Giovanni Labbate on Premium Pizza, Food Trucks, and Tievoli Pizza Bar

Giovanni Labbate from Tievoli Pizza Bar joins the Pizza King Podcast to talk about building a premium pizza brand, growing from food truck operations into a successful restaurant, competing on major pizza stages, and refusing to race to the bottom on price.

In this episode, Giovanni shares lessons from growing up in the pizza business, working in corporate restaurant operations, opening Tievoli, using competitions to improve the menu, and building around quality, systems, service, and consistency.

We also talk about food truck pricing, catering, customer education, social media, viral reviews, clean kitchens, team training, and why pizzeria owners need the confidence to charge what their product is worth.

This is a strong episode for pizzeria owners, operators, and managers who want to build a better shop without relying on discounts as the whole strategy.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:18

You're really gonna like that. Like all the jobs every red is the way that you build it right. Just open up a shop and hope that it worked out and hope you make the right location. Now you run a multiple unit, he's pushing towards expanding unit number two to bring him order number two. He's got the truck, he's got the trailer. But at the same time, he's gonna be all around the world at a high level, you know, win an award. You know, in places like like Naples and and Parma. You know, obviously Vegas, California, like he's winning all over, right? He's having no idea that he's bringing all of that back. We got into all of it during the conversation, the reality of starting versus talking about the things that we learned from franchising the way we talked about how we build in premium premium product, right? Without relying on discount and giving out a bunch of deals. We talked about how we balance every activity with execution inside the opposite side uh the operation like that in real life. So there's a lot in here for operators who know if you're in this business or you're looking to get into this business, you're gonna learn a ton from this episode. So let's get into it. Chef Giovanni Labatte from Tavoli Pizza Bar.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

I think uh competitions really inspired me to do that because my first competition was in Chicago and I made a pizza, it was good. I came in like fourth place, which I was like that kind of pushed me because I was like, wow, first time and I got fourth place, it's not bad. When I started going to these competitions, I started seeing people putting really cool, cool things on pizzas, and I'm like, Well, I really got to elevate my game. These people are not just putting pepperoni and sausage, and you know, they're putting like things that you would never see on a pizza before. So then that's when I started kind of developing different things on the pizzas.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Okay, no problem. Where did uh how did you end up? I I see that you were you grew up in the Bronx. How did you end up in the Chicago area?

SPEAKER_03 3:55

So my father was an immigrant, obviously came to, you know, he jumped literally jumped ship from the Navy to New York, and uh, you know, immigration came to get him and his brother kind of bailed him out and became a citizen. But uh they started out in New York as in a pizzeria business. Actually, my father used to work for Sabaros, now today was one of their main guys who would hope help them open up stores. And then uh my father went out with his brother went out on their own and started opening up little businesses like little slice shops and malls where Sabarro's where Sabaros wasn't. So basically kind of migrated. My father, we probably lived in 14, 15 different states. My father would go up into a mall, open up different malls.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's sweet.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

So we ended up in Chicago like in the 90s, and we just never left. But he had 14 different places around the around the country.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

That's funny. My my mentor and and Bobby V, who started me in the pizza business, he started at Saboros in the mall in Philadelphia, and he spent years trying to find that little steel plate to help mold the to mold the best before you stretch it. Did you did you remember that? Did you grow up like that?

SPEAKER_03 5:01

You know what the funny thing is, I was trying to I'm trying to get a guy, because I thought about that, and I'm like, I'm trying to get a guy to 3D print it.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

But that's a great way to do it because he was trying to find a guy to cast it back in the day. I guess the 3D printer would be so much faster and easier now.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

So I'm gonna I'm gonna try to find a guy. I'm developing it right now, actually. That's funny that you came up with that. And I'm like, I remember that was a pretty good tool, and it'll kind of put it push out the airs just for training purposes, you know?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, it's a good start for it. And he he was never able to like you couldn't buy it anywhere. No, like only Sabaros had it. I guess if you had an old Saboros and it was a villa or something, some other brand, you you found one, but he would like we'd see him in the mall and he'd try to buy it from the people at the shop, but no one they wouldn't get rid of them. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

But yeah, my father, my father ended up in Chicago, and then uh we just kind of stayed here, and then um this is you know, we left Chicago, so I haven't left since.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Nice, nice. Are you uh in the city? Are you outside the city?

SPEAKER_03 5:56

We're in the suburbs uh right now. I mean, I used to live in the city, but now we're in the suburbs. Our pizzeria is in a suburb of Palatine, Illinois, which is like 20 minutes from O'Hare Airport. So kind of centralized.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, I'd say that's not bad. That's I mean, you get a good that's better than being in some parts of Chicago.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

But yeah, I mean we have Palatine's nice, it's got like 80,000 people, and then we have all these surrounding cities around us. So we've probably got a few hundred thousand people around our store.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So Oh, that's great. That's all you need. Yeah, exactly. That's that's all you need. You before you you started, I read that you were you spent some time like on the corporate side doing franchising and you know, seeing that part of the business. What was that like?

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Actually, uh I actually went to school to become a child psychologist first, and uh, because I didn't want to be in the restaurant business, but you know, that didn't pan out when the uh they told me that I was gonna make like thirty thousand dollars a year to start, and then I was like, hmm, I'm making more now. So kind of got discouraged, and I didn't go back to school. I finished with my uh associates and then uh yeah, I went to the corporate side of the field. I worked for companies like uh Papa John's, uh Panera, um you know, larger corporations that you know were doing things on a different scale, which was good because it kind of taught me the other side of the business that you probably wouldn't get from your like your your father, my like a mom and pop. They didn't really know what food cost was and they didn't know, you know, how to do an inventory. So that kind of gave me a little edge, you know, I think later on in life opening our own business and understanding what you know what it needs to say with you know money and how to do our PLs and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Did you ever consider just buying a franchise versus doing your own thing?

