Innovation in Authentic Italian Dining with Due’ Cucina’s Davide Macchi

📣 Meet Davide Macchi, the visionary CEO and Co-Founder behind Due’ Cucina. 🍽️

As a native of Italy, 🇮🇹 Macchi studied Business Administration at Cal-Berkeley and received his MBA from the vaunted MIT. During this time, he and his business partner waited tables in London, where they obtained restaurant experience, learned English, and sparked their idea to own a restaurant and open Due’ Cucina Italiana.

Watch now to learn about changing the branding script, partnering with Incentivio, and having a brand promise.

#datadelicacies #incentivio #davidemacchi

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Follow Incentivio on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@incentivio

Chapters:
[01:12] – Davide Macchi’s Interesting Background
[04:54] – Coming to the United States
[08:50] – Differences in Dining Experiences Around the World
[14:35] – Psychological Branding
[20:08] – Expanding Beyond the Four Walls of the Brick and Mortar
[25:06] – Partnering with Incentivio for Data

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Episode Links:
Due’ Cucina Online – https://duecucina.com/
Due’ Cucina Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/duecucina
Due’ Cucina TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@duecucina
Due’ Cucina Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/duecucinaitaliana/
Due’ Cucina App on Google – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ce.android.brand.duecucina&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
Due’ Cucina App on Apple – https://apps.apple.com/us/app/due-cucina/id1509690249
Davide Macchi Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/davmacchi/
Davide Macchi LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidemacchi/
Takeaways:
Changing the Branding Script – Davide Macchi knew that his food was good. However, in the US, unlike in Italy, aesthetic branding, and overall ambiance is as much a part of the product as the food itself. Macchi and his partner reluctantly hired help that switched a few small things in the restaurant, and the results were immediately positive.

Using Data from Incentivio to Propel Business – As the world and restaurant industry become more digital, the amount of data available increases. Davide Macchi and Due’ Cucina have partnered with Incentivio to provide such data, but they are charged with parsing that information to efficiently use the data as their business expands.

A Brand Promise of Variety – Davide Macchi believes that variation can be an excellent thing. With that in mind, the pizzas at Due’ Cucina are made by hand, which means each pizza is slightly different but equally delicious.

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ABOUT DAVIDE MACCHI —
Davide Macchi is the Co-founder & CEO of Due’ Cucina, a unique fast-casual concept specializing in authentic Italian pasta. Due’ Cucina currently operates four locations in Seattle, WA (with one more on the way) and, following a recent equity round, is about to open three additional units in Texas. Before Due’, Davide worked as a strategy consultant for Kearney, and in a variety of management roles in Australia and the US for Rocket Internet and Amazon. Davide studied media, economics, and business administration at University of Bologna, UC Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his MBA in 2016.

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Produced by: Incentivio – https://www.incentivio.com/

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[Music]
hello and welcome to data delas he the
show where we explore the intersection
of data on hospitality and discuss the
varying impacts it has on both operators
and consumers alike every bite we take
tells a story and we aim to De deep to
see where technology meets Gastronomy
how can data be the secret and
ingredient to success to enrich The
Culinary experience for both operators
and consumers like that’s what we aim to
find out by by getting the best and
brightest Minds in the industry together
I’m your host Arun Kumar and this is
presented by incentivio who is
incentivio we are the GU ultimate guest
engagement platform for restaurants in a
world where every customer experience is
a story waiting to be written incentivio
is that digital pen that curates these
narratives we’re not just another SAS
platform but a kinary companion and a
strategic partner with the mission to
enhance the guest experience and help
operators supercharge their efficiency
today I’m super super excited because we
because we have an amazing amazing guest
we have the founder of Dy kacina David
Maki David thank you so much for joining
how are you thank you so much for having
me I’m doing great awesome so uh let’s
jump right into it DAV you have probably
one of the most unique and coolest
backgrounds I’ve seen for some of their
Works in Hospitality I’d love for you to
talk about the origin story of your time
your your background again I know you
have an NBA believe from from MIT and
your founder also has an amazing
background love for you to kind of start
there and talk about
that brought you into the world of
restaurants yes sure it’s always it’s
always fun for us to share and let me
apologize with all the listeners for my
accent I’m Italian sadly and I learned
English too late to clean that up and so
I’m gonna deal with this for the rest of
my life uh in um about that in our story
I think you know schematically many
people think that there are two type of
restorators there is the one that starts
the dishwasher and walk all the way up
and is the and he the food person and
and so there is this success story and
then there is the there’s also a bunch
of folks that brag of having having zero
restaurant background but many people
that come from technology or like you
know with very fancy high education and
they show up and say I don’t know
anything about food but I’m gonna
disrupt the with my New Concept right
and I think what I think when I think
about us I think we kind of like
kind of fit both uh we are um you know
on the one hand yes when we go to
