January 20, 2025 • 15 mins
In this episode of Give an Ovation, we welcome Andrew Dana, founder of Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza Company. Andrew’s journey from the corporate world to building thriving restaurant brands is a testament to passion, perseverance, and a deep commitment to creating unforgettable guest experiences.
Zack and Andrew discuss:
- The transition from corporate life to launching a food business
- How authenticity and community drive brand success
- The key elements of delivering a memorable guest experience
- Why employee happiness is crucial for customer satisfaction
- The strategies behind scaling without losing brand identity
Tune in to hear how Andrew’s bold moves and dedication to hospitality have turned his dream into a growing culinary empire!
Thanks, Andrew!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests with all the
(00:21):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
Today I'm so excited because wehave someone that Amir of South
Block mentioned on his podcastsaying something that just is
doing some great things.
I went and I checked him outand just rock star of a
background.
So excited to chat with AndrewDana, founder of Call your
Mother Deli, timber PizzaCompany.
Now, andrew, welcome to thepodcast man.
(00:44):
Thank you, thank you, pleasureto be here.
Shout out to Amir that's thehomie.
Amen.
Now you've got an interestingbackground, andrew.
I want to dive into this becauseit's like I look at your career
before restaurants and it waslike five months here, eight
months here, five months here.
Is this kind of like?
I felt that early 20 angst oflike, oh, I just don't want to
(01:05):
do this.
And then you hit restaurantsand here we are, 11 years later.
You started Timber PizzaCompany first and then Call your
Mother Deli, which is a Jew-ishdeli yourself in those first
few jobs and what was thedifference when you got into
restaurants?
Because the jobs that you had?
(01:27):
I guess you did have a two-yearstint somewhere, but it seemed
like at least from looking atyour LinkedIn, it's like I'm
doing jobs.
Everyone told me that I shouldbe doing so.
Yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, I mean it's super cliche, but I just hadn't
found a passion right and I hadthe privilege of going to a
really good high school.
I went to a good college.
I went to Fordham for gradschool and part of it is, I
think when you go to goodschools it almost like narrows
your perspective of what youthink you can do, because
everybody's going into theselike certain channels,
everybody's training to be alawyer, I was getting my MBA and
(02:00):
everybody was going intofinance and so you almost feel
like pigeonholed to have to dosomething that everybody else is
doing.
And I don't think I really hadthe confidence to go like branch
out and chase my dreams which,for whatever reason, had always
been restaurants.
Like even since high schoolI've been saying I just want to
open a pizza restaurant, butfelt sort of the societal
pressure and the school pressureto sort of chase these more
(02:21):
traditional career paths.
So I was just sort of goingthrough the motions right and
was finding joy in life andeverything except for work,
really living for the weekend tobe super cliche And-.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Because I mean, you don't go into like quarter
million dollars in school debtto like deliver pizzas, right
yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
for sure.
My capstone project for my MBAprogram was a pizza restaurant
and the teacher was like I thinkyou came to the wrong school,
man.
I was like yeah, I think I mayhave as well.
But then I was working for thiscompany, everfi, and I was
making really good money andclimbing the corporate ladder
but just hated it.
And so it was one night it wasMarch, it was when it was still
(03:01):
getting dark at 5 pm and I wasjust sitting at my desk.
It sucks, I was just sitting atmy desk, this sucks.
I was like I'm just going tostart a pizza business and I
didn't really have the skills orthe wherewithal to like start a
proper business and I was likewhat's a way to start this in a
bite-sized chunk and startedTimber Pizza as a food truck in
2014.
Having never made pizza, havingnever run a business, just sort
of was like all right, let'sjust run through the freaking
(03:22):
wall and figure this out and hitthe ground running and just
outgrinded everybody and thatled to the first Timber 2016,
led to Call your Mother 2018,and here we are.
What did your family think whenyou started the food truck?
They thought I was batshitcrazy, for sure, but they were
super like my dad.
Part of the reason I openedCall your Mother is my dad had
(03:43):
always dreamed of opening aJewish deli, and so I think,
While he thought the idea wasbatshit crazy and I was in
student debt and all that, hewas also stoked because he was
like oh, this is sort of likeliving my dreams.
