Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #124: Marco's Pizza with Karan Choudhary: Delving into the World of Franchising
Get ready to embark on a fascinating exploration into the world of franchising with Karan Choudhary, the man behind Marco's Pizza in Cooper City. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone curious about the intricacies of running a franchise. Karan, an industry veteran with a background at Restaurant Brands International, shares his personal narrative of success, challenges and surprising opportunities, including how an Instagram encounter turned into a franchise chance. You'll hear about Marco's Pizza's transformation from a humble family-run Italian business into a name that's steadily carving out its niche in the restaurant industry.
The second half of our conversation takes a deep dive into the hurdles that come with opening a franchise like Marco's Pizza, especially in a city like Cooper City, notorious for its rigid regulations. Hear firsthand how the team bravely navigated unexpected obstacles, including misunderstandings with landlords and stringent permit requirements. Karan stresses the pivotal role customer feedback plays in shaping the brand and how it has helped them fine-tune their recipes for the ultimate pizza experience. So, buckle up and join us on this exciting journey through the ins and outs of growing a pizza empire!
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wulf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, and welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Wulf, and I am here today with Karan Chaudhry from Marko's Pizza, right down the road from my house. Karan, thanks for joining us today. Brother, thanks for having us. Jeremy, thanks for having me, I guess, yeah, it's our pleasure. And thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. So, karan, why don't we jump in? I mean, I'm sure everybody that you hear Marko's Pizza, you probably know of Marko's Pizza. I'm sure most people, unless they've been living on another planet, know what pizza is. But why don't you just give a brief synopsis, let everybody know a little bit about Marko's Pizza, and then we'll go from there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Marko's Pizza was founded in the 80s. Founder's originally from Italy. He decided that he's really missing that authentic Italian flavor that came with pizza back there. So he decided that he wanted to do his own thing, started it up in Ohio actually Once in Ohio, started to do really well, took off, and then he started franchising it. Ever since They've been growing steadily. They really ramped up their growth the last couple of years and really wanted to focus on South Florida as the new hotspot for them. They thought there was a lot of opportunity there. So that's kind of their focus. And, yeah, we pride ourselves on our fresh ingredients. We use fresh dough. We make it every day. So you know it's never frozen, it never comes in pre-made. Every day we're in there making batches of dough to make sure that the crust that everybody gets is that good, you know fresh feel to it. The sauce is actually the recipe for the sauce comes from Italy, so that's also kind of our signature profile over there as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, so going back to the franchise, I'm curious. You said they started in the 80s. When did they start franchising? Was that shortly after they started or did it take many, many years?
Speaker 3:It took a couple of years before they expanded. Before it was just like kind of like they were the ones that had their own stores.
Speaker 2:Okay, so they opened the one and probably a couple of other stores, got the business model down pretty well and then scaled it up. Did they? Where did they go from? Where was their first state? Did they come to Florida first? Or how many franchises do you guys have?
Speaker 3:now. So now in Florida, actually there's a lot of growth happening in South Florida. I know that we so I know there's been one in Pembroke Pines, there's been one in West. Then we actually South Florida's territory was given to this group out of Puerto Rico, because in Puerto Rico they entered in around like 2016 or so 2016, 2017, and they went from never being heard of to literally having a Marcos every other block. So the success that they saw over there, they decided they wanted to try it out over here. So we're actually the first door to open under that Puerto Rico umbrella. But you know, since then they've opened one in Dural. Actually, just yesterday a new one in Oakland opened up and there's about four more slated to open up into the next couple of years.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay, so blowing up, so to speak, correct. So why did you guys land specifically in Cooper City? Why is this area important for you guys?
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean it's kind of a you know it's for us the whole thing has kind of just been taking it in stride. Whatever opportunity kind of came up, we wanted to explore everything. It's funny because, you know, the way that the actual franchising opportunity came up itself was through Instagram. Yeah, so I mean primarily me and my business partners. We do real estate, you know, we do multifamily and commercial units, but so, yeah, I saw an advertisement for franchising for Marcos Pizza. I thought it looked interesting.