investors and we tell our story sure we
have fancy degrees I um I went for I
studied economics I worked as a
consultant I work in technology and and
I got my MBA at MIT my co-founder
philippo is’s a he’s a he’s a nuclear
engineer uh he studied in Italy he
worked in research he got this PhD in
nuclear science in in China while he was
learning Chinese and teaching food uh
and also um doing some guest appearances
on a TV talk show it was like a resident
Italian Shop so it’s like U you know we
have theany degrees right but at the
same time you know we’re not uh we have
done our fair share of ours work in the
restaurants as as I touched on before uh
we learned English both philipo and I
together we went to London the summer
after the first year of college and we
learned English that way waiting tables
so we we put ours in there and
throughout all College we always worked
restaurants uh I was mostly a server Li
work bought as a server and in the
kitchen our summers were filled with you
know wedding caterings in tasa so we’ve
done a lot of those and so we got our
ANS you know dirty H so to speak and and
we’ve done our first dishwashing too and
so I think we’re kind of like in between
and and the experience especially of you
know enjoying the Summers and loving the
industry paired up with all the other
things that we learned in the other
experiences that we had across the globe
because we bought work internationally
kind of like led us to what if we put
these two things together and we build a
brand with the most best-in-class
technology and the datadriven approach
but also built by people that really
love the the personable and kind like
the interpersonal aspect of hospitality
that’s that’s how we know that’s how we
start and so I think I always like to
put our background in perspective and
not lean only on uh one side of the
story especially like you know the just
only on the degrees for example but but
it’s good but it helps yeah yeah and and
again that’s amazing and the reason I
love to ask that is because I it always
gets a good sense of your why right like
everyone has a why they do anything and
I think you’ve you you’ve shown there
kind of like your why and why you got
into it so what made you choose coming
to the US and starting this amazing
brand here yeah so the real origin story
like you know the moment of like when we
had the light bulb on had was in 2013
philipo was doing his speech in in
Beijing in China and I was working in a
startup in Australia in Sydney and so
being like both very far away from most
of our friends we were kind of eight
hours away and so he came to visit me
for a few days once and he was thinking
me and and he walked down with me for
lunch while I was on break for my
company and and we couldn’t find pasta
right and it’s like you know for Italian
people really born and read weiz Beijing
is the same I was like well when I
studed abroad in the US was the same and
we like yeah it’s actually really really
hard to find past but it’s a big staple
for us and Italian people like past and
a few other no all of the other Italian
dishes that are not pizza like pizza is
kind of a different animal but like
Italian everything but about pizza
doesn’t is really not accessible and so
we started like wondering but we thought
people love and and people love to have
you know Chinese and and Tha like for
lunch CU because it gives you any carbs
and Pro and and it kind of like it’s a
it’s conforting and so it’s kind of a
proxy right so we thought there was a
market and then you know from that kind
of inside the night the same night we
started like a night working on like
what if we do a business plan and we
worked on this remoting for a couple of
years on the one side was a side project
for both of us because he was ping you
know he was doing a PhD in nuclear
engineering he wasn’t doing it just just
for fun right because I assume are not
very
fun and I was working you know my own
like you know startup dreams and
technology is always a working in
technology is always more seem more like
attainable to with your own company then
in a different type of like more Capital
intensive like industry and so we we
brought it along but the more we thought
about it the the more we thought with
the sh shifting consumer
taste the growth of f SCH we thought but
there is like you know this is not only
like a fun retirement project this is a
big unur seg in a gigantic growing
industry and we can bring our smarts and
so it became more tangible we started
Imaging and then the closer that we get
you know 2015 we we committed Lio and I
decided okay I GNA graduate you know
from my NBA in 2016 because you know
after I was you know I’m gonna confuse
the listeners but yes I was in Australia
until 2014 then I started my MBA 2014
was wrapping up his PhD and we both made
a a genuine commitment like you know
we’re going to do this you know so we’re
going to plan everything the next year
of Our Lives accordingly to make this
app and this is a commitment that is
easy to make when you when you’re
working with your best friend like
Philip and I went to high school right
you know it’s harder when you do it for
instance with a business school
friend because business school you make
a lot of give up a lot of things and
then the person at the last yeah I don’t
want to do this startup
anymore but we made this commitment we
trust each other enough that we put our
lives into each other and we and we went
we walk this one way
and uh and so fast forward that in 2015
we make the decision 2016 we both
graduate and and we decided where do we
start this and we had many options
because we could have done it in China
we could have done it in Australia as
well of PL and but we thought the US was
like clearly the biggest unserved market
and we could see ourselves like growing
up families here and so we decided you
know you know we’ve been like you know
we’ve been like all over the place for
for sever years let’s go to another
place yet again
and we did a little bit of a study we
picked SE as as a test market for the
concept we bought another time and get
got a FL got on a flight and move to a
new place for for for almost the final
