made
noodles and dressings and allthat stuff became what people
came for rather than the grocerystore.
So they're coming to thegrocery store to get groceries,
(12:28):
yet leaving with grandma's to-gocontainer clamshells of food
for dinner that night.
So that's kind of where thelight bulb in their head went.
We got something here and sothey purchased a little pizza
shop down the road and kind ofthe rest is history with.
Literally my dad ran thatbusiness for 40 years and my dad
was very much.
So do it yourself, know it allgot a hand on everything, or
(12:48):
else it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Right, I grew up in that business, you know so.
My grandma's house, which sheraised my dad and his three
other siblings in, was inchesaway from the grocery store
which then turned into therestaurant.
So summers and after school Iwas at grandma's house, but I'd
always end up in the restaurantwith my dad, and so I watched a
lot of things that he did welland I watched a lot of things
(13:12):
that he didn't do well.
That I knew I didn't want toreplicate.
I never wanted to be in thefamily restaurant business.
Like you said, I worked forApple for about five and a half
years.
That was my passion.
But you say what makes usunique?
I think what makes us unique isgoing back to the foundations
of how we got started, and thatwas that my grandma and my dad
(13:34):
and my grandpa did really,really well was building
connections in this community.
So they established reallygreat relationships with their
clientele, so much so that thosepeople considered them like
family and went and told thewhole world about this little
grocery store and or a littlepizza shop that you got to check
out in Groveport Ohio.
So when I came back to thefamily business, it wasn't
(13:57):
because I wanted to, it was kindof a necessity.
My dad had a brain aneurysm in2015.
He wasn't able to do his samelevel of doing it all any longer
, and so I very quickly saw thatI need to delegate really well,
I need to grow a team, I needto grow the business sales
because at the time they wereabout to go bankrupt because it
was going down because my dadcouldn't be the be-it-all guy
(14:19):
anymore.
Through that, I looked back andI took a really long, hard
pause to think about how did weget to where we are?
How are we in business for 40years as a pizza place and 20
years as a grocery store beforethat and still be here today?
And it was because they createdlasting memories that are worth
(14:40):
sharing.
And so our tagline that Icreated now for our restaurant
group is creating lastingmemories worth sharing through
exceptional hospitality, greatfood and even better people.
And so my dad and mygrandparents were huge about the
way that they treat theircustomers, the way they
establish relationships, and itwasn't just Betty Sue who comes
(15:01):
in.
It's Betty Sue who's married toBob, and they got a son named
Jim and they come here once aweek and little Jimmy loves the
ravioli.
And are you getting littleJimmy's ravioli today?
So that's the level ofrelationship building that they
did.
And are you getting littleJimmy's ravioli today?
So that's the level ofrelationship building that they
did.
And when you have that type ofrelationship with your customers
(15:21):
, they want to go tell everybodyabout this place because
there's not many of those thatare around any longer.
Right, there's when we thinkback to the 1950s and 40s and
60s.
I've got so many photos of whenit was a grocery store and it's
a beautiful thing to see.
But you can see peopleconnecting with one another at a
counter holding up this pieceof meat, right, and you could
just see the level of engagementthat they had with that person.
(15:42):
You don't have that anymore andyou walk into your big chain
grocery store and it's.
I'll take a flight.
Okay, anything else, sir,here's your flight, taking that
same mentality that it was backthen, because worlds were a lot
simpler.
We didn't have these phonesthat we're connected to.
We didn't have these laptopsthat we got on and talked to a
guy who's halfway across thecountry on a podcast.
We didn't have those forms ofcommunication.
(16:02):
So our best forms ofcommunication was in-person
connections.
So that's what we dodifferently.
We build great hospitalitythrough great food, but even
better people in therelationships building that we
do inside of our four walls andwe turn that into a business
model that honestly buildspeople, it creates a legacy and
it connects them with ourcommunity in a way that most
(16:24):
restaurants will never thinkabout even touching.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
You've done the hard work, and you've done the hard
work consistently, and it's notlike there's an overnight menu
fix to tweak this or like theone higher that you need to make
, but it's like doing the rightthings long enough, yield the
right things, and I think thatyou're just proof of that.