Speaker 3:So me and my business partner went, we tried it out because we had never tried it before. We really liked it and we're like, you know, there's there's potential with this. So then we started working with a couple realtors, with corporate everybody, you know, looking at areas in that Davey Cooper City area. We're local to it, so it would have been just easier to kind of manage. You know, it's like 10, not even 10 minutes away from where we're. We're on that, so it's it's convenient in that sense because you know, in the restaurant industry there's always something or the other going on, so it helps to be kind of on site.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So background in real estate pretty much that's your background of real estate investing. Yeah, okay, and you have a bunch of partners. So prior to this endeavor you had never had any experience in the restaurant world. Is that safe? Is that an accurate assumption?
Speaker 3:Still like hands on? No, like before that I was actually working on the corporate side of for the company that owns Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons, and I guess they recently just acquired Firehouse Subs.
Speaker 2:Really, I didn't know, I didn't realize that Burger King was owned by the same corporation. Yeah, so what, what, what? What corporation is it?
Speaker 3:It's a it's restaurant. Brands international.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they're actually headquartered on Miami, so that's where I was. So what did you do for them? Yeah, so for the first part of my time over there I was on the finance side for Burger King, kind of dealing with different franchisees. You know, seeing kind of what was what was going on, you know helping with like cleaning up kind of like the sales between franchises, okay. And then the second half was actually franchise profitability for Popeyes. So I was able to kind of get the other side view of you know what goes into or kind of like how franchises are doing, and then you know seeing some do really well, it allowed me to kind of poke into like hey, you know what is it that you're doing that other people are not. That that's really causing you to have, you know, a boost in sales. You're really causing you to optimize labor, things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so definitely a strong background in this kind of thing, because it's it's, it's a, it's a leap. If you're working in one industry and you have no background in that type of thing and then you just like you said you saw an Instagram ad you get into a franchise. I mean, and I know, I've heard from many, many people that the restaurant industry in and of itself is just the attrition rate is is incredible, right. So so many restaurants, it's just such a grind, right, there's so much that goes into it. It's 24, seven. So, yeah, I mean, hats off to you guys for for taking on this venture. How's it going so far? You've been here for a year, right? If I'm not mistaken, you opened about a year ago.
Speaker 2:We're, we're eight months in eight months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're still, you know, relatively new. It's. To be honest, it's extremely fun. There's always something or the other. You know. It's always always around your feet there's.
Speaker 3:You know, never know when something will go on. You know, get a call, be like hey, you know something like this terminal just went down and we don't have a backup, we don't have any way of printing receipts, we don't know whose order is what. And then you know you obviously have a bunch of bunch of customers who are, rightfully, still waiting for their pizza to come out and it's like trying to figure out okay, well, you know, what did you order? Did you pay, things like that. But you know, obviously, the more you go through it, the more kind of like backup plans you start implementing.
Speaker 3:Now, the first time that happened we were like, oh shoot, we don't know what to do. Then you know, as it happened more and more, like, all right, well, you know, we can always pull up a separate receipt, just print out receipts from this other computer over there. So just kind of find, work around, stores, everything. You know, one time we had the power went out. There's like I don't I forget what it was like some I imagine it's just regular thunderstorm, whatever, or no, actually it was this time. It was that time that I think somebody actually hit one of the One of like the main like FPL parts in Cooper City, so like the whole Block had lost power. So we were like, well, we really only have like two hours before all the food in the walk-in goes bad. So just trying to like figure out ways to, you know, kind of solve those problems, which at the time is obviously a very stressful, but it's always, you know, it's exciting. There's always actually going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's those stressful situations and the putting you know, putting ourselves in these uncomfortable situations that ultimately help us get better and help us grow. Because once you go through that and you experience it, the next time something happens it's like you brush it off your shoulder. It's not a big deal, you know, handle it. So I curious, you know I I just said I live right down the road from you guys and I'm ashamed to say, right, I have not come in there to eat yet. I've been in the closet before. I Definitely need to come and I'm glad to get to know you and I'm definitely gonna come by and check it out. I feel like I may.