SPEAKER_03 7:34

You know, I I worked for Billy Bricks. I don't know if you hear know them. They're here in Chicago. I helped them grow to like 12 12 stores. You know, I started their food truck business and I was originally gonna buy into the business, but it just didn't pan out. And so I just kind of ventured off my own and said, if I can do it for them, I can do it for myself. True story.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, I d I I know Rick, he's uh he's come on the show too. Good dude, a smart guy for sure. So that's a great place to start to see a business kind of really being really close to building something ground up. Exactly. The skills and the confidence it gives you. You started with food truck. Was that intentional or was that kind of just where things fell?

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Um well, because I started with a food truck because I I was with uh I was director of operations for Billy Bricks, and uh I sa, you know, long story short, I started their food truck business and I liked how it was going. So I my wife and I said, hey, let's get our own food truck. So we branded it as Billy Bricks at the time, and we were working under their umbrella. Um and then it was it was pretty successful. But then when I left Billybricks, I rebranded the truck to Tivoli, and we just started there. But yeah, the truck was kind of our hey, this is this is this is working, so let's do something. And so we built a restaurant really for the truck, it was for our commissary, and we said, hey, if we make money, we make money if we don't. And now the restaurant's probably more successful than the truck.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Are you still running the truck too?

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Yeah, yeah, we have a truck and we have a trailer and the restaurant, and we're opening up store number two, hopefully within the next six months.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

If you if you had to start over and do it again, would you start that same route, like go truck first and then kind of build a commissary or a restaurant around it?

SPEAKER_03 9:15

Um, no, I would I would say a restaurant is first is always better because you kind of have to have a truck and a restaurant. It's a kind of a symbiotic relationship because with having the restaurant and the truck, what like you know, for instance, they went out yesterday, they did a little public event and they sold you know 100 pizzas, but they brought enough for like 150. They can bring that product back, put it on the line, and we we never have we have zero waste because we're always utilizing all those stuff. So if you don't have a restaurant to go back to, and if the restaurant's not very busy, then you're gonna have some waste. So it's a little bit more harder to control not wasting some food or dough. So I would always recommend at least have a restaurant to go back to. Yeah.

unknown 9:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Is it is it like a misconception that it's cheaper to start in it with a truck, anyways?

SPEAKER_03 10:04

I think so, because then you know, and and also when you're doing a truck business, you really have to kind of the variables of what kind of product you're gonna put out. Obviously, pizza's, you know, probably one of the pizza and tacos. I mean it's one of the number one truck. Yeah, so those are the good ones. That's what people want. And then you have, you know, we do a lot of weddings, so that's that's where we are our bread and butter is. We do a lot of big corporate uh wedding corporate parties and big weddings. So and we're just private party-based. So we don't really go out, we'll do some public events, but it's all pre-arranged. I don't go on a street and try to sell because that's just a waste of time for me. I'm not sure what we're gonna do. So everything we do is 100% prearranged.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

See, that's it, and that's interesting in itself because I think when folks think about food truck, at least when I do, I'm thinking like we're gonna go set up in some park where there's 20 other trucks and there's an event going on, and maybe and maybe we sell some food or maybe we don't, or maybe there's 10 pizza guys, or maybe I'm the only one. You kind of chose a different path where it's we're only we're only booking where we know exactly what we're gonna do, what we're gonna sell. Yeah. So you know, is that like what's that like operationally like? You have to have some skills in selling and closing those kind of deals too, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Exactly. So you you know, really got to know the business, you know, you gotta know how to market the truck, you know, have to know where to find those parties, you gotta have exposure that people can find you to book you for a party. So, and I think that's where the restaurant really comes into play because you know, now you can promote the truck through the restaurant business. You know, if people are calling for catering, say, hey, we have this option, we have this option. And then, you know, we do some uh advertising on different websites that are for you know, weddings and private parties. So that helps. So you really got to know what you're doing to it's not as easy as everybody thinks. Yeah. And there's a and it's seasonality too, here in Chicago, at least, because weather related. You know, so winter winter time we have nothing, you know, nothing really goes on too much. So like January, February kind of slow.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

But you spend that time planning, booking, closing deals because everyone's planning for that season. So they want to lock it down. And then I imagine that you gotta understand your cost well enough to price it for profit too, right? Correct, yeah. I've heard folks, you know, in the food truck game or the pop-up game, start to give out, you know, they're they're pricing themselves out of the profit, and it's and it's making it hard to keep going in the business.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Yeah, I mean, yeah, we're we're not the cheapest uh avenue, I would say. You know, some people are like, wow, that's expensive. I'm like, well, you know, that's what it is if you want pizza made at your doorstep. So, you know, so it's an experience plus having food. So that's what that's how we kind of validate what we do, is because you know, we have an all-glass truck, people can see it. So it's not, you know, if you want a pizza delivered, sure, that would be cheaper. But if you want me to make pizza with a crew in front of you on our truck in our gold oven, yeah, that's gonna cost you a little bit more money.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

And it's separating the pizza from the experience. That's a that's a whole series of education in itself for customers because they sometimes they look at us all like we're little Caesars.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

And that's where Tuvoli came into play. You know what? When we did Tuvoli, we we don't offer no discounts, we don't do any couponing, we just and we hardly do any marketing. It's just basically like podcasts or we go out, we get some news exposure, we do little things here, influencers that we don't pay. But I didn't want to demean what we do as a pizzeria owner because a lot of people think that pizza should be cheap. And a lot of people think that, oh, it should be coupon or it should be discount. And I don't do that. I say, hey, when you go to a fancy restaurant, you're not bringing a coupon with you. Why should we take coupons? So, and I tell people that's we're pri you know, we're not the cheapest pizzeria, but we're not overly priced. But but we put, and I know a lot of pizzeria see that say that we put a but we put literally the best products possible, and we're always getting better. If we find a better product, we're buying it. I don't care if I have to spend more money for that product, I will chart accordingly for my product to do so because I want to put out the best product.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

What's that process like for you when it in terms of just finding ways and finding areas to improve? Like, is it is it a point where it's like, okay, maybe I need to stop tinkering as an owner, or or is it, no, I saw something, I learned something, we're going full steam ahead, or do you kind of test things out?