time that’s and that’s how we started
wow I mean that’s that’s an incredible
story and uh and again and you
um what I wanted to ask you there was
I’ve also grown up all over the world I
mean I only came to Canada in 200 spend
time in um in Europe I was born in India
I spent some time in the Middle East as
well and I think one of the things I
found when I came to North America was
the dining experience as a whole was a
little bit different than how it was
just want to ask you you’ve also spend a
lot of time all over you know in
different parts of the world especially
in Europe I found the daing experience
is much more of a it’s more of an a get
together right and then you eat versus I
felt like when I first came you know to
North America many many years ago it
felt like very action like you eat your
own meal and you go so did you have that
same experience when you came over in
terms of the the change in dynamics of
what eating out
was I I completely agree with you I
think it’s it’s extremely different and
we can make a very very very long long
list of all the the reasons why the
differen is like for instance I think
in D out a lot more like there’s a lot
more frequency of ding out people like
you know young professionals
almost every night like and so they they
need a transactional meals while in
Europe we done home Le in Italy like for
most of the time but when we go out we
go out we want to be served we want a
great experience we want to sit at the
table for three hours uh we go through
two or three Botts of wi with a big
group of friends we go through the
entire menu from the first category to
the last and at the end we get the
coffee and after the coffee we get liid
because we want to just stay alone and
so it’s it is it is different I think
the the frequency and the week day and
the lunchtime kind like d out Market
makes it much more
transactional we experience also it’s
less of a social experience as you were
pointing to like you know when you think
about a store you need to have spots
when you think okay what if somebody
wants to eat alone I don’t I make the
person feel Comfort right uh and in
certain markets more than others like we
are in the market that really push this
concept to the to the most C there’s a
lot of like single young engineer lot of
you know people that people are very
digitally like you know digitally driven
and so people actually want the C like
most of the time you know I guess if you
put a Kos in most places like yeah after
you’ve been taking orders in most cities
people be ah the Kos is okay but I like
more when I had the personal interaction
in seago you take order and then you
deploy a kiosk and your feedback is oh
great so I don’t have to talk to people
right and you’re like oh it’s it’s
different so that you have all those
aspects I think
May and we ran through all these
challenges because we had you know we’ve
been abroad but not spent that much time
in the US and we and our Hospitality was
mostly need our Hospitality background
was mostly needed and so we came from a
different culture and so we ran through
a lot of the problems I will say that
the biggest one at least in my in my
opinion like the big the
biggest leap that we had to make to
really from having a more restaurant
that’s kind of doing so and so to be
successful was was kind of the
importance of in the brick and morar
experience and then followingly in the
digital experience the fact that having
amazing food is really not enough and
the way you’re branding your space and
the materials and whether your table is
one type of Bo or another whether your
dining room is bright or dark whether
the light is warm or cold all of these
pieces which I translate Broad in terms
of like branding even simplify that make
Mak as much as your food and that blew
our mind because in Italy if you come to
me my home my my place I if you visit me
I say I’ll bring you to a place in near
pizza I’ll bring you to a place we go we
drive to the middle of nowhere and the
place looks ugly I tell but you trust me
because the food is gonna be amazing and
that’s all we care about good service
and amazing food right nobody I never
never cross my mind that if the ceiling
is Painted Black or White doesn’t matter
if there’s cute art on the wall or if
K and doesn’t matter in all my
background it never matter but s we
found out so we started really with this
m amazing food uh and then uh we realize
look but you know people
eat the flavor change based on the way
your TBL okay okay we gotta play that
game too it’s important and and now I’m
less at the beginning we were more like
you know I’m somewhat almost
disappointed about this because food is
key but now we came around this and we
realize look but it is important like
you know it’s every angle and and H and
and I’m talking about brick mortal a lot
the four walls but the the digital
experience like is exactly the same
thing the way
your your flow your branding like your
your fonts like your color set your food
photography that’s you know it tells
your brand and and you know why would we
you know give up on like selling the
best version of ourselves and setting
the right
expectation yeah so that was the biggest
thing for
us no that that’s that’s I’m so glad you
mentioned that because that that I I saw
one of your posts I think you recently
posted something on LinkedIn about the
importance of brand um and actually I do
want to take you up I’d happily come to
Italy and go to that place that that
sounds amazing I love hole inth wall
places because again I think I also come
from that world so I understand that
part of it too like again growing up in
India it’s very much of like a the food
is is the core of it right like I’ve
gone to plac that a hole in the wall but
it’s like amazing food I’m like I would
go back to this place 100 times over um
and so I guess you know how much would
you say it sounds like it’s a bit of the
food experience itself but also the
psychological branding and and and how
much have you found is that you know
you’ve had to focus on that as much as
food like what percentage would you say
is a split of what your focus is on the