Once they got over the initialshock that I was giving up my
six-figure job to make $12,000the first year and live in my
friend's basement, then theybecame supportive.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome.
And obviously you got to dothis with an eye to the guest,
right.
Like, obviously everythingstarts with a guest, and
especially with, like, call yourMother Deli.
It's like you started with avery catchy name Where'd that
name come from?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then I want to dive into the guest experience,
yeah, so like I can sort ofpicture the end restaurant
before I come up with the name.
So with Timber Pizza, like Ikept saying it like summer camp
in the Adirondacks, and so I wasthinking like what would like a
summer camp in the Adirondacksbe, and so came up with Timber
whatever.
And then for Call your Mother.
A lot of my Jewish deliexperience growing up was
(04:42):
visiting my grandparents inSouth Florida, and so I wanted
it to be bright, pops of pinkand teal and super playful.
And so I was just like it's gotto be something sort of funny
and catchy and like Jew-ish.
And so one night I was with myfriends and we were like what's
something funny?
Our Jewish moms or grandmotherswould have yelled at us and my
friend's sister said call yourmother.
I said, oh my God, that's it.
It's funny, it's catchy andit's so classically Jewish, but
(05:06):
it also spans all cultures,right, like my wife and business
partners from Argentina, andher mom loves it.
So stamp, here we are.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I love that I can go back.
I went to Newark Academy inJersey and we got off all the
Jewish holidays.
It was right across the streetfrom Kushner Academy and like,
yeah, I mean I could think ofgoing over to my friend's houses
in there.
They'll get home and the firstthing that grandma would say is
did you call your mother to tell?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
her that you're home.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You know, she says, they'll get home, and the first
thing the grandma would say isdid you call your mother to tell
that you're?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
home.
She says you should eatsomething.
Put some meat on your bones.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, those are the other ideas for the restaurant
names.
Yeah, oh, I like that.
So, thinking about the guestexperience, because obviously
you've curated this from a greatvision into a restaurant, what
do you think are some of themost important aspects of guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I mean to even go back a step further.
This is part of why I wasattracted to the restaurant
industry is so I got my MBA inmarketing and so much of it is
like fluff and bullshit.
And there's something so realabout restaurants Like either
you go and have a good enoughexperience and good enough food
where you want to come back oryou don't.
Like maybe you can get somebodyto come for one time on
marketing and fluff, but to likecreate that real sort of like
(06:13):
long-term customer, it has to bereal and like authentic, and so
from day one in all of ourrestaurants we call them gfe's
now great, effing experiences.
And you know, in this day andage you can get anything
delivered to your couch, like ifyou're going to go out.
Like you want to have anexperience.
An experience can mean afive-star with multiple courses,
(06:34):
or it can mean the persontaking your order at the
register is like really happyand asks you how your day is
like, makes really greatsuggestions of what you should
order and when your order isright.
Like you get it with a hugesmile and the playlist is on
point nostalgic to when you werein high school and the volume's
perfect, and so we constantlyhammer home these GFEs, and it's
(06:55):
just about always going aboveand beyond and creating
memorable moments, and that canbe everything from seeing
somebody's little down toblessing them with a cookie, to
making a cute drawing on thecoffee cup that has your name on
it when you get it.
So it's just these littlemagical moments that make it a
true experience.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I love that, Andrew, and when I go and do seminars
about guest experience, one ofthe things that we always talk
about is that the little thingsmatter, because you could fake
the big things right.
I can do like some big apologyand like give you $20 for free,
Drawing a face on the coffee cup.
It's like those little thingsmatter.
(07:32):
My kids, when we're leavingCostco, they look forward to
what face the person's going todraw on the receipt.
It's a little thing but itmeans a lot because you can't
fake those little things.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Amen, no, amen.
And when I opened Timber Pizza,part of the training was we
would draw a pizza and call itthe five-star experience.
And it has eight slices andfood is only one of them.
Right, Like everybody thinkslike oh, your food is great,
like it's enough, but food isonly one of the eight slices and
then it's.
How was like?