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah, we we do a lot of testing. Um, you know, this uh it's actually why I like competitions, trade shows. We see new products, new ideas, and then um, but you know, just in general, I'll see something and I'll be like, or the rep will call me from and say, Hey, I got a couple different pastas, so we'll test them out, or you know, we'll make something like, you know, for instance, gluten-free. We do a lot of different gluten-free products, and we couldn't find a good gluten-free pasta because they they kind of all suck. And so I said, you know what, we're gonna make our own gluten-free pasta. We make our own gluten-free gnocchi, and that's what we're proud about because it's actually so simple too. I mean, it's and and I thought about it, I was like, man, it's just a gnocchi pasta. We and we make it probably kind of pretty cool because we don't do the traditional gnocchi, we make kind of like a little balls, so they're round balls, but and there's they're they're so good because you wouldn't even know they were gluten-free because mostly it's potato pasta. And and I don't have to give somebody a mediocre product, so I'm giving something that we made in-house and it's so much better. So that you know, that's the kind of things that we do, and we're always looking at our menu, what we can do better. Um, because you know, if you if you think you know everything, then you're done.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

You continue to even educate your customers on like things like that, like we do our own gluten-free, you know, no milky pasta without doing like the without going the traditional marketing routes, like we're without spending more than like, oh, we donated a thousand dollars and you spend ten thousand dollars telling everybody about it. How do you how do you continue to put that out there?

SPEAKER_03 15:41

So, you know, like a lot of times we'll do is like uh, you know, we we kind of tell people in store, so if we know a customer has gluten-free and they're always buying that gluten-free pasta, we're like, hey, next time you gotta try the pasta because it's out of this world. And we do like gluten-free cookies, we do garlic nuts. So there's a lot of different products that we do, and we're always telling customers, and we do we have an email blast that we do from our our company. We use toast, so we do text market, test text marketing, and we do emails and social media, obviously. So taking pictures and promoting and stuff like that. But and we we feel that that's the best route right now because everybody's on their phone and looking for the next best dish on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So So stay staying present, keeping your your social and your social was pretty cool because you make make a lot of videos, you post a lot of you know the things that you're doing, your travels, a lot of press and like local news, things like that.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Yeah, we got we got lucky that we had um one of our customers was a PR lady, and you know, she was like, I can get you guys on TV and promote these wins, and I was like, okay, all right, whatever. You know, and so her price was pretty good, and we said, you know what, we'll try it out and see if it works. And you know, we couldn't be much more happier. She's gotten us on every news station, any outlet we could think of. And you know, we'll be on May 4th again on the news talking about Mother's Day and stuff like that. So she does a good job and promotes us every time we kind of get an award or and win something. So do people come to the restaurant to see you? 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah, because I think that's pretty cool too. Like you're you're the face of it. And then, you know, I know that you guys got a whole team and and and business behind it, but you you kind of taking on that role of being the being the face of the brand and stepping out there. So I imagine that's like people are coming to keep it.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Unfortunately, I make most of the pizzas at the restaurant, and I'm I'm trying to stray away from that. And we kind of lost a couple of our guys, so we have to retrain some new ones, and I have a new guy coming. But I'm trying to get myself out of the kitchen, but it's it's hard to do sometimes, you know, because yeah, customers come in a lot of times just to say, I saw you on TV. And they want to talk. Yeah, so you know, but it but it's a good feeling too. You know, we want people to know that we care and we're behind the scenes, you know, we're not just absentee owners just trying to make a buck, you know, like we do it because I I do it because I love it.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Hence the name.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah. How did how did that come come about?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

I wasn't even it's a perfect way to go into that. How did you how did you get there? That's pretty creative.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

So we we were at a competition in California, which is a new a competition that's coming up in uh the deadline is actually the 24th, the California Real Competition. So we were at their competition, which we won that, we won that year, and we had uh wine in California and it said by Oak Farm Vineyards, and it said Tivoli. And it then it said explained it said it's I love it backwards. Move forward like six uh six years later, when we were trying to come up with the name for the restaurant, we couldn't think of anything. Everything we thought about was taken. So my wife was like, What about that name Tivoli? I'm like, ah, for sure somebody's got it. Nobody had it. So I called my lawyer. I was like, dude, I need this name for the whole United States. So we trademarked the name, and you know, yeah. I mean, it just means everything for us because it sounds Italian, but it's not Italian, and then it means something backwards. So you couldn't get any better than that. It's really how we feel about pizza.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

An original word, but still has meaning. Yeah. That's pretty that's pretty dope. And you so you you locked it up. No one else, there we're not gonna see another tavoli without litigation. Unless it's not a state. Do you have any goals to franchise?

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Yeah, I mean, so that's the goal. I mean, either we franchise or we get a you know huge investor involved and expand the location. So, like I said, we're working at store number two. Hopefully, within another year from now, we'll do three and then we'll start to look at franchising ideas and go from there. So basically what I did for bricks.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

And you guys are woo fire, neapolitan, or neo-neapolitan style.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

So our truck is neapolitan, and then uh our stores is I always say like New York artisan. So we use like electric ovens, pizza master. So different styles on the truck than our brick and mortars. But I probably the brick and mortar was really about bringing back when my father started, and my father did like New York pizza. So I wanted to kind of bring that back. And you know, you know, and I wanted to bring it to Chicago because there's not there's very few New York styles. There are actually more popping up now, but there wasn't there was only a handful of us. So I thought, you know, hey, let's give somebody something different. So I took New York and we kind of elevated a little bit more. That's what we call it New York artisan. And I give somebody something different to eat because everybody around us is doing like Chicago style, deep dish, pans. So and then we do Detroit style as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah. Do you do you do like slices? Are you doing any no slices?