So kudos to you, man.
Now we already gave a shout outto David Scott Peters and DSP.
(16:48):
He's my man.
Go check out his other podcastepisodes with us here at Give an
Ovation and go check him out.
He's great.
And gave, obviously, a shoutout to Matt Plapp.
Gotta love him.
Anyone else that you thinkdeserves an ovation in the
restaurant industry, anyone thatwe should be following Avery.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Those are my people, man, those are my two.
David's quite literally taughtme how to get out of my own way
and run the restaurant like abusiness and he coaches
operators to build a sustainableand system-driven business and
he's kind of that no BSmentality, and Matt's the same
way, but on marketing side, howdo you take what you're doing
and ramp it up and tell yourstory?
Those are the people, buthonestly, I think there's a lot
(17:28):
of great people in the industry.
I love meeting new people andconnecting with them on a
different level, whether it'slearning what they do and what
makes them tick or how thatrelationship could eventually
benefit the both of us.
But yeah, man, get involved.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Those two are fantastic people to give an
ovation to.
And Avery, how do people findand follow you and Little Italy?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So you can follow our journey on YouTube.
That's kind of our infantplatform that we're really
trying to grow the Slice of Lifeon.
Just search the at sign LittleItaly Growth Port.
We post our weekly Slice ofLife vlog on there and it's
great for industry folks towatch because it's more than
just our restaurant, it's otherbusinesses in the industry and
so we post that weekly vlog onWednesdays and it's showing
(18:11):
everything from communityprojects to behind the scenes
kitchen life at our restaurant.
And we've also we're onInstagram and Facebook and
TikTok and it's just at LittleItaly Groveport.
And I'm also on LinkedIn, averyWard, and on there I'm more so
talk about kind of the systemsthing and leadership and stuff
like that that I'm doing in ourbusiness to make it grow and be
better.
But whether you're in theindustry or just love
(18:32):
hospitality, you're trying tobuild something that's worth
people watching and tuning infor.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Love it, man.
And hey, by the way, I justsent you a LinkedIn request.
I could not believe that weweren't connected on LinkedIn
already.
So excited to follow yourjourney on LinkedIn.
But, avery, for giving us aslice of your wisdom from a
slice of life and for keepingthe pizza shirts alive, baby,
today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thank you, thanks for joiningus today.
(18:58):
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or your favorite placeto listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Welcome to another episode of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover theirstrategies and tactics to help
you create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the insightsyou need, with none of the
(00:21):
annoying surveys for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
Today we have a hero of mine,someone who not only is in the
pizza industry, but somebody whowears it on their sleeve the
man with the shirt, avery Ward.
He went from Apple genius toCEO of Little Italy Ristorante.
He's also the creator of Sliceof Life series and just digital
(00:46):
master.
You do such incredible videosand content and it's an honor to
have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Avery Well, thanks for having me, thanks for the
kind words.
I love that you recognize whatwe've been working on over the
last few years.
It's been a lot of growth, alot of hard days, but it makes
it all worth it to come talk togreat people like you.
And thanks for the shirt inspo.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So there's a pizza neon sign behind my head that
Matt Platt gave to me, and Matt,he saw my shirt, he liked it.
You work with Matt.
You saw the picture of theshirt, you liked it.
So Matt found a guy and you nowmake your own custom pizza
shirts with drippy pizza andpepperonis and your logo on it,
(01:26):
and they look awesome and it'ssuper cool, man, because I think
that it makes a lot more sensefor you to be rocking a pizza
shirt than me well, I mean, Isaw you.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I was like man.
That's because so matt, youknow, always talks about wearing
your brand.
Right, he's always like.
You know, you got to live thebrand, you got to wear the brand
, you got to be able to talkabout the brand and his thing is
orange.
You know, he's got the orangecars and he's got the orange
shirts and the orange shorts andeverything's orange.
And I'm like man.
I need something like that.
So I was on the search forprobably six or so months and he
(02:02):
was doing a podcast.
