- 6 weeks ago
Lawrence Longo, CEO of Off the Menu and partner in Prince St. Pizza, is leading the charge to grow the iconic SoHo pizza shop into a national brand. From the original New York location to spots in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Longo is committed to protecting what makes it special.
Watch now to learn about his vision for a great American pizza brand, building a loyal following, and the strategy behind growing a national pizza brand.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about his vision for a great American pizza brand, building a loyal following, and the strategy behind growing a national pizza brand.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00How important is telling your story as a restaurant owner?
00:03It's all about the brand, and the brand is the story, and content is king, and content is storytelling.
00:16Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.
00:19I'm your host, Sean Walchef.
00:20This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:22We are coming to you from the Durango Resort and Casino in Las Vegas with my man, Lawrence Longo.
00:30Lawrence was a previous guest on this show.
00:32We typically don't bring guests back unless they are making significant strides in the storytelling space, hospitality space, and technology space.
00:40I can't even keep up with Lawrence.
00:41Lawrence, welcome back to the show.
00:43Thanks for having me.
00:43It's good to be back.
00:44Dude, it is so cool to have met you initially.
00:47We did first a virtual interview for Entrepreneur.
00:50Then I met you probably about a year later at Irv's in Los Angeles.
00:55We did a family-style episode for Toast.
00:57Shout-out to Toast, our technology partner, for believing in these storytelling series.
01:02But now we're here in Las Vegas.
01:05You've opened up locations of Irv's, Prince Street, in San Diego, Las Vegas.
01:09Get us up to speed.
01:11Jeez.
01:12Yeah, with Prince Street, we've opened up in Canada.
01:15Canada, that's right.
01:16Las Vegas.
01:16We're opening up in Miami next month.
01:21Dallas this year.
01:23Got something coming up in Nashville.
01:26Arizona.
01:28Our Chicago's just blown the roof off.
01:31That is amazing.
01:32So are you opening up?
01:33Irv's, I'm opening up Planet Hollywood in Vegas on the Strip.
01:36And then we're, yeah, and we opened up in Newport Beach and Pacific Beach and, jeez, yeah.
01:46It's all good.
01:47We just keep on moving forward, keep on trying to get better every day.
01:51So let's talk about lessons learned.
01:54What have you learned scaling so fast?
01:55You got to really have your operations dialed in before you, you know, you keep on opening.
02:02But you also learn as you open.
02:04So don't be afraid to go and open something new because every time you open a new restaurant,
02:09you learn something new about your brand.
02:11Yeah.
02:12So that's the really thing is like, don't be afraid to fail.
02:16You know what I mean?
02:16But you also want to make sure you make calculated decisions based off of what you know about your
02:22brand, what you know about your audience.
02:23And you use the data from Toast or from these technology platforms to really help you make
02:30sure that you're making the right decisions all the time and minimize the risk.
02:34But, you know, you learn, like I said, you learn every single one you open.
02:38So I had my first taste of Prince Street pizza today.
02:42And yesterday I was at the Pizza Expo, which has all the best pizza in the world.
02:48This blew it out of the water, dude.
02:51Tell me the Prince Street story.
02:52So Prince Street started, I created an app called Off the Menu, and I'd create these
02:58experiences.
02:59In 2018, I asked Dom Morano from Prince Street if he would open up or do a pop-up on National
03:07Pizza Day.
03:08And we did it.
03:10It absolutely crushed it.
03:12To make a long story short, I went back to New York.
03:15I talked to Dom and his father, Frank Morano, said, listen, I think we should open up in
03:18L.A. They said, let's go for it.
03:22We did it.
03:23It was a lot more negotiated than that.
03:26But and we opened it up and it was I tell people it's funny because it's true, but there
03:31is lineups in two zip codes, West Hollywood all the way to Beverly Hills.
03:36And yeah, it went well.
03:39And, you know, it's a craveable product.