Speaker 2:I lived in West Davy before this and I think I may have had the Marcos out in Weston. But what would you say to anybody out there? I think a lot of people have this Conception, especially when it comes to something like pizza. Right we're, when you scale it, when you go to like franchise something, you lose something with the whole, you know Home pizzeria, with the one owner type thing. What would you say to somebody out there that maybe hasn't come by To Marcos because they think, oh, I don't want to go to another fast food place, like, if I'm gonna get pizza, I'm gonna go to the stand alone place with, you know, the single owner that's been there for 20 years like that.
Speaker 3:So I mean the first thing I'd say is that you know it's a franchise, but at the end of the day we're just. You know we're just like everybody, every other single-seller owner. Yet we haven't necessarily gone through and I mean it was a little Easier in the sense that the recipes were there for us. But in terms of that personal touch, you know me and my business partners to kind of pretty much always on site one day or the other, so we're always there in that sense, our general manager, she's great, she's always there too and it's just I would say don't knock it until you try. The thing is that so far everybody that's that's kind of tried our pizza has been like oh wow, you know this is, I Didn't know it's gonna be this good Pleasant, at least.
Speaker 2:Surprise, right, exactly expected to be like this. Yeah, right, and it makes sense. Right, and this is, it's one of the things that people often forget when it comes to these larger branded businesses or corporations like McDonald's or like, like you said, like Burger King or like Marcos pizza, is that they're all franchises and they are all, more often than not, they're owned by somebody that either lives in the community or in and around the community and they're there working their tail off trying to make good food. So there is still. Is that personal connection, personal feel that people so often just think it's a nice Faceless corporation on? Mcdonald's is worth billions and billions of dollars, you know right.
Speaker 2:But, but you know, in reality again, there is, you know, an owner operator there that does you Live in the community, has family, has kids. So it's important to understand that and, like you said, at the very least come by and check it out and try the food and see how it's doing. No, you got me, so, brother.
Speaker 3:You got to, you got to know, look, we also we value on his feedback. Right, that's the only way that we can get better is if somebody says something you know I'm like. You say like, hey, you know I didn't really like this, there was too much stuff, too much cheese, and then we can make suggestions off of that and we can make you know it's all adjustments to try and get that what we find is best for you. And, honestly, if it's like you know, hey, it took too long, then that's also stuff. That, the feedback that you know, we we welcome and we really do appreciate that because it really only helps us out in the long run.
Speaker 2:Right on man, what? What would you say? Looking back, going through and opening the franchise, open a brick and mortar restaurant. What was the biggest challenge that you faced in getting this place going?
Speaker 3:construction.
Speaker 2:I've heard that most of us have permits and problems and layers yeah.
Speaker 3:Cooper City is very strict, rightfully so. You know it's primarily residential. They want to make sure that everything is by the book. And the thing is that when a city is that strict with everything and you got to make sure that you know every step you're very meticulous with it and there are times where you know general contractors Just try to get through the job quickly. And you know we we love that because we want to open as quickly as possible.
Speaker 3:But you know there's always issues that pop up. We had, we had a great, you know, we had a fun time with our the old landlord in the end of selling the place. But uh, you know there's a huge misunderstanding. We were under the assumption that there was a gas line in place. There wasn't. You know, they were fully convinced there was a gas line in place. And then you know we're going, our plumbers put up the gas line and then the city's like, hey, there's no permit for it. And looking back, we're like you know what? Yeah, that's probably a very unsafe way to run a gas line.
Speaker 3:It was, you know, if you're familiar with the plaza, the gas line, the way that we had initially ran it the first time. Obviously, this is not connected to the tank at the time, it's just laying out the piping. The way we ran it, it was because the gas tank is, you know, on the other side of like the drive-thru in the shopping center. So the line ran through the drive-thru and it entered our neighbor's Cali coffee. So it's like there's no need. You know, if they're not using gas, why are we exposing that business to more risk with the gas line running through it? And those are things that the city pointed out, which, yeah, there's obviously a very good reason that the city has their codes the way they do.