After you take your order, doesthe person totally set
(08:08):
expectations of when the food'sgoing to come out, so you're not
like left questioning anything.
So it's the whole pie.
It's the little things that addup.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And how many across the two brands?
How many locations trucks likewhere are you guys at?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yes, we have 16 Call your Mothers and we have six
Timber Pizza companies.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
How have you kept that culture as you've grown?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, part of it is like when we can promote from
within and so like, call yourmother, for instance a lot of
our people have been with usfrom day one and we're in the
first store and have grown intobigger and sort of bolder
positions.
So the guy who runs our socialmedia and marketing was a food
runner in the first store andjust like the DNA of the brand
is pulsing through his veins andvice versa, right Like he's
rubbed off on the brand, and soI think it's really important to
(08:59):
like have those culturecarriers which, from day one, I
told people don't look at thisas a restaurant, look at this as
a startup where you can reallybuild a career.
And so that's been like a lot ofthe driving force behind why we
want to grow is to create theopportunities that we promised
for people.
So a lot of and then two is justlike not resting on your
laurels, is like making sureyour staff is having a great
experience, because the only waythat customers are going to
(09:20):
have a great experience is ifyour staff has a great
experience, and that's fromeverything from onboarding to
training to does the employee ofthe month get a dope present to
yesterday we had our holidayparty and raffling off, you know
, big screen TVs and iPads, andone person won a thousand
dollars cash.
And it's like this event everyyear, like the staff's so pumped
(09:41):
for, and so it's just like thecore of everything is your staff
, and so the better sort of youcan make your staff feel it's
this cycle that just feeds offof itself.
Then they really give an F, andthen they're better with the
customers and the customers tipmore, and then they make more
money and then they're morestoked to work there and boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,boom boom boom.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I love that, because the guest experience cannot
exceed the employee experience.
And so having that culture,having that love, having that
vibe works really really well.
Love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not just GFEs for the customers, it's
GFEs for the staff too.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, there you go.
I love that.
I mean, obviously, I thinkyou're just kind of going into
some of those tactics of makingsure that the employees have a
great experience.
But what other tactics are youusing to improve the guest
experience?
And, by the way, I do thinkthat a giant holiday party like
that is a great tactic toimprove the guest experience
because, again, it's likeculture building.
So I love that.
But anyway, go ahead.
What are some tactics thatyou've used to improve the guest
experience.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I mean there's like the nitty gritty stuff, right,
where it's like no order shouldever take more than 10 minutes
and we're like hammering thathome, just so people are always
getting what they want, and likewe're always hammering home
consistency on food and things.
And so there's like the day today nuts and bolts.
But none of that's sexy, right.
We always try and do sort ofsuper shiny, creative menu
(10:53):
changes every couple months,which is just to keep things
fresh and top of mind.
But really for the guestexperience, like we're pretty
basic, it really is just GFEsall day long, and so it's
remembering guest names, it'sremembering that kid's name and
what's their favorite order.
So it's like it's with Callyour Mother.
(11:13):
We have 16 locations, but atour core we want to be your
neighborhood bagel shop, andwhat would that mom and pop
neighborhood bagel shop be like?
And that's our northern star.
So it's remembering names.
It's picking people up withlittle freebies here and there,
and so we really empower ourstaff to like you never have to
ask a manager to give away asandwich or a cookie.
You never have to like ask amanager to rush an order to get
(11:34):
somebody to do what they want.
You never have to like ask amanager to rush an order to get
somebody to do what they want.
So really empower the staff tojust constantly be picking up
guests and sort of like lookingfor those little edges to make
their experience better.
(11:59):
No-transcript.
And so, whether that's a cookiefor somebody who looks sad, or
whether that's a cool stickerthat we have for a kid who's in
the store, or we encourage ourstaff to like listen to what the
customers are saying.
So if in line they're betweentwo sandwiches and they're
dining in and they get one, likehit them with the second one.
If it's their first visit,right.
(12:19):
And so you say, hey, I heardyou wanted to try this one too.
Like this one's on us this timeand they're saying, whoa shit,
they were listening, I got totry this extra sandwich.
And then you have a repeatcustomer.