SPEAKER_03 20:32

It just wasn't like um, you know, my father used to do slices, and I thought to myself, like, I don't want to sell 400 slices to make a little bit of money. Like, I want to just sell the whole pie. You know, if somebody wants a slice, they can just buy a 12. We do a 12-inch pizza, which is a smaller one, so they can just get a 12-inch pizza. Or if they want a panzerati, a cow's own, they can just get that. Like, I don't want to sell value, you know, because plus I want to give people fresh product. I want them to get it right out of the oven.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

You want your best your best product to leave there in that box.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Yeah. And slice is sometimes like you gotta reheat it, which is good. I mean, I'm a I grew up in the slice business, I know, but if it was in a high traffic volume area, maybe, but we don't have that kind of traffic, foot traffic.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

But you still have uh a a personal size, a 12-inch offering to get people to try something they haven't really tried before, right? Yeah, 100%. Because I've seen some things like you're creative too. You like to create different different pies, you're not just you know, sling the cheese and pepperonis.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

No, yeah, exactly. We have some pies on the menu, you're not gonna get anywhere else. Definitely combinations that are just you know Tivoli kind of uh thing. So and that's and that's what really Tivoli is about. It's about just being different than everybody else and coming up with things that you're not gonna see at your normal pizzeria or pizza shop.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

What inspired that and and to to be non-traditional with it, but still do something that's deeply rooted in tradition?

SPEAKER_03 22:50

I think uh competitions really inspired me to do that because my first competition was in Chicago, and I made a pizza, it was good. I came in like fourth place, which I was like that kind of pushed me because I was like, wow, first time and I got fourth place, it's not bad. I can win this thing. Yeah, I said maybe I could do better. So when I started going to these competitions, I started seeing people putting, you know, really cool, cool things on pizzas, and I'm like, well, I really got to elevate my game. Like these people are not just putting pepperoni in sausage, and you know, they're putting like things that you would never see on pizza before. So then that's when I started kind of developing different things on the pizzas, and and you know, we have probably like five of our pizzas on that menu that are all award-winning pizzas. So that's really cool. What's what's your favorite? Our namesake pizza, it's the Tivoli pizza. It's uh it's a pizza I developed actually like 12 years ago. I was making bacon jam for uh mac and cheese. And I made that bacon chair for a mac and cheese, and I was like, man, this bacon jam would be good on pizza. So I started putting that in pizza, and then it's got a cream the pecorino, it's got a roasted garlic sauce, cheese, cup and char pepperoni, shit, onions, oregano, truffle honey, and basil and peppadoo pepper. So it's got a lot of stuff on it, but when you take a bite of it, it just makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

It sounds like it cost a hundred dollars to make it.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Yeah, it it's it's expensive. So it is probably and it's our most expensive pizza too. So it It is it is a good pizza and we actually won second place in uh Naples last year in the Americana division with it.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

So it's it's it's a good pizza. Yeah. That is um excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Are there any that you come up with and you love them and it just doesn't work out?

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Yeah, sometimes. I did a pizza at a competition, it was like a lemon curd pizza. Uh huh. And I thought it was I thought it was spot on. It was like prosciutto and strata and lemon curd. It just all made sense, but I didn't win.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Nobody liked it. It was before it was before its time.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Yeah. But now, but basically now I just make a pizza and I, you know, I have my wife try it out and she doesn't like it. We don't we don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

That's the the litness test is does it pass the wife? And yeah, if not, we just go move on to the next one. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

And you know, she's kind of she's actually come up with a pizza too. We did a pizza in California. She came one day to the restaurant and she handed me like 12 ingredients. She's like, Can we make a pizza with all this? And I'm like, sure. And then we took that pizza to California and we won uh first place in not traditional, and then we won the grand champion, and then we won like a cheese division too. So we won like three trophies that year. Wow. Well she let her do that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Do you see as you're out, you're shopping, you're you're rolling around, do you see you see things and then it automatically starts to form pizza creations in your mind?

SPEAKER_03 25:33

Yeah, well, you know, what I do is uh when I'm at home, I actually cook a lot more than actually make pizza. So I I think about like dishes that I make, and I'm like, this could be a good pizza. So when I'm making like I make Thai food a lot at home, I make a lot of Spanish food. So I kind of say say, we can make dishes, and we put these dishes incorporated on pizza. So and that's how I come up with some of the the pizzas that we do. So we'll we'll probably come up with some a couple new pizzas this year, uh, because we're going to Naples in June, so we gotta come up with a couple different uh award-winning pies soon.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

So I saw you in Vegas a couple of weeks ago or last month, and you were uh just getting ready to compete with sandwich. Does the same thought process go into creating a uh a great sandwich as a pizza?

