Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
From Family Legacy to Franchise with Austin Titus
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In this episode of Give an Ovation, we welcome Austin Titus, president of Cannoli Kitchen Pizza and a seasoned expert in the franchise industry. Growing up in a family of franchise entrepreneurs, Austin has developed a unique eye for brands that stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Zack and Austin discuss:
- The story behind Cannoli Kitchen and how it differentiates itself in the pizza space
- What Austin looks for in franchise brands and the value of a proven category
- How Cannoli Kitchen combines traditional flavors with a fresh approach to hospitality
- Strategies for scaling and maintaining brand integrity across locations
Tune in to hear Austin's insights on building a memorable brand that keeps guests coming back!
Thanks, Austin!
Creating a Five-Star Guest Experience
ZackWelcome to another edition of Give and Ovation , the restaurant guest experience podcast , where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience . This podcast is sponsored by Ovation , an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions . Learn more at OvationUpcom . Knowing guests with all the questions Learn more at OvationUpcom . And today I'm really excited we have someone who's not just a great industry expert but someone who I've had the chance of hanging out with at a lot of trade shows . We've gone to dinner together . We've good friend , really good guy Austin Titus , the president , cannoli Kitchen Pizza .
ZackAustin , welcome to the podcast . Man , how are you Great ? How are you doing ? Man , I'm just living the dream . I mean it's a beautiful day here in Utah and you're coming in from sunny Florida right , that's right , that's right . West Palm Beach there we go . And now you're no stranger to the franchise space . I mean this is something that you kind of grew up in and I'd love for you to share your story a little bit about how you grew up in this industry .
AustinYeah , sure . So it's a family business and my dad started a company called Sinorama in 1986 up in New York and fast forward to today . Over the years we've built brands , acquired brands and today we have 10 different franchise brands with about 1,600 franchises in 50 different countries . In between 1986 and today we've gotten into the food space a lot , and I know that's more we're here to talk about today . And today we have three different food brands under our Big Flavor Brands division , which is the Great Greek Mediterranean Grill , gray's Craze and Cannoli Kitchen Pizza .
ZackAnd the Great Greek is one that I've been familiar with now for a few years . It's been great working with them with Ovation , I mean . They just have such a great love group . And what is it that you guys look for as you're looking to add other companies to the food portfolio ? What was it about Cannoli specifically that allowed you to say , yeah , this is green light for us .
AustinYeah , we look for really two different things .
AustinWe look for either something that is unique and stands alone by itself , or something that is in a proven category but has clear differentiators to it .
AustinAnd so that's kind of what drew us to Cannoli Kitchen , because obviously , the first thing that everybody thinks when you hear another pizza franchise there's so many of them out there but it is a proven category . Everybody loves pizza , it's America's favorite food and Cannoli Kitchen really has a lot of differentiators there , where you've got your fast food pizza chains in America your Domino's , papa John's , pizza Hut of the world and they're obviously very successful at what they do . And then you've got your mom and pop local pizzerias , which are in every town in America , and we find ourselves right in the middle , right in between , and so we provide a very similar product to the local mom and pop pizzerias , where we have more of an Italian inspired menu . Where you know your fast food pizza chains , they typically are more focused on only pizza , more of your kids or value type pizza . We're focused on more of your Italian dishes we have pastas , chicken salads , italian desserts and , of course , we have pizza too .
ZackYeah , and as someone who grew up in North Florida , New Jersey , I grew up around pizza and I like to claim that New Jersey actually invented the modern pizza .
ZackFight me if you will , but I think if you look at pizza , it is such a tried and true and proven vertical and I think you take that and you take that local feel to it and that's powerful because , yeah , there's a big difference between a Domino's and a Little Caesars and your local Tony's down the street .
ZackAnd I think that the big difference is like people always hate on things like Little Caesars like , oh , it's just like such crappy pizza I'm like , but I genuinely like , I like Little Caesars and it's a different . Such crappy pizza I'm like , but I genuinely like I like Little Caesars and it's a different kind of pizza . It's a different kind of experience , and I know that when I go to Costco and I get pizza , I'm getting Costco pizza , right , I'm getting like Little Caesars pizza and it's a different almost food category than what you're talking about of like the local pizzeria . And having that local feel I'm sure allows you to really connect with the guest . And so I'd love to get your opinion on what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays .
AustinNowadays it's a little bit different . It's always changing , as you know , and it's the business you come from , and so today people are focused on their experience in a way of it being convenient , in a way of it being fast and them feeling good about spending the money that they're spending with you . Because stuff is expensive . You know everything . Food is expensive . We're living in a time where a lot of people actually weigh whether it's worth it for them to go get groceries or just buy food eating out , Because it's not really that different in cost now . Groceries or just buy food eating out , because it's not really that different in cost now . It used to be a world's difference , but now you can really pinch pennies and save if you grocery shop . But if you're just eating out strategically , you can actually spend just as much as you do grocery shopping as well . And so people want to feel good about spending that money and they want it to be convenient and they want to know that it's going to be good . So that's really what we focus on .
ZackI love that you use the word convenient right , because that is such a decision maker . I remember back in the day when we were kids and maybe this is more so like our parents really did this . But there was that drawer right In everyone's kitchen and everyone knew what it was . It usually was a little bit thinner than the other drawers and you open it up and what's inside ? It's the junk drawer , and there is in the very front , there used to be a stack of menus and it was like , hey , it's Friday night , let's go , let's order some pizza . Where should we go ? You open up the drawer , you pull out the menus and you look for a good deal . Right , that's not how people buy anymore . Deal , right
Creating a Memorable Guest Experience
Zack, that's not how people buy anymore .
ZackBut , to your point , people still and now more than ever , are demanding that value . We see that in the data that people want something that's convenient . And convenient means what is the effort that it's going to take me to order ? What is the effort it took me to earn the money to buy this food ? What is the effort that it's going to take to actually get that food ? And when you look at all that effort , the expectations of the experience need to exceed that effort , and so the harder it is to order , the more expensive it is . The more challenging it is to get it , the higher the expectations need to be for the guest . And so , as you're looking at creating those expectations , how do you go about doing that , like , how do you make sure that the guest knows that what they're going to get is what they're going to get , as opposed to just kind of hoping that the expectations are accurate ?
AustinYeah , it actually starts with the operational simplicity within your kitchen , because if you can tighten things up there and make your business more profitable that way , you actually have a little bit more flexibility to maybe spend a little bit more on your food quality , where a lot of quick service and other even fast casual businesses they'll get really , really cheap food product because their labor costs are so expensive or they have a lot of other expenses in other areas . We focus on making operations extremely simple within our restaurant so that we can afford better food and better quality and the customers can taste that and they notice the difference and we don't have to charge that much more . We're definitely not the value category , but we're not the premium category by any means .
ZackAnd yeah , I love that because you got to find your place in the market . But when it comes to things like the ingredients , it's tough when you're building your margins on the cheapest ingredients out there . I talked to a pizzeria we've worked with them for five , six years , amazing pizzeria and I was asking him about the price of his food and I'm like so have you been hit really hard with prices ? And he goes the expensive stuff hasn't changed that much in price . He goes the cheap stuff has changed a lot in price and so people who are building their margins on the cheapest things there are , you're going to see a lot more flux in costs than the premium quality stuff and I don't know if you've noticed that as well with what you guys are doing .
AustinYeah , absolutely . We still focus on having quality ingredients , but those ingredients are not typically put together from scratch in each one of our locations . So we actually have a commissary where all of our proprietary items are made Our sauces , our dough , our cannoli cream . All of that stuff is made there and sent to the franchise locations all packaged up and ready to go . That way there's not a full scratch kitchen in each location creating all these sauces , making the dough for the scratch , making the cannoli cream . That helps us on saving a lot of costs there , where we might be spending a little bit more on the food product itself . But then we save on the labor side there , while we were able to still sell at a reasonable price and not have to sell at that premium price .
ZackAnd see , and that's the beauty of you like the field , you like the idea of the local , but to get that franchise experience when you have the commissary and it takes out a lot of that work , takes out a lot of the equipment , a lot of the build-out costs , that's amazing . And all of this obviously is to improve the guest experience . And while we've been talking about a whole bunch of tactics , are there any tactics that you want to share specifically , Ryan , how you've improved the guest experience ?