brand side but also the food
side got to ask that question it’s we
have I mean we we’re like think one of
the best thing
about of us so we get to like we have
twice the ATT span right if I was alone
you I wouldn’t know and good things that
we complement each other very well so we
try to you know have it both ways so
Philip really like focus on the food and
food you know how do we make what we
make the freshest the best the better
tasting and the most operationally like
easy and
likeable to build so there’s an
engineering to the food and there is the
flavor like component and the resarch
that goes into and but then there’s the
branding side we try to play kind of
like almost almost in this way that’s
that’s so we kind of give it like almost
equal
importance one funny story is I mean not
really funny but it’s kind of like it’s
an anecdote that could be interesting is
when we opened up our first store and we
we this Tech mindset this Tech and
Italian restorator mindset there was you
know we’re gonna open up a store we’re
gonna build it with as little money as
we can we’re not gonna go raise money
and give out a lot of ownership to
people and wants to give you money
anyways because you never resta before
we’re gonna do it with our money with
our labor we’re gonna build it out it’s
gonna look ugly doesn’t matter because
the food is gonna be amazing 100%
Italian man we do this we did a
restaurant like was really we got all
the wrong like architectural like
choices white ceiling bright neon light
you look like a mattress shop was B but
the food was great
and so we get great reviews but we don’t
get much truction right you know and
even people driving through the street
at night the sign was not illuminated
they couldn’t see and so like you know
took a year and a half and like okay
this place how come we get this great
reviews but we don’t pick up steam and
then you know we um we went to we change
H we we hired someone to help us like
still like in a very Scrappy Manner and
we came up with three three cheap things
we could do that could change the script
and so we painted the walls we painted
the ceiling we removed the light the
lighting that we have and we we went to
I think to one Depot we bought like a
bunch of string lights yeah outdoor P we
put those we paint the still in dark we
change the wall yellow and green and we
put an illuminated ins sign outside 20
grand work maybe over maybe a little
less yeah we pay that with credit card
with 0% APR credit cards right which I’m
proud of you know resourceful and this
is when you do you know I’m G to put
everything on my G to put all
chips like as where like within a week
the moment the lighting and the ceiling
was painted in the lighting
change revenues up 30 35% W that’s how
impactful that thing was the food was
already there so your original question
was how much we focused think you know
there’s two of us so we go 100% on B uh
but you know deep down like the the food
is still more important than the brand
because you know there you know it’s
cultural to us and right the difference
that branding makes is you know branding
can help you increase branding and your
CRM and all the experience help you
increase frequency or help you grow fast
but I still think or help you know
people like come to you in different
occasions um but you know overall it’s
great to accelerate ramp to generate
what uh to have a place that people want
to be inside and not just to take out
and run home just because blinding them
right but uh but overall like I think
food is still still more important
because people eat espe we do it’s so I
think you need it needs to be really the
best version of itself yeah and I love
that example because it I mean tell me
if I have this right it sounds like
brand is what brings people in and food
is what keeps them there that’s right I
think yeah I summize to that and and you
know then in the brand there what people
branding also engage them and so like I
think The Branding in a way increase
your Market your your your addressable
Market because if your food is amazing
people will do take out from you right I
think they try once and so you have make
them try it and then they will do take
out and deliver but if you want them to
D in then you need to be able to C to a
couple of extra have a little bit of a
drink menu have a have a b proposition
having good presentation and having an
environment where you can socialize so
in a way that’s how we have because the
difference is if your C only take out
and delivers right yeah yeah it’s
creating that experience I know even
from I mean for myself you know it’s
when I decide to D in versus go out and
eat I definitely know if I’m looking to
go out somewhere to eat does have the
experience right to have the ambience
the music the lighting to your point
some where I want to hang out for three
to four hours and get a few bottles of
wine and just and just hang out I think
that definitely makes a huge huge
difference versus some places are more
catered to like hey I just want to order
at home and and set at home and maybe
sit in front of the TV and and eat the
meal um so I know that branding is a big
piece of it uh I’d love to hear about
you know your thoughts as you talk about
a lot of eating inside versus the
digital experience right that
online people picking up um how did you
have to Pivot to make sure that you
could still get provide that same
experience and how did you see the
business expand past that four walls of
your brick and morar location it’s it’s
another great quest in a run you’re
doing great here uh on this episode we
are um uh we’re very focused on delivery
as well and I so and I think that’s
that’s what that’s why we’re here first
part because I mean that’s how we got we
went through covid that’s what we were
even before covid so you know D for us
Co was more like doubling down on on
capabilities that we had and expanding
them rather than converting from a d to
to a deliv you always look at this is
the same the same customers both indan
and D now so we got a h
so it didn’t mean like actually to say
the same customer but order and done in