So really empowering the staffto like it's easy to say it's
just cookie giveaways, but it'slike more than that it listening
to what they like thecustomer's telling you they want
and then sort of fulfillingthat.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So are there any good questions that you ask in the
interview process to suss out Isthis person going to be a good
fit?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
The number one question is why do you like
being around people?
Because, oh interesting, weneed people, people right, who
like love being around people,people interacting, talking, and
so that answer is super tellingbecause a you've all worked
that shift where, like, there'sthe one staff member who's sort
of like grouchy and sort of likerubs off on the rest of the
(13:06):
staff.
So you want a team that likelikes being around each other,
loves interacting, and then thatenergy becomes infectious and
it spills into the guests.
So why do you like being aroundpeople is probably the most
important question we like toask Love that.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Now speaking of people, Andrew obviously 11
years in this industry who issomeone that deserves an ovation
in the restaurant industry.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I want to give a shout out.
I've known this guy since I wasa kid and that's not why he's
getting the ovation.
It's Nick Wiseman.
He's the owner of Little Sesame.
So Little Sesame is a.
They have one restaurant, butthen they also do CPG Hummus
nationwide in Whole Foods andacross the country in a bunch of
grocery stores.
And they started as arestaurant and I think Nick is
(13:47):
just a great example ofconstantly reinventing yourself,
constantly sort of looking forangles to make your business
sort of more scalable and betterangles to make your business
sort of more scalable and better.
They're great in theircommunity.
The way they source their foodis top notch.
They work directly with theirfarmers, they're always sort of
building up their community andthey make the best hummus in the
game.
So shout out McWiseman, littleSesame.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I love that.
And where do people go to findand follow you and your brands?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We're on Instagram Call your mother deli.
I believe is the handleCallyourmotherdelicom.
That's pretty much it.
Get on our email list.
We're fun, we're cool.
Check us out on Instagram emaillist and come through all the
shops.
Look on the website.
We're in DC and Denver rightnow.
Oh, DC and Denver.
When are you coming to Utah?
Honestly, it's on the shortlist, so watch out.
(14:35):
I think that there's like oneJewish deli in Salt Lake.
It's a natural next junk fromDenver, so watch out that we're
coming.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Here we go.
I'm ready for it.
Well, andrew, for giving us areminder to care about each
other and to call our mothers,today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Give an Ovation.
Thanks, man Pleasure, Thanks,pleasure.
Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests with all the
(00:21):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
Today I'm so excited because wehave someone that Amir of South
Block mentioned on his podcastsaying something that just is
doing some great things.
I went and I checked him outand just rock star of a
background.
So excited to chat with AndrewDana, founder of Call your
Mother Deli, timber PizzaCompany.
Now, andrew, welcome to thepodcast man.
(00:44):
Thank you, thank you, pleasureto be here.
Shout out to Amir that's thehomie.
Amen.
Now you've got an interestingbackground, andrew.
I want to dive into this becauseit's like I look at your career
before restaurants and it waslike five months here, eight
months here, five months here.
Is this kind of like?
I felt that early 20 angst oflike, oh, I just don't want to
(01:05):
do this.
And then you hit restaurantsand here we are, 11 years later.
You started Timber PizzaCompany first and then Call your
Mother Deli, which is a Jew-ishdeli yourself in those first
few jobs and what was thedifference when you got into
restaurants?
Because the jobs that you had?
(01:27):
I guess you did have a two-yearstint somewhere, but it seemed
like at least from looking atyour LinkedIn, it's like I'm
doing jobs.
Everyone told me that I shouldbe doing so.
Yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, I mean it's super cliche, but I just hadn't
found a passion right and I hadthe privilege of going to a
really good high school.
I went to a good college.
I went to Fordham for gradschool and part of it is, I
think when you go to goodschools it almost like narrows
your perspective of what youthink you can do, because
everybody's going into theselike certain channels,
everybody's training to be alawyer, I was getting my MBA and
(02:00):
everybody was going intofinance and so you almost feel
like pigeonholed to have to dosomething that everybody else is
doing.
And I don't think I really hadthe confidence to go like branch
out and chase my dreams which,for whatever reason, had always
been restaurants.