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yeah, you know, and then this year I actually did kind of something simple. I just did what we did at our shop. I just wanted to see how well our meatball sandwich would do in a competition. Right. And we came in the top five, and then uh we made it to the finals, and but we came out fourth place. So but our our meatball sandwich did well against all the people, so I I can't complain, you know. Next year probably come up with something different, creation, and and then maybe put that on the menu if we win. But I just wanted to see like what was something basic, you know, like I mean, and I don't say our our meatballs basic, but it wasn't extravagant sandwich. It was just like a meatball sandwich with good vodka sauce, good meatballs, basil and some cheese and some jardin there. And I just wanted to see how far that would go. And you know, sometimes simplicity goes a lot far.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

I think so. I think sometimes if you you do the the simple things and you do it right, it can it can, you know, spark something in the judge. And then who knows what the judges are, you know, thinking or doing behind the curtain or who's there. Well, I mean, we all know who's there, but it's like sometimes it's sometimes that's just the right spark in the in the room where everything's you know crazy, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Yeah, and it's all subjective. I mean, you get you know, people compete, they get upset. You know, trust me, I've lost more than I've won, but you you gotta kind of just take that and motivate yourself. You know, people are always competing against each other. I'm competing against myself.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

You know, I'm always like, how can I do it better? What can I do to make it better? You know, and that's really why I compete is it's not really, I mean, yeah, it's great we win awards, it's great to get exposure, but it's really about just pushing ourselves, pushing the envelope to see what we can do a little bit better than the last time.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

What um are there any lessons that you take home from competitions, win, lose, or draw? Like one of the things I noticed when just kind of being behind the curtain just just this past year was how much everyone kind of helped each other out. Is that like is that do you go looking forward to just connecting and learning from some of the other, you know, master piece of pizza yellows around you?

SPEAKER_03 28:14

I mean, uh a hundred percent. I always looking around, see what the new guys are doing, seeing if they're doing something different. I mean, that's kind of really how we brought Detroit pizza to our restaurant, because I saw everybody competing with Detroit's and I was like, man, this is a good pizza and kind of taught myself, you know, uh reached out to a couple guys and said you see what they were doing, how they were making it. And we RD'd it for about a year and then finally we said, okay, we got it right. And then we launched it. And, you know, that's really came from competitions, just seeing what everybody else is doing.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

That's that's a major, a major win if it makes it to the menu and you can actually make some money from it too, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I think it's important to go to competitions and have an open mind and see what people are doing and learn and you know, don't be one-sided. You gotta see what everybody else is doing, kind of take little bits in here and there and see if you can incorporate any of that to your restaurant, and I think that's gonna help you.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Oh, I love that. So you're going you're you're going to Naples this summer. We just saw you in Vegas. Are you gonna be California this year too in Florida?

SPEAKER_03 29:12

I hope so. I I applied to be in California for the real California competition. So I made it there what two times out of five years, so hopefully I'll get another third. Fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah. Get there and win some trophies. Um I got there.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

I got there twice and I won two times. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Well, then you got a little bit closer to home. You got Expo and Columbus coming up. Are you gonna do you try do you try to hit as many as you can, or there's ones that you you you reserve your time, especially for?

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I you know, I didn't go to Parma this year because it was so close to Vegas, you know. Uh we went to Parma last year because we won the California PMQ magazine. So yeah, you know, we had a free pay trip, so that's why we went. And we did pretty well. I mean, we we ranked pretty high, not as good as we wanted to, but you know, we did both, but we chose this year Naples because last year when we went to Naples, we obviously won second place in Americana, but we did other uh categories and we were placed like 10, 11. So I was like, wow, we're pretty close. We could probably with a little bit more ingenuity and practice, we probably could, you know, get in the podium. So that's the goal this year is uh not only do Americana division, but I'm doing like pizza frita and uh Neapolitan STG. So I'm doing I'm doing it all. You're challenging yourself, right? Yeah, yeah. We want to push the envelope and we want to, you know, I'd like to win like a Neapolitan. We've done Neapolitan in the past. We've come like with third place, but I'd like to to win Neapolitan Italy would be like the highlight because then we could say like we're the best Neapolitan pizza truck out there, you know? Yeah, you're like number one means something. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Oh, that's sweet.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

When you especially win it to win in Naples, you know, that'd be huge.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Hell yeah. That's that'd be great. What um are you have you inspired anybody like you know, back home or back on the team to start to compete based on just what you've been doing out there?

SPEAKER_03 31:01

You know, I don't know. Maybe I I hope so. You know, I hope uh there's young pizza makers out there that were watching me or watching some of the teammates. And I I know a lot of people on my team that uh that I inspired them as well to to do more. And I know they always a lot of the guys call me and you know ask for some advice. So yeah, I mean, like you said, there's a definitely a camaraderie when it comes to competing, even with different teams, and you know, we're always there to help each other and you know, whatever they need. We we want everybody to put their best pizza out because I don't want to beat you at your worst. I want to beat you at your best.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah, but you still want to beat them though. So, I mean, the the the artistry aside, you're also there to run a business, right? And you came from a strong business background with your time with you know different franchises and and and other brands that you've helped to grow. What are some of those, you know, if you're you're telling somebody, hey, look, you're gonna you're gonna open a Taboli franchise, this is what you need to focus on. This is what our core business looks like. Like, what lessons are you making sure you you teach someone that comes in and they need to not only make a great product, but they also need to to make a make a living using your name? How do you how do you uh what are you teaching them? What do you tell them?

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Well, I mean, basically the same thing we teach our staff. It's uh you know, follow the systems. We have systems in place, we have recipes, it's consistency, putting out a good product each and every time. And not only just the food, I mean service too. Yeah. You know, you've got to give good service, you've got to be, you know, the first impression is the people at the counter. So you have you know, cleanliness of your restaurant. You know, I'm big at I'm a knee freak, so an organization. So I'm all around. If you come in my kitchen, it looks it looks like a hospital. So I like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

And that that that takes work too, but it makes such a difference when it's when it's time to execute.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Well, I tell everybody, hey, customers eat here and we eat here too. So make sure it's clean. You know, it it c cleaning your restaurant also helps with maintenance, with your your equipment, so you want to take care of it because that's you know, that things, those things break down that cost you money. So there's there's more than just making great pie to running a business. It's having a good team. Obviously, you need a lot of good uh employees to help you to do that and you know, good service, and just use good products. But that's the thing, it's like some people try to cheapen on their product and think, oh, we could save 20 cents if we use this cheese. Use a cheese that you love and just charge for it. If you gotta charge for it or something, you gotta charge for it. Don't worry about being cheap.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