AustinYeah , just making things super simple . For example , an oven , a special piece of equipment that we've implemented into each location . Now it's a conveyor oven like you see in a lot of the fast food pizza places , but it's a high quality stone conveyor oven where actually provides a similar product as , like a traditional New York style deck oven would provide . So it has a nice crispy bottom to it as a pizza and you would not even be able to tell the difference , whereas to most places that use conveyor ovens you can really tell the difference , with ours you can't .
AustinAnd getting to actually answering your question , the reason that's important is because we can consistently produce the exact same quality pizza in four and a half minutes every single time , and so pizza's done quickly , it's reliable . None of the product is ever different . If you order a pizza today and then you order a pizza in two weeks , it's going to be exactly the same . When you order a pizza at your mom and pop pizzeria or any pizzeria that might be using a traditional deck oven , it's going to be a little different because it's got somebody that has to continuously open the pizza oven up , spin the pizza around , make sure it's not getting burnt , and all that good stuff . An automatic dough press as well , so where it makes sure every single pizza is the exact same thickness and temperature when it goes onto the oven , because anyone that knows anything about pizza dough it reacts very differently depending on what the temperature of it is .
ZackOh yeah , and I think about when I walk into like my favorite local pizza place here , and when I walk in , and I first thing I do when I walk in the door , cause they have a open kind of kitchen , I look in the back and I see who's cooking , because I know , based on who's cooking , how good my pizza is going to be . And now , for those of you who listen to the show a lot , you'll know what's coming next , because I think it's kind of funny , austin , that you , like , are going over . You started with convenience and then you talk about consistency . For those who know , like they know , I talk about the ladder of loyalty all the time that it begins with convenience , then it ladders up to consistency right , because convenience will get somebody in one or two times .
ZackConsistency will get somebody in a few times , but if you want to keep someone in for a lifetime , two times , consistency will get somebody in a few times , but if you want to keep someone in for a lifetime , it's about connection , right , it's about helping that guest feel hospitality , which is proving to the guests that you care , where they care enough about you , because they know that you care about them , and when you build that connection , that relationship , and when you have that feel , that hometown feel they're not just buying food from you , they're buying food from you , right , and I think that's a huge part . I know that going to your conference this year , that connection , that hospitality , that helping people feel connected , is a huge part of the Titus ethos , like how things have been run and the value that's provided . It's really about that one-to-one connection .
AustinYeah , and that's why we love franchising , and I know there's a bunch of different ways to build and grow large national chains . Franchising is not the only way . I think it's the most successful way for that reason because every single location has a local person that's behind it . It has local ownership or maybe regional ownership over multiple locations , but most of the time there is somebody at that location that has some type of ownership in the space , and so that's different from any other type of chain that might be a non-franchise chain . That's one thing . The next thing is that when customers come in , we want to build that relationship with them from day one . It's all about friendliness . It's all about family gatherings . That's a big part of our business is catering and family gatherings , and so promoting togetherness and Cannoli Kitchen being a part of that and providing a great experience where people come together and share good times with each other , and so that's what we're trying to do .
ZackI love that man so , austin , I know we're coming up on time here . I would love to hear about anyone that you think that deserves an ovation , someone that we should be following , someone yeah or a brand okay .
Austinwell , I would say that we got a lot of our inspiration from was some of the other large pizza chains where they were going into the space , kind of like the Marco's Pizza of the world similar type concept , but kind of a different category , different part of that space and so there's a lot of other pizza concepts out there that have done a really good job with it . We're trying to grow in a different way than them , but I'll give it to Marco's Pizza . I think they've done a fantastic job , growing very quickly , very simple operations that they run . The business that we're building is a little bit different , but they've got some great things going .
ZackI love that , yeah , and they've been doing a great job and , yeah , I have a lot of respect for that brand . So where can people go to follow you ? Or Cannoli Kitchen ?
AustinYeah , you can go to cannolicitchencom , or for the franchise , you can go to cannolicitchenfranchisingcom . Or you can find me on LinkedIn , austin Titus , or search Cannoli Kitchen Pizza and I'll come up .
ZackAwesome . Well , austin , for scaling the local family pizzeria style . Today's ovation goes to you . Thank you so much for joining us on Give an Ovation . Thanks , zach , I appreciate it . Thanks for joining us today . If you like this episode , leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen . We're all about feedback here . Again , this episode was sponsored by Ovation , a two-question , sms-based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants . If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience , visit us at OvationUpcom .