03:41And, you know, our goal is to be that, you know, premium slice shop in America.
03:46I think that America doesn't really New York does.
03:50But and there's so many good local pizzerias in every spot, like like in like in certain
03:55neighborhoods.
03:55But we all grew up on Papa John's, Domino's and, you know, when you're drunk or if you
04:02smoke or whatever you do, it's probably a good time to to have that kind of pizza.
04:07But there's so much better pizza out there, you know, and what I'm trying to do is really
04:12to to scale a premium product.
04:15Tell me about the Durango story specifically.
04:17I talked to the GM.
04:18He said when you guys opened up, it wasn't two zip codes, but like the line legitimately
04:23was in the parking lot.
04:24Yeah, I went all the way in.
04:26It's both my brands and in herbs.
04:28The line would go all the way, all the way back past Prince Street.
04:32It was it was wild.
04:33But Station Casinos is the best, best partners to have.
04:38They treat you so well.
04:40They're so good to you.
04:42They support you with marketing.
04:44They believe in good brands.
04:45Like, look at this is the best food court.
04:47I've never seen a nicer food court ever.
04:49Like, this is my second time here.
04:51And, you know, we're staying on the strip.
04:52But my family, my wife, my son, my daughter, like this is unbelievable opportunity.
04:57So many incredible brands right here.
04:59This is the nicest hotel off the strip, hands down.
05:03By far.
05:04By far.
05:04And the food selection is better than any anything on the strip.
05:07Like the Nico's Steakhouse here is incredible.
05:10I've heard.
05:11I've heard.
05:11I've heard.
05:12We had a Ryu sauce.
05:14It was 300,000 followers on Instagram.
05:16He he told me, Nico's, you got to go and try it out.
05:18Yeah.
05:19Unbelievable.
05:19And yeah, so it was when they asked us to be a part of it, it was a it was an honor.
05:25And we're doing a few more things with them, too, which will be exciting.
05:27So how do you say no?
05:30You seem like a yes guy.
05:31I'm definitely a yes guy, but I'm learning how to say no.
05:34Really?
05:34Yeah.
05:35I said no twice today.
05:37Somebody asked me to franchise out in India.
05:39Really?
05:39Yeah.
05:40And then they asked me if I should pay them to help me do it.
05:43I was like, click.
05:44Nope.
05:46Definitely.
05:47That's not happening.
05:47Yeah.
05:49But, you know, by saying no more often, it's you're saying yes to whatever you're really
05:55doing.
05:57But I've said yes to a few things that are exciting.
05:59Yes.
06:00Yeah.
06:00So you can share.
06:02Yeah, we got a big collaboration coming up with Xbox in May.
06:05Sweet.
06:06I'm not going to say more because I don't know what I can say more, but it's massive.
06:11Really?
06:12Oh, yeah.
06:12It's going to be a big fucking pizza.
06:14That really?
06:15Yeah.
06:15Oh, my God.
06:16Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada
06:22and UK?
06:24It's an incredible company.
06:25I'm on the Toast customer advisory board.
06:27They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
06:30We couldn't do it without their support.
06:32They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
06:35If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary
06:40technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
06:44I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
06:47You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
06:51Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling,
06:56the power of hospitality.
06:58Back to the show.
06:58Tell me, this is for entrepreneur.
07:01We have, obviously, business owners, hospitality professionals.
07:04They see all the success.
07:06Can you bring us to a dark moment when you didn't know if this shit was going to work
07:10out?
07:11Jeez.
07:13Yeah.
07:13I mean, the pandemic.
07:14I did all of this during the pandemic.
07:16So it was pretty, that was always pretty scary.
07:21And then, you know, like I opened up a couple seasonal locations that didn't do well, but
07:25you, so you got to work harder to build that building, right?
07:28If you don't do well right off the hop, it's just, you got to let the community know you're
07:33there.
07:33And sometimes that's scary when you, you got to really like dig in and, and, and you're,
07:39you're not sure how that location is going to do.