on premise as well as take out and gets
delivered these are all different news
cases by the same people and so we serve
them food in different in different
different touch points and so I think
the on the on the delivering of premise
like we we made an investment like the
relatively early and it was accelerated
by Co
of like you know how do we you know how
do we kind of like give an experience
like a virtual experience which could be
your website part of it is your website
because you’re in teasing people another
part is your social media you’re like
being part of the conversation and
you’re presenting them you know
information and and and kind of like
visually making them feel like you’re
you’re they in your place and but then
most of all like you know the online
ordering and everything that happens
after you order like can we be all the
experience you know way that of course
The Branding is cive and to do that you
need a you need a you need a solid like
you know you need an understanding of
what your brand should be you need
branding guidelines that’s how then you
need the technology that let you do it
for example you know one of the one of
the many many reasons why we partnered
up with inent tiio early on because when
we partnered up we only had one location
uh but we wanted tool that could grow
with us but also to that give us like
that will wrap the customer in our
branding you know our callers and
provide good good customization so the
inen platform actually the online
ordering and the mobile app with theic
job present our brand and we can
customize
on and so we think about that we think
about that a lot uh we think about that
in a multi- channel
fashion investment early on and to us is
a very big part of the business we do
about 40% of our business uh probably
50% if we include like you know customer
pickups that are placed online and
delivered to our own drivers uh probably
almost of our business is consumed of
brand
so pretty it’s a pretty important
P that’s and that’s amazing and and you
have multiple and you mentioned you’re
opening up a couple more locations how
many locations will I bring you to total
now yes right now we have four operating
and two in construction uh one in
construction is the for we are operating
are all in the Seattle
we’re opening up a fifth still in SE in
redon which is the city near to the
Microsoft campus and then the sixth one
is going to be a big deal for us because
we’re opening up and we’re about to
break ground with construction we’re
opening up in Dallas Texas so the first
out ofate unit we’re hoping to do two
units in Dallas this year so we’re
actively looking for another site uh but
one is a l is already signed and
construction is about start very soon
our first outo state Pro a concept uh
for for for our brand because what we
see from invest and we see from there
the restaurant Community a lot of that
is you know it can be a local operator
that can you know it can just show up if
everything is in your own nothing Market
can always show up you can always fix
things and you can run quite a few
restaurants that can run five six eight
10 like you know you’re not showing that
you can scale yet because the market
knows you and you’re for some reason
the real test and it’s going to be a
massive test is can we do can we
replicate what we do thousands of miles
away like and Will the Market be like
even if we can replicate exactly what we
do operationally will the market like it
and if they do then you can be you can
tell a story to investors and you can be
on your way to become a national brand
and that’s kind that we’re trying to do
and so yes we have you know um we have
four operating since last year
and and two that are coming very soon
hopefully three so it’s a very exciting
time very busy it is yeah that’s amazing
I mean yeah from you know going from
Seattle to Dallas I mean uh wish you all
the best there and and keeping an eye on
that success um you talk about how you
know you partnered with this interior in
the early days to to kind of help grow
that brand presence um and a big part of
what we do is you know service a lot of
data and again data is becoming a data
AI ml all those words are very much Buzz
words that we hear a lot about but again
you you come from very much a datadriven
apprach approach you talk about that you
know just even from your background we
love to hear about you know what type of
data do you look at on a daily basis and
then even on a larger sense as you’re
looking at both your your current
locations and as you start to grow you
know what does that look like for you
like what does data mean to you and and
how do you use that data to then Propel
the business to a to a Next Level yeah
that’s very telling so we do um we we
kind of like you know we look at two
things like like I say actually in terms
of projects the way we kind of like try
to Think Through the problem one is an
architectur problem you have data
everywhere like you know there’s a lot
of data for example in incentiv we get
so much information
about order on from us where they order
how much they order but then there is a
lot of data also like in our P like all
stuff people that come in and and and
then there’s all the data on the third
party platforms and then there is many
other data that are operation
operationally related to the restaurant
like for instance C your employ punching
do the punching on punching L how do the
punches and the hours that work relate
to Reven and and many more systems that
we so one is an architecture problem and
it’s how does a restaurant bring
everything together first so that you
can do things and then decide what to do
with the data but if the data is all
part in many different places in many
different format that’s that’s a
complicated thing and that’s why we you
know we have started that work very very
that two location we built our own Data
Warehouse on the cloud um last year we
built our own API Integrations and so
like we integrate with our P we have
data but I we trying to bring everything
in the same place so that we can we have
Warehouse with all of our data and then
a visualization tool that we web based