I saw you in the pizza.
I was like the pizza shirt's it, I can wear it, it's open.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
It's free game.
Oh, that's yeah, becausethey're done.
They don't make the pizzashirts anymore, and so it's
great that you did your own newand improved version of it.
But I want to talk Avery.
I know that we're maybe we'llsee how the timing works out on
this, because we just have somuch to talk about.
I want to talk about guestexperience, but first I want to
talk about content.
There's a lot of restaurantsout there who are like afraid to
(02:31):
make content, and I feel likethere's very few who are just
crushing the game.
You're doing it, sean Walchefis doing it, there's a few
others, but what is the benefit?
Like, have you seen morebusiness by doing social media?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's one of the hardest questions to answer,
right?
I get asked that question sooften of what's the value that
it brings you and it's trulyimmeasurable.
I can't necessarily translatethe work that we're doing online
to a dollar value that it'shelped us grow and everybody's
always, like you know, they hearmy story and they see that we
went from this $500,000 a yearpizza place hole in the wall mom
and pop to this five and a halfmillion dollar restaurant
(03:13):
location which is soon to be arestaurant group with multi
locations in the pipeline plan,and we're going to be a $24
million restaurant group in 10years or less.
And so everybody sees thatgrowth and they're like how are
you doing it?
And I can't give you an answerbecause there's a hundred
thousand things that we've goton our plate that we're working
on to make that happen Right,and social media and our content
(03:35):
game is just one of thosestrategies in that pipeline that
allow us to get to that endresult.
But what I can measure is thepeople that come in our store
and have a conversation with megoing, hey, I saw what you guys
did last.
Or I saw where my salad comesfrom and the lettuce that's on
my plate.
That was crazy to see howthat's grown.
And those are what's measurable.
(03:57):
What's also measurable that Inever anticipated the slice of
life series would bring us ourculture change.
We've always had a really goodculture and I've always known
the restaurant culture that Iwanted to have for my space.
I didn't want to have aworkplace where employees would
grab the door handle and sighbefore they open that back door
to come to work that day.
Right, I always knew the typeof workplace I wanted to have,
(04:18):
but I always struggled gettingeverybody in my business and
especially as we grew from apoint of 12 employees to now 95,
getting everybody in thecompany to understand not only
where we've come from, wherewe're going, but more
importantly, the work that theydon't understand.
Their managers and leaders doevery day to make this place
better.
And so Slice of Life has quiteliterally allowed us to showcase
(04:40):
that to them in a visual waywhere they're seeing the work
that goes in week after week andthe growth and the change in
front of their face in therestaurant, but also they're
seeing the story of how thosechanges come to life.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And it's been really powerful stories sell, and it's
not.
They don't just like sellpizzas, but they sell vision,
they sell engagement, they sellloyalty, and I love that you're
sharing these stories, not justof the food, but of the origin
of the food and of your storytoo, of, like, the origins of
the ideas and stuff it's it'spowerful, 1000%.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And you know, the thing about slice of life is
we've been going at this for alittle over a year now.
I think we're up to 60 episodeslast week.
It's not about just us.
It truly pulls back thecurtains to allow us to showcase
our team members and the great,great work that they're doing
in the dish communityinvolvement, what we're doing in
(05:35):
our community and of differentorganizations that we partner
with on a regular basis.
But then also, my favorite partour industry people like
yourself, people like the guywho makes my sub buns to the
company who makes my lettuce.
I want to showcase the hardwork that they do that goes into
that piece of lettuce, becausesometimes people get a plate of
(05:56):
food and they don't reallyrealize how much work, love and
care goes into each ingredienton that plate.
And we've been able to take theslice of life into some amazing
places and we have some greatepisodes coming up in the next
few months where we go in tosome food service partners of
ours and show the process, showthe people that go in to that
(06:18):
bun, that lettuce, thatpepperoni, that sausage, all of
the things.
There's a people and there's aprocess and people are really
curious about that.
But we're ultimately curiousabout it because we know that
we've picked the right customersfor us to serve, but also the
right vendor partners yourself,and there's people behind these
brands that we work with and wewant to share the amazing things
(06:39):
that they're doing.