You don't have to be everyone's you don't have to be the provider for every person.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

You're not everybody's not gonna like you, you know. You know, we would hope that, but everybody, you know, everybody's not gonna like what you do, and you know, everybody's not gonna like your pricing. But I tell everybody like I got the great customers because I'm not I don't have the customers that are looking for five dollars off or ten dollars off. I got the customers that are coming in and they know that we got good pizza. And that's that's why they're coming to us. And you can see on our Google reviews too, sometimes they'll say, like, they got the best pizza in time. A little pricey, but it's the best. But it's good. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I mean that that's who we are, right? Yeah. If that's the worst review we're gonna get is that we're pricey, but we have the best pizza, so be it.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Take it. Well, what it does, if someone reads that, is it tells them, look, maybe this isn't the place for me. And that's okay too, right? Like, yeah, you know, there is a product for you out there if you're if you're not in that price range, but if you want something, if you want to spend a little bit more and get a killer product, this is a this is a good option for you, as as you know, reported on Google and all these other places. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

Yeah, you gotta be you, and that's that's it, that's it, that's the key. Just do what you gotta do, and you know, I and obviously we listen to customers, you know, don't get me wrong, like if I if I get a do a do get a bad review or or we get comments, you know, we'll we'll we'll try to accommodate as much as we can. Like, you know, we had in the beginning we had some comments that they're charging two dollars for a bottle of water. So I was like, okay, maybe people don't see the value in this plastic bottle water. So now we have Saratoga glass bottle. But now I charge four dollars. No, now it's four dollars. You know? Yeah, you so it is what it is, but you know, we'll elevate our game and you know, but we're gonna charge accordingly.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Yeah, I like that. I like that. I mean, it's just the way that it's gotta be. And and and honestly, you you go to these places and there's nothing's cheap anymore. Nothing is I mean, you can get cheap things, but you're gonna get you're gonna get a cheap thing. So so you need to, you know, you need to value it. And I think as a team, you know, just working in stores, you know when an owner values their product and values their business and it makes you do your job just a little bit better, or you put a little bit more pride into what you do when you know that, you know, this is we're doing this to be the best.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Yeah, and I think that's a you know, I think it's nice to that's what social media can do is is is giving the knowledge to your customers, understanding why you charge a certain price, because hey, the dough we make takes 72 hours before we actually stretch it. And you know, we make it by hand, we roll it by hand, then stretch it by hand. I mean, that's a that's a long process for just for a piece of dough.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

And then you when you ask, why do we charge a certain price?

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Well, that's why. I love that. I used to tell the story, you know, with the team or the managers on my team, just about growing asparagus. And I love, I have a garden, I love my garden, right? And I'm like, think about asparagus. From a seed, it takes two years to get a stalk of asparagus. And every day you got to prune it and water it and do all this, and you can't even touch it. For the first year, you don't even know if you did it right because it's right, it wasn't even sprout for a year. And then a year after that, you just you prune it every day and you take care of it, and then for you know, after that second year, it becomes a productive plant for 20 plus years. So like you put the time in and you put the effort and you put that on there, and we look at it like a side dish. Like it's it's just like garnish to the steak, but it takes time, it takes effort, it takes more time than that steak. More time than the steak. You know, steak is very seasonal on a you know, on a one-year schedule, two-year schedule. But like it's uh it and it's like we got to start thinking about our business and we think about our team and we think about our growth like that. Like we're we're putting in the time and we're putting in the effort and we're planting the seeds and taking care of it so that we can have the production and the growth for years and years and years to come afterwards. It's not an easy thing to do, but that's like the way that I love to teach it. Um so you know, I'll I'll just love anybody who's passionate about what they do and they and they say, look, we're gonna be the best and we're not gonna cut any corners.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Yeah, that's 100%. That's and that's how we feel about ourselves. And and and we're always trying to do better. So that's you know, we're always looking to learn, to be knowledgeable what we do. I mean, I've been doing this for over 40 years. I've been making pizza since I was about 10 years old, and I don't feel that I know everything, so I'm still continuing to learn and see what you know, new new products out there and teach myself new, you know, different techniques for pizza and you know, always kind of trying to elevate our pizza and never staying stagnant in what we do.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Do uh you do a lot of videos and good stuff on social media too. Are you making all the videos? I do it all. You do all of them? I do it all. You like we're I'm like, he's got the editing, he's doing it. Like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Yeah, we're gonna do more social media stuff. I I think we're gonna do uh, you know, the first couple years it was kind of hard for us, you know, we're trying to maintain the business and social media, you know, we post and stuff like, but now we're gonna start doing some more videos and some fun stuff. My son uh graduated for sound engineering, so he's gonna start helping out doing some photo shooting so that uh take some of the load off my hands and uh so that we can do a little bit more content and you know keep things, you know. We're just kind of playing around with things, and we kind of posted a couple funny videos, and those got quite a lot, you know, a lot of likes. And so we're like obviously people are looking, they want to watch. So and I see other pizzeria owners doing some funny skits, so it's working for them. So we want to be known not only just for our pizza, but we want to be known for you know just some funny stuff. But we always highlighting our pizza on our reels and our in our social media because that's what it's about. It's not really about me. I mean, yeah, I go on and do comp competitions, but I really want people to know us for our food, our pizza. That's what's really what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

I tried, I I had I got about one or two good years of my kids really participating in the content. And then my my oldest, he just he became a teenager and he's just like, he don't got no time for my videos or any of that. So I'm just kind of stuck now. But I got them to do a few skits when they were when they were younger, but we gotta figure out a way to get back to that.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

When they get twenties, they'll come back again.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Yeah, it's like if one of them takes off, they're like, Hold on, do we get any money?