visualization tool in which we publish
weekly business reviews that goes to our
stakeholder to our managers and so our
managers know the revenues where they
come from our speed of service you know
the time on the kitchen display system
how well their team is doing how many
hours they schedule what the
productivity what’s the label we buil
all of those information NCM report how
is your customer frequency going stuff
the architecture and then the other
problem is what you do with the data
right and and so once we build all this
stuff we determine what we do and I
think you know it’s it’s it’s a field
that is developing very very very
quickly uh you know with with the with
sash um
from the co from in we actually a lot of
informed conversation about this I like
to pick his brain we um overall like you
know in the from um you know excluding
the operational side what you do with
the data that tells you how how good you
are at your job there is you know I
think the most interesting and there is
a lot of stuff in I think the most
interesting stuff is really how do you
get more revenues where your revenues
come from and like what what’s your
customer Behavior so and a couple of
things that we that we do and that will
double down more one is you know really
getting being able to segment your C
your customer base like understanding
like building customer profiles based on
Behavior based on like what they like
based on like social demographic data
and kind of like understand if your
customers are like this you know if you
have this many customers order from you
uh what’s their behavior um and and you
know who’s ch in what should you sell
more and and and to that front there is
there’s many different ways to do it I
think customer data platforms are really
really emerging and now they’re pretty
well established and once again here as
the go is really to the duplic the same
customer I order in person the name with
a credit card and then might order when
they’re home and maybe at a certain
point in time the same customer you in
Te them and it downloads the and he
start ordering from us because he really
wants to win the tisue right or want to
get the discount right or he realizes
that if you order directly from us he
pay L and so but this is you know to the
systems we have they look like three
different people by the same one so
customer data platform really do the job
at the duplicating kind of like merging
customer profiles and then building the
story and on top of that a lot of like
analytics of like you know recurrency
and and how often they come and you know
which menu items perform well with them
which other they don’t which kind of off
work and they don’t so those tools are
really helpful H we don’t have yet fully
blown customer data platform but within
CIO we had a lot of features that are a
good proxy right give us like some good
on the customers that we they order from
us they do online ordering from us uh we
get a good understanding on of of what
of what they need what they do and how
they their life cycle so we we have
we’re using that we are considering we
probably you know want to have a tool
that try to build the profiling of
customers ining third party delivery
apps and a and they use generally credit
card data there’s a space in which we’re
gonna double down this year still don’t
know yet but it’s important the another
part is manual intelligence that’s
another good uh that’s not a good uh
vertical often times you know when you
pick a manual and especially in times
like this where you know labor is is
very expensive food cost changes a lot
sometimes in a almost schizophrenic
fashion because there is things that
used to be very cheap for decades have
been cheap and they suddenly go
expensive and you get a crisis in
Ukraine and suddenly flowers doubles up
in price but flowers has always been
like you know very affordable like
staple and and so in all of this
confusion like you need to kind of like
have a model in you know you project the
Prime cost of your of your menu items
more Del lier piece and and the and the
food cost and and then you like try to
understand you know the economics of the
item where which hasn’t really the value
that the people associate with that item
and which item is very successful like
you know if I if the first time you come
to do it I think the best is SC this is
a very common one in the industry I’m
not gonna say that goes anybody’s mind
but to a new and to me certainly was
very exciting when I heard it like think
about you come to do it for the first
time
right or if you try which is you know a
very complicated source that we made
with a recipe from pha’s grandmother
that takes eight hours to make right
just to make the sauce or if you order
like an anol that is an entry level
bigan dish which is still delicious but
it’s largely the dish that is like it’s
a very Italian Dish the alol is the
pasta of
like sub segment of Italian people they
really love it right if you e the bolog
on your first visit I often you’re gonna
and how quickly you’re going to rec
versus if you and how much I going to
blow your mind versus if you order a
dish that is more like of a nich
offering right and so man intelligence
comes into that and really helps you
like you know having the analytics of
the menu and how it interacts with
customer Behavior really helps you uh
you know
make good SM many decisions we can
really you know can really reshape
the pretty quickly because you can
increase you know frequency can CH
change chicken you can change ticket
size it can change the bottom line so
it’s that’s another beautiful tool
that’s even W CDP is very complex to
implement and overse and to kind of like
Leverage man intelligence is very easy
Once the is in place to actually use and
drive very quick decision that have very
powerful impact so I love this use cases
with data for example yeah no and those
are both amazing examples I mean the one
fall I have there is you know you talk
about Manu intelligence right and how
much would you say it’s a balance of you
know you have people come in that like
they like what they like right they
order maybe the same thing over and over