I love that.
And so last piece on that ourcommunity.
Because we're doing all that,they get to feel a part of our
story and they don't just seethe food.
They see not only our values butthe care and the detail that we
put into everything that we do,and that's been immeasurable.
So how do I measure it?
I can't but the conversationsthat I have and the work that
(07:01):
we're doing with slice of life.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
that's measurable and it's beautiful to see, it's
like Gary V, one of the thingsthat he tellsa story about his
head of marketing, who was likewhat's the ROI of a follower?
What's the ROI of a follower?
And he finally goes to her andsays what's the ROI of your mom?
How do you just put a value onall those little things that she
did for you?
What is the ROI of a fan?
(07:22):
What's the ROI of the media?
Some things are hard to track,but in aggregate, they create a
brand, they create a experiencethat helps people feel connected
, and when you feel connected,that is what drives true loyalty
.
And so I think that what you'redoing is incredible.
What would you say to anyonewho's worried about creating
(07:44):
content for their restaurant,not sure if they could do it or
if they should do it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Get uncomfortable.
Every business has an evolutionand a revolution.
The revolution is that we needto do something.
We're at this point and werealize there's opportunity and
then you get to that point of anevolution.
It's like, oh, we did that.
We look back and go oh, I can'tbelieve we were struggling with
that.
Right when we were at 60 weeksago with slice of life, it
turned into this.
(08:09):
It was this little fun sideidea, side story of this I
always wanted to be a TVpersonality.
When I was a kid, I wanted tobe a weatherman.
I was oh yeah, oh yeah, it'sbad, it's bad.
My dad, when he pulls out theVHS man, stuff goes wild.
I literally set up a VHSrecorder on a tripod and there
was a blizzard in 2008 thatwiped through Ohio and I was
(08:30):
literally outside like the windwas going wild, I was holding
onto my jacket and I was filmingthe weather at like yeah, it's
stupid.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
My creative marketing director saw that.
He was like dude, you're meantfor the camera and I had done
some other things with otherorganizations.
You know that one of thehighlight is and stuff.
But the first episode wascalled Avery goes back to school
and we went to the local school.
They wanted me to come in andtalk to some middle school
students about career path andstuff like that, and we filmed
it and I watched the episode.
(09:01):
I was like dude, this is killer.
And he's like we could do thisevery week.
And I was like let's do it.
And so that week forward.
Man, we have not missed a weekand it's been a beautiful thing
I'll tell you 2024 was over andwe did a recap on 24 and just
look back on what we did thatyear, because we started it
around January and it was soamazing to watch that video and
quite literally see my wholelife flash before my eyes over
(09:23):
the course of the year and allthe wins and all the struggles
and just it was a beautifulthing to watch, truly it was.
But what?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
great advice get uncomfortable, flip that camera
around and hit record and justdo stuff.
We were talking right beforethis podcast about like
recording equipment and weretalking right before this
podcast about like recordingequipment and how.
When I started this podcast, Iliterally didn't even have a
microphone.
And then now I'm trying to dolike in-person podcasts and so,
avery, you were the one whoshowed me the mics that you use,
(09:50):
so I bought those same mics andthen I don't have a camera yet
for that stuff, but I'm doingusing my laptop.
It's just a matter of like.
Just start with what you got.
It doesn't need to be perfect,it doesn't need to be polished,
but what it does need to be isconsistent and try different
things until you feel somethingthat fills your niche.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Critical right there.
It's restaurant owners all thetime.
They see all this contentonline, whether it's from
amazing coaches that are outthere like David Scott Peters, a
great friend of mine andawesome guy.
But people like that can quiteliterally change your life if
you let them and you take theiradvice and make change.
But sometimes people hearindividuals online talking or
maybe it's me right now and theyhear all the things we're
(10:30):
talking about Like I could neverdo that.
It's just another thing intheir bank deposit.
In the back of their head it'slike, oh, I want to work on that
.
Oh, I need to do that.
Oh man, I suck at that.