Like even since high schoolI've been saying I just want to
open a pizza restaurant, butfelt sort of the societal
pressure and the school pressureto sort of chase these more
(02:21):
traditional career paths.
So I was just sort of goingthrough the motions right and
was finding joy in life andeverything except for work,
really living for the weekend tobe super cliche And-.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Because I mean, you don't go into like quarter
million dollars in school debtto like deliver pizzas, right
yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
for sure.
My capstone project for my MBAprogram was a pizza restaurant
and the teacher was like I thinkyou came to the wrong school,
man.
I was like yeah, I think I mayhave as well.
But then I was working for thiscompany, everfi, and I was
making really good money andclimbing the corporate ladder
but just hated it.
And so it was one night it wasMarch, it was when it was still
(03:01):
getting dark at 5 pm and I wasjust sitting at my desk.
It sucks, I was just sitting atmy desk, this sucks.
I was like I'm just going tostart a pizza business and I
didn't really have the skills orthe wherewithal to like start a
proper business and I was likewhat's a way to start this in a
bite-sized chunk and startedTimber Pizza as a food truck in
2014.
Having never made pizza, havingnever run a business, just sort
of was like all right, let'sjust run through the freaking
(03:22):
wall and figure this out and hitthe ground running and just
outgrinded everybody and thatled to the first Timber 2016,
led to Call your Mother 2018,and here we are.
What did your family think whenyou started the food truck?
They thought I was batshitcrazy, for sure, but they were
super like my dad.
Part of the reason I openedCall your Mother is my dad had
(03:43):
always dreamed of opening aJewish deli, and so I think,
While he thought the idea wasbatshit crazy and I was in
student debt and all that, hewas also stoked because he was
like oh, this is sort of likeliving my dreams.
Once they got over the initialshock that I was giving up my
six-figure job to make $12,000the first year and live in my
friend's basement, then theybecame supportive.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, oh, that's awesome.
And obviously you got to dothis with an eye to the guest,
right.
Like, obviously everythingstarts with a guest, and
especially with, like, call yourMother Deli.
It's like you started with avery catchy name Where'd that
name come from?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then I want to dive into the guest experience,
yeah, so like I can sort ofpicture the end restaurant
before I come up with the name.
So with Timber Pizza, like Ikept saying it like summer camp
in the Adirondacks, and so I wasthinking like what would like a
summer camp in the Adirondacksbe, and so came up with Timber
whatever.
And then for Call your Mother.
A lot of my Jewish deliexperience growing up was
(04:42):
visiting my grandparents inSouth Florida, and so I wanted
it to be bright, pops of pinkand teal and super playful.
And so I was just like it's gotto be something sort of funny
and catchy and like Jew-ish.
And so one night I was with myfriends and we were like what's
something funny?
Our Jewish moms or grandmotherswould have yelled at us and my
friend's sister said call yourmother.
I said, oh my God, that's it.
It's funny, it's catchy andit's so classically Jewish, but
(05:06):
it also spans all cultures,right, like my wife and business
partners from Argentina, andher mom loves it.
So stamp, here we are.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I love that I can go back.
I went to Newark Academy inJersey and we got off all the
Jewish holidays.
It was right across the streetfrom Kushner Academy and like,
yeah, I mean I could think ofgoing over to my friend's houses
in there.
They'll get home and the firstthing that grandma would say is
did you call your mother to tell?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
her that you're home.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You know, she says, they'll get home, and the first
thing the grandma would say isdid you call your mother to tell
that you're?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
home.
She says you should eatsomething.
Put some meat on your bones.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, those are the other ideas for the restaurant
names.
Yeah, oh, I like that.
So, thinking about the guestexperience, because obviously
you've curated this from a greatvision into a restaurant, what
do you think are some of themost important aspects of guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I mean to even go back a step further.
This is part of why I wasattracted to the restaurant
industry is so I got my MBA inmarketing and so much of it is
like fluff and bullshit.
And there's something so realabout restaurants Like either
you go and have a good enoughexperience and good enough food
where you want to come back oryou don't.