07:41And every, every day I get a curve ball.
07:45That's like, you know, crazy.
07:47So yeah, employees and you know, the bigger you get, the more haters you get.
07:52So you start to like, you can't listen to the noise, right?
07:55Like I had a guy come up to me yesterday and it's like, you know, I went to your location
07:59and, um, the pizza's just not there.
08:03It's not hitting like, like in New York.
08:04I was like, oh yeah, you had the pizza.
08:06He's like, no, no, no.
08:07That's what my friends are telling me.
08:08I was like, dude, you didn't even have the pizza.
08:11You're just like coming in.
08:12So you get, you know, you get like all this snarky stuff, but you learn to like,
08:17if you're not good, they don't talk about you.
08:20So, and I think that for me is like, you want to listen to everybody,
08:26but you got to just keep your head down, worry about yourself, do the best job you can.
08:31Worry about your, not yourself, worry about your, your brand, your team, your, your business.
08:37And don't worry about what the competition is doing.
08:39Just focus on yourself and your customers.
08:41One of the things that has always attracted me to watching you is that I believe every business
08:47is a family business.
08:48I know you're a dad and I know you're a great husband.
08:50Can you share a little bit about how do you balance all of these growth as well as be
08:55there for your family?
08:56I try to, I try to, and I'm not the best at it.
08:59My wife's going to be like, you got to be better at this.
09:02I try and, I try and shut off my phone when I'm with my kids.
09:05Yeah.
09:05And really put the focus into the kids.
09:08Everything I do is for my family.
09:10Yeah.
09:10So, and that's what it's all about.
09:12Whether, you know, the family in the restaurant, the family, your, your family, it's all about
09:17family.
09:17You know, the food community is a family.
09:20Yeah.
09:20That's what I say is like, I love all pizzas.
09:24Like, you know, maybe not Papa John's or Domino's or that's all.
09:27I respect them.
09:27Yeah.
09:27I respect their business, but I love like, I love all the pizzerias in, in LA that are
09:34popping up from Danny boys to Aussies, you know, in New York, you got Lucia's like, I'm
09:40a big fan of the business.
09:42We're a community.
09:43The food culture is a community that we got to build each other up and not tear each other
09:47down because the customers tear us down.
09:49Yeah.
09:50Right.
09:50Yelp tears us down.
09:51Are they a partner?
09:53No, no.
09:54We're all good.
09:55We're all good.
09:55Um, share a little bit about, I mean, if you go and look at the photos of the celebrities,
10:02entertainers, athletes that have visited, not just herbs, but also Prince, I mean, just
10:07on this wall here, it's Usher, Dave Portnall, I mean, Adam Sandler, you, I mean, you can't
10:12even put the amount of celebrities that are like dying to try the brand.
10:15I mean, how cool is that?
10:16Well, no, they, they try and they come back and they, they like the, they like the brand.
10:20I think, you know, being in a good spot in New York, picking good locations, like we're
10:25in New York, LA, Chicago.
10:26We're in the places where, where they live.
10:28Right.
10:29So they love good food just like you and me do.
10:33And what do you do?
10:34How do you, how do you respond when, when you, when someone comes, like when you get a text
10:37from a GM or something, someone tells you that they're here.
10:40Amazing.
10:41You know, yeah, it's just like, it's, you get excited sometimes, you know what I mean?
10:46But at the same time, they're regular people, right?
10:49You don't want to get too, I tell them like, yeah, if we can get a picture on the wall,
10:52some of the celebrities come and say, why aren't I on the wall?
10:56So it's like, so.
10:59Real quickly, let's talk technology.
11:02Tell us about your tech stack.
11:03How do you, like, what are the things that you can't live without?
11:05A good POS system.
11:10Toast is great.
11:12We use Davo, which is great because, you know, taxes are a bitch.
11:17Yeah.
11:17And people don't want to pay them.