Oh, I got to do this.
But if you just keep lettingthose things bank up and stack
up behind you and you don't everstart to chip away at them or
document them somewhere andgoing, oh, I need to do that,
I'm going to do that and notthat you need to, you're going
(10:50):
to and so start tracking.
You're running what I callissues list.
You're tracking your issuesthat are happening in your
business, whether they're ashort-term issue or long-term
issue, and you're creating inyour head a process that you can
go down to fix it right.
And you just got to start doingit and put in the work to do it
.
You can't give up.
So when it doesn't work, youidentify how you make it better
(11:12):
or how you fix it right, andit's not just like, eh, that
thing didn't work as I tried it.
No, we'll work.
You just got to do it.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, I look at this podcast.
I mean probably our first 50episodes.
It was like me and my grandmawho listened to them, right, and
now we're closing in on 400episodes and you learn how to do
it and you learn how to getbetter and what works and what
doesn't.
But it's about that constantevolution and changing and
trying new things.
And, yeah, so tell me aboutyour philosophy of guest
(11:43):
experience.
How do you create a great guestexperience?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, so yeah, I think it's important to go back
to the beginning and I'll bevery brief with this.
We're a 45-year-long legacyrestaurant.
I started with my grandparentsin the 60s as a grocery store.
They were business owners atheart and always wanted to
venture into owning their owngrocery store because my grandpa
was a produce manager and theygot this great offer traveling
(12:08):
through town to purchase thisbusiness $18,000 and ran their
grocery store for almost 20years.
And my grandma's little side gigof love of cooking Italian
specialties meatballs, pastashome, you know, scratch made
noodles and dressings and allthat stuff became what people
came for rather than the grocerystore.
So they're coming to thegrocery store to get groceries,
(12:28):
yet leaving with grandma's to-gocontainer clamshells of food
for dinner that night.
So that's kind of where thelight bulb in their head went.
We got something here and sothey purchased a little pizza
shop down the road and kind ofthe rest is history with.
Literally my dad ran thatbusiness for 40 years and my dad
was very much.
So do it yourself, know it allgot a hand on everything, or
(12:48):
else it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Right, I grew up in that business, you know so.
My grandma's house, which sheraised my dad and his three
other siblings in, was inchesaway from the grocery store
which then turned into therestaurant.
So summers and after school Iwas at grandma's house, but I'd
always end up in the restaurantwith my dad, and so I watched a
lot of things that he did welland I watched a lot of things
(13:12):
that he didn't do well.
That I knew I didn't want toreplicate.
I never wanted to be in thefamily restaurant business.
Like you said, I worked forApple for about five and a half
years.
That was my passion.
But you say what makes usunique?
I think what makes us unique isgoing back to the foundations
of how we got started, and thatwas that my grandma and my dad
(13:34):
and my grandpa did really,really well was building
connections in this community.
So they established reallygreat relationships with their
clientele, so much so that thosepeople considered them like
family and went and told thewhole world about this little
grocery store and or a littlepizza shop that you got to check
out in Groveport Ohio.
So when I came back to thefamily business, it wasn't
(13:57):
because I wanted to, it was kindof a necessity.
My dad had a brain aneurysm in2015.
He wasn't able to do his samelevel of doing it all any longer
, and so I very quickly saw thatI need to delegate really well,
I need to grow a team, I needto grow the business sales
because at the time they wereabout to go bankrupt because it
was going down because my dadcouldn't be the be-it-all guy
(14:19):
anymore.
Through that, I looked back andI took a really long, hard
pause to think about how did weget to where we are?
How are we in business for 40years as a pizza place and 20
years as a grocery store beforethat and still be here today?
And it was because they createdlasting memories that are worth
(14:40):
sharing.
And so our tagline that Icreated now for our restaurant
group is creating lastingmemories worth sharing through
exceptional hospitality, greatfood and even better people.
And so my dad and mygrandparents were huge about the
way that they treat theircustomers, the way they
establish relationships, and itwasn't just Betty Sue who comes
(15:01):
in.