Like maybe you can get somebodyto come for one time on
marketing and fluff, but to likecreate that real sort of like
(06:13):
long-term customer, it has to bereal and like authentic, and so
from day one in all of ourrestaurants we call them gfe's
now great, effing experiences.
And you know, in this day andage you can get anything
delivered to your couch, like ifyou're going to go out.
Like you want to have anexperience.
An experience can mean afive-star with multiple courses,
(06:34):
or it can mean the persontaking your order at the
register is like really happyand asks you how your day is
like, makes really greatsuggestions of what you should
order and when your order isright.
Like you get it with a hugesmile and the playlist is on
point nostalgic to when you werein high school and the volume's
perfect, and so we constantlyhammer home these GFEs, and it's
(06:55):
just about always going aboveand beyond and creating
memorable moments, and that canbe everything from seeing
somebody's little down toblessing them with a cookie, to
making a cute drawing on thecoffee cup that has your name on
it when you get it.
So it's just these littlemagical moments that make it a
true experience.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I love that, Andrew, and when I go and do seminars
about guest experience, one ofthe things that we always talk
about is that the little thingsmatter, because you could fake
the big things right.
I can do like some big apologyand like give you $20 for free,
Drawing a face on the coffee cup.
It's like those little thingsmatter.
(07:32):
My kids, when we're leavingCostco, they look forward to
what face the person's going todraw on the receipt.
It's a little thing but itmeans a lot because you can't
fake those little things.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Amen, no, amen.
And when I opened Timber Pizza,part of the training was we
would draw a pizza and call itthe five-star experience.
And it has eight slices andfood is only one of them.
Right, Like everybody thinkslike oh, your food is great,
like it's enough, but food isonly one of the eight slices and
then it's.
How was like?
After you take your order, doesthe person totally set
(08:08):
expectations of when the food'sgoing to come out, so you're not
like left questioning anything.
So it's the whole pie.
It's the little things that addup.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And how many across the two brands?
How many locations trucks likewhere are you guys at?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yes, we have 16 Call your Mothers and we have six
Timber Pizza companies.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
How have you kept that culture as you've grown?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, part of it is like when we can promote from
within and so like, call yourmother, for instance a lot of
our people have been with usfrom day one and we're in the
first store and have grown intobigger and sort of bolder
positions.
So the guy who runs our socialmedia and marketing was a food
runner in the first store andjust like the DNA of the brand
is pulsing through his veins andvice versa, right Like he's
rubbed off on the brand, and soI think it's really important to
(08:59):
like have those culturecarriers which, from day one, I
told people don't look at thisas a restaurant, look at this as
a startup where you can reallybuild a career.
And so that's been like a lot ofthe driving force behind why we
want to grow is to create theopportunities that we promised
for people.
So a lot of and then two is justlike not resting on your
laurels, is like making sureyour staff is having a great
experience, because the only waythat customers are going to
(09:20):
have a great experience is ifyour staff has a great
experience, and that's fromeverything from onboarding to
training to does the employee ofthe month get a dope present to
yesterday we had our holidayparty and raffling off, you know
, big screen TVs and iPads, andone person won a thousand
dollars cash.
And it's like this event everyyear, like the staff's so pumped
(09:41):
for, and so it's just like thecore of everything is your staff
, and so the better sort of youcan make your staff feel it's
this cycle that just feeds offof itself.
Then they really give an F, andthen they're better with the
customers and the customers tipmore, and then they make more
money and then they're morestoked to work there and boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,boom boom boom.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I love that, because the guest experience cannot
exceed the employee experience.
And so having that culture,having that love, having that
vibe works really really well.
Love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not just GFEs for the customers, it's
GFEs for the staff too.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, there you go.
I love that.
I mean, obviously, I thinkyou're just kind of going into
some of those tactics of makingsure that the employees have a
great experience.
But what other tactics are youusing to improve the guest
experience?
And, by the way, I do thinkthat a giant holiday party like
that is a great tactic toimprove the guest experience
because, again, it's likeculture building.
So I love that.
But anyway, go ahead.