11:19And, you know, it takes it out every day.
11:21It takes it out of your account.
11:22It pays it for you.
11:23So that's, it's a step for any manager or any accountant.
11:27Really, it really helps.
11:29Maybe it doesn't help as much with cash flow, but at the end of the day, you got to pay your
11:32taxes.
11:33Sure.
11:33So that's a good thing.
11:35You know, the online ordering, you try and figure out whether it's toast or chow now.
11:42And I'm trying to think of something that people don't, like, where I could be helpful
11:46with somebody, a technology.
11:49We're starting to use AI in Jest.
11:51Okay.
11:52And it gives us data in a better way.
11:55Okay.
11:55So that's good.
11:56I'm all about data.
11:57I mean, numbers don't lie.
11:58Tell me about storytelling.
11:59This is a storytelling podcast.
12:01What advice could you have to somebody that's listening to this?
12:03How important is telling your story as a restaurant owner?
12:06Well, see, you're asking the right guy because I believe, like, I'm building...
12:09That's why you're on the show twice.
12:11I'm building a brand.
12:12It's all about the brand.
12:13And the brand is the story.
12:15And everything needs to have a story because that's what the audience cares about.
12:21They want to know, where did it come from?
12:23What's the story behind it?
12:24Like, and any good content, the content is king.
12:30And content is storytelling.
12:32And that's really what it's all about.
12:34I mean, whether you're selling a keyboard or you're selling a slice of pizza, it's all about storytelling.
12:40What, when we look back at this and I have you on again in the future in a year and a half, since that was the last time I had you on, what are you going to have accomplished?
12:49What does success look like?
12:53Opening, every store I open, I want it to get better and better.
12:58I hope I'm employing more and more people.
13:01How many do you have now?
13:02Well, over 300.
13:04Wow.
13:05That's incredible.
13:06And, you know, just when, you know, people talk about me or my brands that it's just like, well, that's a great experience.
13:13Great food, great experience, great value.
13:17Amazing.
13:17If you guys are watching this, I'm weirdly available at Sean P. Walchef on Instagram.
13:22You can subscribe to our Restaurant Technology Substack newsletter, which is brand new.
13:26That's a free newsletter.
13:27But we talk about restaurant technology specifically in that.
13:30How can people keep in touch with you?
13:32If they can, I mean, it's like, it's hard to keep up.
13:35On Instagram, I'm at Big Shot, B-I-G-S-H-O-T.
13:39That's right.
13:39And, yeah, just get in touch with me through at Prince Street Pizza, at Irv's, Burgers, you know.
13:48I'm pretty accessible.
13:49Very accessible.
13:49Probably should be a little less accessible, but, you know, I'm happy to, like, talk to anybody.
13:54And I love the community.
13:56Well, shout out to the Durango Resort and Casino.
13:59Thank you for hosting.
14:00This is a must visit.
14:02When you come to Las Vegas, you've got to come out.
14:04Prince Street Pizza, Irv's, Burgers.
14:06Come check out this food court.
14:07Have some custard.
14:09And, Lawrence, I really appreciate you.
14:11Thanks for having me.
14:11I appreciate it.
14:12It's been awesome.
14:13See ya.
14:13As always, stay curious.
14:14Get involved.
14:15And don't be afraid to ask for help.
14:16Catch you guys next episode.
14:21Thank you for listening.
14:22If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
14:25You're part of the tribe.
14:26We can't do this alone.
14:27We started.
14:28No one was listening.
14:29Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
14:33Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
14:38It's a Substack newsletter.
14:39It's free.
14:39It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
14:43Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
14:47Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
14:49We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
14:51Hopefully, you guys like that content.
14:53If you want to work with us, go to etheshow.media.
14:56We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
15:00We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
15:03You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
15:07I'm weirdly available.
15:08Stay curious.
15:09Get involved.
15:10Don't be afraid to ask for help.
15:11We'll catch you next episode.
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