It's Betty Sue who's married toBob, and they got a son named
Jim and they come here once aweek and little Jimmy loves the
ravioli.
And are you getting littleJimmy's ravioli today?
So that's the level ofrelationship building that they
did.
And are you getting littleJimmy's ravioli today?
So that's the level ofrelationship building that they
did.
And when you have that type ofrelationship with your customers
(15:21):
, they want to go tell everybodyabout this place because
there's not many of those thatare around any longer.
Right, there's when we thinkback to the 1950s and 40s and
60s.
I've got so many photos of whenit was a grocery store and it's
a beautiful thing to see.
But you can see peopleconnecting with one another at a
counter holding up this pieceof meat, right, and you could
just see the level of engagementthat they had with that person.
(15:42):
You don't have that anymore andyou walk into your big chain
grocery store and it's.
I'll take a flight.
Okay, anything else, sir,here's your flight, taking that
same mentality that it was backthen, because worlds were a lot
simpler.
We didn't have these phonesthat we're connected to.
We didn't have these laptopsthat we got on and talked to a
guy who's halfway across thecountry on a podcast.
We didn't have those forms ofcommunication.
(16:02):
So our best forms ofcommunication was in-person
connections.
So that's what we dodifferently.
We build great hospitalitythrough great food, but even
better people in therelationships building that we
do inside of our four walls andwe turn that into a business
model that honestly buildspeople, it creates a legacy and
it connects them with ourcommunity in a way that most
(16:24):
restaurants will never thinkabout even touching.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
You've done the hard work, and you've done the hard
work consistently, and it's notlike there's an overnight menu
fix to tweak this or like theone higher that you need to make
, but it's like doing the rightthings long enough, yield the
right things, and I think thatyou're just proof of that.
So kudos to you, man.
Now we already gave a shout outto David Scott Peters and DSP.
(16:48):
He's my man.
Go check out his other podcastepisodes with us here at Give an
Ovation and go check him out.
He's great.
And gave, obviously, a shoutout to Matt Plapp.
Gotta love him.
Anyone else that you thinkdeserves an ovation in the
restaurant industry, anyone thatwe should be following Avery.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Those are my people, man, those are my two.
David's quite literally taughtme how to get out of my own way
and run the restaurant like abusiness and he coaches
operators to build a sustainableand system-driven business and
he's kind of that no BSmentality, and Matt's the same
way, but on marketing side, howdo you take what you're doing
and ramp it up and tell yourstory?
Those are the people, buthonestly, I think there's a lot
(17:28):
of great people in the industry.
I love meeting new people andconnecting with them on a
different level, whether it'slearning what they do and what
makes them tick or how thatrelationship could eventually
benefit the both of us.
But yeah, man, get involved.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Those two are fantastic people to give an
ovation to.
And Avery, how do people findand follow you and Little Italy?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So you can follow our journey on YouTube.
That's kind of our infantplatform that we're really
trying to grow the Slice of Lifeon.
Just search the at sign LittleItaly Growth Port.
We post our weekly Slice ofLife vlog on there and it's
great for industry folks towatch because it's more than
just our restaurant, it's otherbusinesses in the industry and
so we post that weekly vlog onWednesdays and it's showing
(18:11):
everything from communityprojects to behind the scenes
kitchen life at our restaurant.
And we've also we're onInstagram and Facebook and
TikTok and it's just at LittleItaly Groveport.
And I'm also on LinkedIn, averyWard, and on there I'm more so
talk about kind of the systemsthing and leadership and stuff
like that that I'm doing in ourbusiness to make it grow and be
better.
But whether you're in theindustry or just love
(18:32):
hospitality, you're trying tobuild something that's worth
people watching and tuning infor.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Love it, man.
And hey, by the way, I justsent you a LinkedIn request.
I could not believe that weweren't connected on LinkedIn
already.
So excited to follow yourjourney on LinkedIn.
But, avery, for giving us aslice of your wisdom from a
slice of life and for keepingthe pizza shirts alive, baby,
today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thank you, thanks for joiningus today.
(18:58):
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or your favorite placeto listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
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