&pizza gets back to its roots as founder Michael Lastoria passes the reins to new CEO Mike Burns

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Washington, D.C.-based company &pizza is known for being an unconventional brand, from its oblong pies with quirky toppings, to its texting-only “Pizza Plug” hotline and political messaging. Although the emerging brand was once a significant part of the foodservice cultural zeitgeist (cofounder Michael Lastoria was named to NRN’s 2021 Power List), the company has been fairly quiet for a couple of years.

As it turns out, &pizza has been brewing up some changes behind closed doors, including the company’s first CEO transition, from Lastoria to newcomer former Rave Restaurant Group COO and executive vice president, Mike Burns. Now, “we’re back,” Burns said, as &pizza is ready to take on a new era of growth and opportunity (including franchising), while rekindling that rebellious streak that made &pizza stand out from the rest of the growing fast-casual pizza sector.

Burns joined the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, guest hosted this week by NRN senior editor Joanna Fantozzi, to talk about why he was drawn to the brand, the significant digital technology changes coming to &pizza, and why customers will want to consider getting an ampersand (&) tattoo soon.

In this conversation, you’ll learn more about:

Why it’s important to find a fitting successor when you step back from a founder role
Why &pizza made the shift from in-house-built technology to an outsourced tech stack
How to make sure you don’t outgrow your technology capabilities
How to make a digital rewards program stand out (Hint: it starts with naming your loyalty program, “The Dead Presidents Club”)
How to maintain a unique, plucky, startup-like spirit, even when you have sizable development plans in the works

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Joanna Fantosi, senior editor of Nation's Restaurant News, and I'm this week's guest host of Takeaway with Sam Ocas.
0:13.2	This week, I spoke with the newly announced CEO of Ann Pizza, Mike Burns.
0:18.9	Mike talked to me about what it's been like to take the reins from
0:22.5	and Pizza co-founder Michael Lestoria and how he's bringing the brand back to its funky
0:27.9	altculture roots. Besides making a mental note to get an ampersand tattoo ASAP, my main
0:35.3	takeaway from this episode is that it's incredibly difficult to balance
0:39.5	restaurant growth with authenticity, especially if you happen to be a pizza chain with an alternative
0:45.3	culture that encourages its employees and customers to get weird on 420.
0:53.2	Once you start growing, it's only natural that some of that culture will rub off.
0:59.4	More stores does mean more profit, but it also means more opportunities to dilute that strong
1:04.9	brand image, especially when you begin franchising like and pizza has done.
1:09.7	But I do think it's possible.
1:11.7	Just like at Ben and Jerry's, they're known for being a politically active brand,
1:15.4	and that hasn't changed much over the years.
1:17.9	And kudos to new CEO, Mike Burns of Ann Pizza for bringing back that brand edge.
1:24.4	I can't wait to grab a slice myself.
1:31.5	Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for joining us.
1:37.7	Yeah, I'm great. Thank you so much, Joanna, for having me. Yeah, absolutely. First of all,
1:46.0	congratulations on being named CEO of Ann Pizza. Thank you. It's been a fun five months drinking through a fire hose, right?
1:49.4	But it's been a really good time, really good team, great brand. So really excited.
1:56.7	Yeah, absolutely. We are really familiar with the brand. We have spoken, I've spoken to Michael Astoria quite a bit over the years. It's such an interesting brand. I'm curious, what drew you to the company?
2:06.1	Part of it was Michael, right? I mean, when they reached out and they were looking for a CEO, first you want to know why, right? Like, what's going on?
	...

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