again versus you maybe want them to try
something new it’s like hey like you
know experience a different part of the
menu um and I I know a lot of it comes
down to like very again I think we live
in a world now where a lot of things are
catered to our needs right like you look
at social media like you say something
out loud you start to get ads for it
right like everywhere we go it’s it’s
pretty care of what we want so so how
much do you do you find a battle of like
kind of giving them what you know they
they may already like through their
their buying patterns versus getting to
try something new like is there is there
that balance that goes back and forth
It’s a this is a very interesting uh
angle uh it’s we have been thinking
about this for a while we don’t have a
good solution
yet I think one one kind of
like way to decline the point you are
making is also for example for us if you
if you make everything from scratch and
if you make everything fresh you make a
promise like your brand makes a promise
you you need to shut it out loud right
yeah but to a certain point there is
also a little bit of inconsistency right
it’s there has to be you know it needs
to be a small range within a big array
so you cannot have inconsistency good
versus bad you can have you know it’s
slightly one way yeah this time I feel
slightly different in in the source than
that compared to the last time now that
kind of variability like the way we’re
trying to think of is is is a uh is
something that it’s a should be a
selling point like it should be in a
world of industrialized Frozen dishes in
which you go to McDonald and you bring
it right by people that don’t know much
about food but it’s always the same our
brand promise is to make it from scratch
and making from scratch is always going
to be great but it might T slightly
different and that’s exciting because
that’s you don’t remember but when you
went to go to your Italian Grandma
Sunday for lunch wasn’t always exactly
the same because you wasn’t even
measuring things all the time right but
it was always very good and so I think
that’s like that’s that’s that’s a more
of an issue SK but we’ve been thinking a
lot about this how do we sell
the the SL differences because it’s it’s
a beautiful thing when you commit your
customer look you come here you come to
my home I make everything from stretch
for you right yeah yeah and and and and
trying new things is almost is it’s
similar like you’re bringing somebody
out of the consistent pattern of always
enjoying the same thing over and over
and over I think there are I mean there
are uh there are ways I think many
intelligence up because you see know
people are different taste right yeah
but many intelligence understand you
know even if different taste you know
most people feel very much like the
sauce that you’ve never tried because
you’re like white sauce it’s like you
like the so like our mushroom and Trav
and it’s great for you but most people
that get try the short BR they love it
too and so like it helps you like man
intelligence helps to like make an
incremental leap so if when you
especially if you have a recommendation
engine at the end of your of your online
ordering like we do CIO like the order
we can tell you okay you want to try we
can recommend something that compliment
your dish like a dessert I we can
recommend you maybe the dessert that we
feel is the one you like the most and
maybe we recommending the dessert that
we feel you like the most because based
on all the other issues you have is the
one that compare that complements better
and is the one that’s more correlation
of being successful so we can use data
that way or we can use it to kind of
like help experiment I think we don’t
have the we don’t have a good solution
yet but we want to be in a place I think
you know a simple thing that we’re
probably going to do is in our story we
want to put a sign in which we say look
make everything from scratch you our
promise is that it’s great but it’s not
always the same the other thing that we
want you to do is we want you to try
things some names you don’t understand
because they’re in Italian some dishes
you never have because maybe your
experience of Italian has been all guard
you don’t know what Regional Italian is
Right some Italian people as well from
my region that don’t know what they eat
in the South or in the north so it’s
completely normal but our promise is you
know we make it from scratch this it can
be different and that’s that’s a thing
that is a good thing not a bad thing and
the other thing is we want you to try
something try if you don’t like it we
give you something else we have to worry
about we want to create a safe
environment for people to experiment
yeah you know we can I think maybe
something that makes it easier for us
because people you know being very
authentic Italian which is the code of
authentic Italian and means know people
some people really don’t know where they
are and so we give us you know when when
you come in and you don’t understand 40%
of the manual you give us the first
point to connect to the customer say yes
of course you know try this fine it’s
all good we can we give us you know the
first question of custom what is that he
tells our stuff something about them and
he tells them we can take their hand and
kind of like make them feel safe about
time things we’re we’re trying you know
we yeah I think it’s an important part
part to be a differentiate the brand so
it’s a it’s a topic that you know see is
a topic that wor me up quite a bit
because we are trying to find a solution
because we feel it will be will bring a
lot of value go yeah you know and again
just just from hearing you talk about
there’s definitely a lot of passion
there and I think even just I I look at
my own experiences in dining right like
I think we all tend to something have
our comfort zone but there’s times where
I
goch of things I’ll try something I
maybe normally try never tried before
I’m like oh my God this is great like I
would definitely come back and try this
thing again so I think that really ties
into it and and maybe I want what I do