SPEAKER_03 39:40

You're living for free.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

You know, yeah. No, we did not get any money, but I did bring you a pizza. Crazy kids.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Che Chef, um what what is you know what what has been the the best thing or greatest lesson? You got 40 years in this game. You know, 40 plus years in the pizza game. You've seen, you know, you know, the the the era of door hangers. We talked, I was just talking to someone the other day. We used to go put door hangers on on people's doors to get business to come in, and then we started doing direct mail with once online ordering started to come out, and now everything, social media. How have you been able to, you know, understand the shifts, make the you know, make those changes and adapt and still use those tools to drive traffic to the restaurant?

SPEAKER_03 40:31

You know, I mean, we got lucky with uh T Bowl. I mean, uh the fun the funny thing is we opened up on um three years ago on Valentine's Day, and I told my wife, I was like, we're not gonna advertise, we're just gonna open the doors and quiet, you know, because nobody knew nothing except for me. And I was like, you know, I need to train everybody, but we had to open the doors because we we spent so much money and we're like, we gotta start making some money. We opened the doors on Valentine's Day and we were slammed. And I was like, who knows we were open? Oh, it was like, so I we got lucky that the business kind of just flowed in, and every year over year it's been getting better, but and but we still do kind of like that old school marketing sometimes. So like we'll hit some companies and we'll give them a folder with a menu and you know, get a business card, email them back. So, you know, sometimes the old stuff still works. Uh, you know, even door hangers, it did work. You know, I don't know if it's I I don't do it today, but it wasn't a bad idea.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

It did it did work. Like we knew we could, it was just slow. You hit that street, you're gonna get calls from that street today. We knew exactly where our deliveries are.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

It was a science. You had to hit certain streets, so you all your drivers went to one area.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

So yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

You didn't go all over the place. You kind of hit sections, you know.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Yeah, we did parking lots, we did streets.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Yeah, I done it all, and you know, we kind of today we're lucky that we don't have to do all those kind of like gorilla marketing kind of stuff that you know, social media kind of helps out. And but I think uh yeah, I mean, you could still bring some of that stuff back into your restaurant and maybe elevate that a little bit more. But like what we do, you know, like I said, going to offices, trying to get catering orders. We're more focused on building our catering sales right now. Our in-store sales are fine. You know, some some people are like, When's day porno coming? I'm like, man, I don't even know if I want them to come. I'm like, it's already too crazy.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Yeah, it's like the gift and the curse with they with Pornhub.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

It's like I want the review, but I don't know if I want the business because like Friday night we got so I mean, we're we're at a limit. Like you can only sell so many pies in a day. And like this Friday we did like 400 pies, and I'm like, man, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

If he came and we did like 600, that'd be crazy. Well, it will it's hard to keep to put out your best product when yeah, you know, yeah, especially when we're doing bumper. Yeah, don't take 72. Like, you can only do so much, there's only so much space, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Yeah, so I I'm like, that's what my wife's talking. She's like, if Dave Barn partner comes, we're just doing cheese pizzas. That's it. One week, we're just gonna do cheese pizzas.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Listen, that's that's not, you know, that's not an uninviting day. Dave, go.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

But if you could let us let us know before you get there, we'll prepare.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Exactly. Yeah, I'll be like, don't post a video before Friday, please.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yeah, yeah. Just give me a little bit of time. What's the score? Okay, now let me get right.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Well, because we had we had this like local reviewer called Super Good came, and you know, and I and I followed him, so I didn't really know how well his review would do. And he came in and gave us a great review, gives like 8.5 on his. But I mean, if you look at our social media, he stood that pizza up. There was no flop on our pizza. And man, when I tell you that Friday was like nuts. And we were nuts for like a week straight after that. It was like everybody was flocking to us, and you know, and everybody's ordering the same pizza that he got, like a half cheese, half preparing, which is great because it was easy. But we got so busy, and I was like, that was like when my eyes opened, I'm like, man, do I really want Dave Porno to come here? I'm like, this guy only has like 80,000 followers, and we got killed. So it was funny.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Yeah, it's tough. I see a lot of operators, you know, at these days chasing that Portnoy review. And that, you know, if that's if that's part of the business model, I think, you know, more power to you, that's a tough, a tough way to go.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

That's a tough way to run your business. Yeah, you better be successful before Dave comes. I I think. Unless you're a newer business and you're kind of growing, but yeah, I I wasn't I want him to come, obviously, because you know, do you want that validation, you know, even though, you know, but uh yeah, I mean we don't need him to come.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Yeah. Well, Dave, you can come. It'd be great if you did. Just don't uh just make sure you give a good score. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he better be a score.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

So I think you I think you'll I think he'll love our pizza.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

He, you know, I you know, I'll watch him. Obviously, we see all the all the Port Noise stuff and we see his reviews, and you know, obviously he loves in the New Haven style and and different styles. I wonder if there are folks who are, you know, trying maybe adapting a little bit just to make sure that they get they do it the right way instead of just putting their own product.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Well, I think so. I think a lot of people are adapted to that whole style of, you know, you know, no flop and you know, how do we get it there? But sometimes people don't understand the sacrifice to get there. You know, they think it's just cooking your pizza longer, but it it's a it's a lot of different variables to get a pizza that doesn't flop. It's it it comes from your dough, it comes from how you're fermentating and fermentating, it comes to how you're stretching it 100%, because if you're not stretching it properly, you're still gonna get a flop in the middle. You're gonna get a thin spot, yeah. You know, yeah. So, you know, that's that's probably the most important part of it is how you're stretching it out. So you're not getting those thin spots, so you're not getting some weak structure under your pizza. And then obviously cooking it properly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Yeah. And not to put in too much sauce, you know, because sauce has liquid. So like our pizza sauce, we don't put any water in it. Um so we try not to put more water into the products as much as we have because our dough already has a lot of water. We're at like 65%. So, you know, it's a it's quite a bit of a few. Yeah, that's how we're gonna do it. For New York, you know. Um, our our for our Sicilians and our Detroits, they're you know, 70, 75 percent. So um more water into those ones because you get a little bit more spring out of it, get a little bit more structure. But yeah, but it's it's a lot of time and a lot, a lot of time and effort to go into a pizza, and it's it's a lot more than just people saying, Hey, I want to get a pizza like this. Like there's it's a lot to learn.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Yeah. Sixty sixty five on a New York is is is a lot. Is it tough to teach somebody to stretch? Like, are you doing sixteen, eighteen? So we do 16s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

