Operations
Persistence drives success at Andolini's
Andolini's has grown to five locations in Tulsa. Manning the helm are Mike Bausch and his brother, Jim Bausch, who keep tight reins on operations even as the company grows.
December 1, 2021 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Mike Bausch's Tulsa, Oklahoma, company has grown into a small empire. What began as a single pizzeria has expanded to five full-service restaurants, two gelaterias, a food truck, two QSR food-hall units, an airport location and one fine dining establishment. That's a tall order for a private company, which Bausch owns with his brother, Jim Bausch. In total, the five pizzerias alone will make $14 million this year. Sales per store are up 5% over 2019.
It's Bausch's persistence that has paid off, he admitted in a phone interview with Pizza Marketplace. The first Andolini's struggled in its early years after launching in 2005. It wasn't until the company's second unit opened in 2011 that the brand found its legs. The second store was so successful he modeled his first after it.
Bausch landed in Tulsa after college because his brother, Jim Bausch, worked in the city as a vice president of a national rental car company. Jim received a bonus at work, and the brothers thought opening a restaurant would be easy.
"That's not something I would advise for someone with limited restaurant knowledge," he said, reflecting on their business venture. "The first store took a lot of effort and time to find our way, to find our voice but when we started making things uniquely — really from scratch, not just dough — real different things like mozzarella from curd, salad dressings and casing our own sausage and making our own meatballs, it became much more unique and popular and we started to develop our brand. It seems to be resonating with people."
It took six years to hone their brand and open their second store.
"We couldn't get a bank to give us the time of day and it was probably a blessing that it took us so long to open a second store," Bausch said. "We were able to tend to the details and really do the second store correctly so much so that we modified (the first store) to look like the second store."
By the time a restaurateur opens three or four stores, systems are needed. "The difference between one (store) and two is trying to take all of your workload and time and splitting it in half, which really isn't possible if you're a person doing it all yourself," Bausch said.
He opted for full service over quick service because, theoretically, there's more profit and revenue to be made "if you have your systems in check," Bausch said, "but you can lose track of labor real quick. A small quick-service place can make more money than a massive entity if the massive entity isn't being controlled properly. If you're talking hard dollars, theoretically, a 40-person restaurant will make more money."
Maintaining continuity across the brand is simple. "Does the employee know what's expected of them?" Bausch asked. "Is there a training program in place that is long enough and specific enough to teach an employee how to make, say, a simple pepperoni pizza the same way each time with a PDF that shows them the correct formula to use and a book that's laminated on the line so there's no ambiguity that one store does it one way and another store does it another way?" Bausch said. "We all respect what's in the (systems) book, and if we don't agree with what's in the book, we can request a change to the book. There's a process for that.
"Once that's established, it's quality control with the managers and me as a person going from store to store." He also shifts managers between stores as needed so there's no complacency and talks to customers who maneuver between locations.
"Unless you have a conveyor oven, and all of your product is frozen, there's going to be a lot of nuances in the pizza," Bausch said. "If you're making dough balls, depending on how fermented they are, the time of day, how long they've been out, you're going to have someone who literally knows how to handle the unique situations that dough presents to do something different in each scenario."
The basics — such as pepperoni and sausage — sell well, but Bausch touted the DeMarco of Brooklyn, which pays homage to Dom DeMarco of Di Fara Pizzeria fame. It features DOP San Marzano tomatoes with slices of Andolini's house-made fresh mozzarella, fresh picked basil, Pecorino Romano and extra-virgin olive oil. The Tenbysimmo pizza features pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Genoa salami, pastrami, ground beef and house-made Italian sausage. The Peppa-Pig is topped with Peppadew peppers, pancetta, Genoa salami, dollops of ricotta and spicy honey.
White label ingredients include Canadian bacon, baby spinach and artichoke hearts, but the Black Adminal's Club toppings step out with eggplant, speck (smoked prosciutto), smoked mozzarella and house-made meatballs.
Andolini's doesn't try to compete with other restaurants in Tulsa, instead focusing on being self-driven and making products that allow it to stand out on its own.
"I believe that many restaurants ask 'what can we afford to do and how much money can we make off it?'" Bausch said. "I try to make the things I'm most excited about and then price it accordingly and let other people come along for the ride. I try to lead from the front. We have an intrinsic promise to the customer that we are going to do cool, different, unique stuff. We're not just going to do it because we can do it. We're going to do it because we're the best and we're going to stand behind it."
Dough and sauces are made in-house. They hand stretch their own mozzarella, case their own sausage and slice all their own products themselves, from salami to bell peppers. They even make their own gelato.
"Again, that goes back to the implied contract with the customer that we are going to make this ourselves and it is going to taste different because it's going to be made by us," Bausch said. "You're going to have a ranch dressing and it's going to be a little more pungent because it has actual fresh minced garlic that we cut with real buttermilk and dill as opposed to coming from a plastic jug that's been shelf stable for six months."
They use a commissary and one crew making and cutting ingredients to reduce labor costs in a smart way. Employee satisfaction and keeping his crews happy are part of the program.
"We're doing much better than the national average on our attrition rate," Bausch said. "People don't quit us in abundance like they do most restaurants. You're just talking to staff on a personal level and making sure they're fulfilled and having a solid training (program) that sets them up for success also helps with that."
Growing outside of Tulsa at this point is feasible, "but there's a beauty in being able to touch it every day and to be within 20 minutes of each other," he added.
"We have a really nice network now. Not everyone has an opinion on the best donut in town," Bausch said. "Everyone has an opinion on the best pizza in town. A hard opinion. And when you're dealing with that, you really have to come correct, and if you don't, you're just going to lose. There's just too much convenience-driven pizza out there. You can go after being the closest option, or you can go after being the best option. Going after the closest, you're not going to win. … So, then you have to be the best, which is a doable proposition. No one says 'Hey I want to go to this town and try the second-best pizza.' If you're not impressive by default you're unimpressive."
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
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