Speaker 3:You know, sure, it's a pain when going through the process, but you know, and now? So now obviously we have to run it through the back. It's only entering our unit with only ones that use gas in the in the shopping center. So, but yeah, definitely construction. There's also and especially at that time, because you study construction post COVID so there's still supply chain issues. So, like our AC units, we're ready to go. You know, all we're waiting on is just plugging in the HVAC. It's just not there.
Speaker 2:So stuff like that Sounds like a lot of fun. You mentioned Cali coffee. I met Craig and Rose the other day, I'm assuming you know. You know over there being your neighbor is really really nice people as well. I think I saw Rose has a she's expecting, she has a baby on the way Right, really close. Did you? Do you live around this area or where do you live at?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I'm about 10 minutes out. I'm actually, you know, in Pembroke Pines we won't hold that against you.
Speaker 1:Since you have a business here in Cooper.
Speaker 2:City, you will consider you an honorary resident here in the community and you're not far away. You're right down the road anyway, so right, exactly.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, it's like 10 minutes away from work and where I'm at. But one thing I did notice about Cooper City is that you know that really you don't notice in Pembroke Pines is how much the community buys into each other. And it was incredible for us to see, from the very first day we opened up, we had somebody come in there like hey, you know, I'm a PTO parent at this school, you know, and if you'd like, I'll get you in touch with you know, xyz other parents so that you can reach out to other schools. And it was. You know, nothing that we had done, it was just somebody came.
Speaker 2:Just goodwill.
Speaker 3:Just goodwill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of the things that's great about this community is it's a very tight-knit community. It's a small city and everybody's pretty well connected and it's just a great place to raise a family and I'm obviously happy to be here. You got family, men. You look like you look really young. You have kids. No, no, no kids. I didn't say man, you look like a, so not. Yeah, my whole family.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my family's been here, for They've been in South Florida for at this point, like it'll be 40 years and yeah, it'll be like 40 years, like two years or so, so they've been here for a while. I've been born and raised in South Florida, once college at Miami, so South Florida through and through.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, hurricane, hurricane. So, before we wrap up here, why don't you share Obviously, I know where you are, I'm sure that a lot of the folks that live here in the community have driven by. But please share your address, your website, your contact information. Tell everybody how we could find you and how we could learn more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. We're on 11050 Griffin Road, right on the main road, griffin. You know where hiatus cuts off. That's where we're at, in between Nob Hill and Flamingo. You know our phone number is 954-869-9199. We're open from 11am to 11pm Every day of the week, except Friday and Saturday. We're open till midnight. So if you ever get that late you know late night pizza craving or they late night munchies, exactly.
Speaker 3:And then you know, and yeah, just you can order online. We've got an app, marcoscom, and you know we welcome all sorts of feedback. You leave us some feedback on the phone number there. You know you need you can email me personally. So it's k ch H O U D H a R Y at Marcos pizza net and you know we just we'd love to see you all there and love to to get your take on on our pizza.
Speaker 2:And we'll of course link in the description below to all of your contact information to Karan. I will be mark my words. I will be coming by very, very soon.
Speaker 1:I'll probably.
Speaker 2:I'll probably just bring my kids by. You're gonna be there. What's today? Maybe I pick up up from school, swing by for a slice or two. You guys sell slices individually there. Is it just my? We do be ties.
Speaker 3:But our smallest pie is it's pretty much good for like one to one and a half people. You know how I agree with yeah, I'll be there today. Um, yeah, we dance all five.
Speaker 2:So you might just get lucky and see me twice today. Right, dream country. All right, brother. Hey, thanks for coming on the show. It's nice meeting you. And yeah, man, take care, I know I'm sure I'll see you soon. And to all our listeners, thanks for tuning in and we will see on the next episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. Everyone, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast, cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNP Cooper City, calm. That's GNP Cooper City, calm, or call 954 231 317 0.