So that's probably the hardest part to stretch for some of the guys. But I thought the way we do 65, because we bulk for a minute and then we're rolling it, it kind of brings it in a little bit. So it's a little bit more manageable. Um, but yeah, that's the that's the hardest part. And I thought 65 was a good spot because we were originally doing like 70 when we first started. And I was like, well, I can make a pizza with 70, but these guys are not gonna be able to do it. So then I was like, let's cut it back to 65. And 65 was like the seat spot, seat, sweet spot for me because it was still manageable for them to do it.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

I was just like, that was my first thought. Like, damn, I probably I probably can't even stretch that past 14.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

Yeah, it's hard. 12s are good. We always teach them with the 12s first, and then we're gonna okay, go to 16s. And we're doing like we're launching off peels. And the problem with Chicago is that everybody does like Chicago style. So everybody puts things on screens or they don't really launch them. It's thin, it's easy to get off your board. When you start to get guys coming, like, yeah, I'm experienced. I'm like, Yeah, let me see you make a pizza. And they're like, No, you're not experienced. In this, I've never made a pizza like this before. It's tough, yeah. Yeah, so it's tough. I've been training a lot of guys over the last couple years, and fortunately, we lost our best pizza maker. You had to go back to Mexico, and I'm like, what do I gotta do to get you back here? But uh, we got we got a couple good guys, and you know, our truck, good thing is our truck is taken care of it. That's much easier to make pizza, even though it's Neapolitan, it's 10 inch. Anybody can do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

I can't, yeah. I've tried that too. Yeah, I'm like, we're like, so we run about 58% uh hydration on our New York style. We go 18 inch. But I learned real quickly as I was kind of growing and talking to more folks and doing a little bit. I'm like, I'm really good at running our business. I uh I don't know anything about anybody else's business. And I like I don't tell anybody how to make pizza because it's uh it's all it'll it's all based on where you are and what you know and what you're working with.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Exactly. And you you gotta you gotta do what works for you. And you know, every pizzeria is differently and all the demographics, but you gotta, and that's that's why I always tell people, you can't don't copy what I do. You gotta do what's gonna work for you in your pizza shop.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

Yeah. Because it's it's different. Your your humidity is different. Like I'm in Florida, it's hot. We gotta do, you know, we gotta do things differently. So that that makes a whole lot of sense. It's been uh it's been good knowing you. Where where can folks find you? Where can they where can they follow along and and get to know you and maybe you know pick your brain on some on some catering and food truck food truck?

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Yeah, it's uh you can follow us on Instagram or uh that's where usually where we do most of our stuff and our Facebook at Tivoli Pizza Bar, or go to our website at TvoliPizabar.com and stay tuned because uh you'll see some stuff about our second location. It's gonna be a nice location.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Man, congratulations.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

What's the timeline on on number two? It depends on city. Uh we we're close, we we bought a piece of property. So it was a pizzeria in the past. So hopefully, if with permitting goes, I would say six months to a year to get everything done. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Well, look looking forward to that. You know, obviously we if we make it up to Chicago, I've been trying to get up to the NRA show, but as soon as someone will pay for me to come. Yeah, I know, that'd be nice, right? Yeah, try to get up to the show and I'll make my rounds and come out and check you out. But uh I love watching what you do. You know, it's good seeing you out on out on competition. I'm like, I gotta go find, I gotta go find Giovanni because I know we're doing a podcast soon. I just want to go just put a face with a name and shake your hand and meet folks in person, man. That's I want to I love that. So appreciate you for being for being open to this and coming on and talking to us.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

Oh, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

And so your wife's name, because I know she's right. What's her name?

SPEAKER_03 49:39

Adriana.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Adriana. Hey Adriana, thanks for for letting them spend a little bit of time with us this morning.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

No worries.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Well, look, you guys uh are you open on Mondays? Close.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

I said, worst case scenario, I have to work every day. At least I have Mondays off.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Dude, same thought. I'm like, what what could I work? If it had to only be me working this restaurant, what could I pull off? I'm like, we could do like 11 to 8 Tuesday through Sunday. Yeah, exactly. Now we do nine, nine on the weekends, but like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

And you know, Mondays notoriously suck at sales anyway, so why even bother?

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Yeah, it took me when I bought the store in January. I'm like, what's it gonna cost us? What's it gonna take to get closed on Monday? I'm like, at the rate these Mondays are going, all I need is four orders a day on the other six days, and we can close on Monday. I'm like, I'll get that in the on the email list. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

You know, sometimes it's and you need your sanity, you need a day off, you know. You it's not it's not worth chasing a little bit of sales on a Monday.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

No, it's a good reset, it's a good prep day. It's uh I still go to a restaurant almost every Monday. I like to clean the floors on Mondays and no one's in there, and I had to pick up a bunch of coke this morning, so there it is. That's just life. I I did work on a Monday. We were closed, but I worked.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

Yeah, but you're not rushed, you know. You got a peace of mind.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

I can appreciate it. But this was good. I appreciate you.