What are some tactics thatyou've used to improve the guest
experience.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I mean there's like the nitty gritty stuff, right,
where it's like no order shouldever take more than 10 minutes
and we're like hammering thathome, just so people are always
getting what they want, and likewe're always hammering home
consistency on food and things.
And so there's like the day today nuts and bolts.
But none of that's sexy, right.
We always try and do sort ofsuper shiny, creative menu
(10:53):
changes every couple months,which is just to keep things
fresh and top of mind.
But really for the guestexperience, like we're pretty
basic, it really is just GFEsall day long, and so it's
remembering guest names, it'sremembering that kid's name and
what's their favorite order.
So it's like it's with Callyour Mother.
(11:13):
We have 16 locations, but atour core we want to be your
neighborhood bagel shop, andwhat would that mom and pop
neighborhood bagel shop be like?
And that's our northern star.
So it's remembering names.
It's picking people up withlittle freebies here and there,
and so we really empower ourstaff to like you never have to
ask a manager to give away asandwich or a cookie.
You never have to like ask amanager to rush an order to get
(11:34):
somebody to do what they want.
You never have to like ask amanager to rush an order to get
somebody to do what they want.
So really empower the staff tojust constantly be picking up
guests and sort of like lookingfor those little edges to make
their experience better.
(11:59):
No-transcript.
And so, whether that's a cookiefor somebody who looks sad, or
whether that's a cool stickerthat we have for a kid who's in
the store, or we encourage ourstaff to like listen to what the
customers are saying.
So if in line they're betweentwo sandwiches and they're
dining in and they get one, likehit them with the second one.
If it's their first visit,right.
(12:19):
And so you say, hey, I heardyou wanted to try this one too.
Like this one's on us this timeand they're saying, whoa shit,
they were listening, I got totry this extra sandwich.
And then you have a repeatcustomer.
So really empowering the staffto like it's easy to say it's
just cookie giveaways, but it'slike more than that it listening
to what they like thecustomer's telling you they want
and then sort of fulfillingthat.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So are there any good questions that you ask in the
interview process to suss out Isthis person going to be a good
fit?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
The number one question is why do you like
being around people?
Because, oh interesting, weneed people, people right, who
like love being around people,people interacting, talking, and
so that answer is super tellingbecause a you've all worked
that shift where, like, there'sthe one staff member who's sort
of like grouchy and sort of likerubs off on the rest of the
(13:06):
staff.
So you want a team that likelikes being around each other,
loves interacting, and then thatenergy becomes infectious and
it spills into the guests.
So why do you like being aroundpeople is probably the most
important question we like toask Love that.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Now speaking of people, Andrew obviously 11
years in this industry who issomeone that deserves an ovation
in the restaurant industry.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I want to give a shout out.
I've known this guy since I wasa kid and that's not why he's
getting the ovation.
It's Nick Wiseman.
He's the owner of Little Sesame.
So Little Sesame is a.
They have one restaurant, butthen they also do CPG Hummus
nationwide in Whole Foods andacross the country in a bunch of
grocery stores.
And they started as arestaurant and I think Nick is
(13:47):
just a great example ofconstantly reinventing yourself,
constantly sort of looking forangles to make your business
sort of more scalable and betterangles to make your business
sort of more scalable and better.
They're great in theircommunity.
The way they source their foodis top notch.
They work directly with theirfarmers, they're always sort of
building up their community andthey make the best hummus in the
game.
So shout out McWiseman, littleSesame.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I love that.
And where do people go to findand follow you and your brands?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We're on Instagram Call your mother deli.
I believe is the handleCallyourmotherdelicom.
That's pretty much it.
Get on our email list.
We're fun, we're cool.
Check us out on Instagram emaillist and come through all the
shops.
Look on the website.
We're in DC and Denver rightnow.
Oh, DC and Denver.
When are you coming to Utah?
Honestly, it's on the shortlist, so watch out.
(14:35):
I think that there's like oneJewish deli in Salt Lake.
It's a natural next junk fromDenver, so watch out that we're
coming.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Here we go.
I'm ready for it.
Well, andrew, for giving us areminder to care about each
other and to call our mothers,today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Give an Ovation.
Thanks, man Pleasure, Thanks,pleasure.
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