is maybe just take a step back and look
at the overall industry now a lot of
stuff you shared is really really great
stuff that you’re focusing on and what’s
helped your brand where do you see some
of the biggest gaps today in the
industry overall from a technology
perspective like and and you know how do
you see things going in the next year or
two when it comes to you know that that
world of hospitality and Tech combining
together and what that’s a let me let me
think for a moment about this because
it’s you know there there’s so many
things right but I’m always biased
towards the things that we’re fixing I
think if I take the step back like you
were like you were suggesting I think in
terms of online ordering we’ve been
we’ve been in a good place for a long
time but many restaurants still are not
like when I see um and this is a very
very basic use case but when I see it
actually that law and then and and I
want to do order and I go to order on
their website and they send me to their
Dash like my Arts like break not because
D Dash is not you know it’s not that
we’re we’re in D Dash everywhere we like
D Dash work with them very close but
it’s your own customer like you know for
the people that want to patronize your
brand like I don’t know don’t say the
commission it’s always going to be a
smaller Subs you know the C of people
always were the two parties because they
have different
incentives so there’s still a lot of
like Gap in industry in the in there
more restaurants but even up to multi-
chains but still local operator with a
non technology mindset in building in
alline ordering that is really really
like it’s their own that and now is very
very easy there are many ways to do it
from simple tools that do the basics to
like more advanced tools like inan and
all they do a lot more but you want to
have your own delivery you want to have
your own branding order you want to know
the customer so that you can reach out
to them and you want to also offer them
delivery without your driv like through
deliver integration to the part delivery
services but that’s the basic thing that
surprisingly I think there’s
still um I think
another um another aspect I think it’s
it’s
that I think even PS companies are like
trying to catch up like for instance we
use
kios and
uh for many reasons and it’s not only to
cut on label but I think C offer like a
good workflow for people to like compose
orders customize see the photos like
have all the information and it’s hard
to put it on a manual like digital or
printed like you can’t put every
information on the dis like you know
where the ingredients come from the and
I think you know regardless of whether
you want to have a very like I don’t
know in deep interaction or you want to
let your customers like know do their
own thing uh and by the way my advice is
you should be able to do both because
there are we have customers that come
every day they can say hi because they
like them but they don’t want they can
just do their on order the customer that
they work in the first the customer will
require somebody spending time with them
two of them to do both right depends
where the customer is but but I a just
just just in my opinion is a you can
choose to your stuff with the customer
pushing the butons on the C and do it
but I think it’s something that we start
to walk away and you know we work with r
systems the C solution is
good still have some gaps I think the
other leing providers are also like you
know I hav se that amazes me whenever I
go to toast like with toast brand
restaurant and I on the Kos like it’s
not an experience that amazing me I
think restaurants should increasingly
have it and hopefully like you know PS
companies catch up with it and we can
get we can have that experience like you
know it’s more of a part of restaurants
especially with service I think these
are like two things that are gonna have
and I’m saying really I’m not saying
anything controversial I’m kind of like
sing yeah yeah no I mean again it’s it’s
stuff I’ve heard you know it’s just I
think uh the big piece you talk about is
that that only the first piece ordering
it’s like you want to know who your
customers are and own that data because
that’s a huge gap otherwise how do you
Market to them how do you build your
menu intelligence how do you build your
brand and your
community you are and who you’re selling
to and the second piece is just around
you know that kiosk workflow right and
and how you can enhance the customer
experience where again you may not be
able to put that all into a menu or if
you’re constantly changing your menu are
you going to keep reprinting menus or
you know that that’s another challenge
as well right so again just takes away
time from all the other things that you
can do um no I love I love what you
share there and
um what I’d like to do to kind of wrap
this up because I feel we could talk a
lot of great things for hours and uh
really appreciate all your insights and
your stories here uh what I want to do
to kind of wrap up our conversation is
do a little bit of a liting round so I’m
going to ask you a few questions and
first thing that comes to mind I’d love
to hear your your thoughts there and uh
that’s how we’ll wrap up the show today
so uh first thing is what’s your go-to
cocktail today
cocktail app spr yes
app sprads okay okay I like it um and
you mentioned a you talked a lot about
wine are you a big wine person I don’t
drink but I like good wine yes so I will
consider you do you have a specific
bottle you recommend to the listeners
today always red I like red better um I
think it’s easier to bloody healthare if
I I could say uh can go wrong with a
bottle of
barbares you could go wrong but you have
to try really okay there you go
so okay so a great ball of red and opal
Spritz I like it um what’s your
preference a brunch party or a dinner
party dinner party dinner party why um
we spend generally we spend a lot more
time it’s it last longer
and in Italian we don’t have the concept
of branch in Italy probably because we
go to bed too late and we get up too
late so it’s already lunch by then but
you know there’s some beautiful lunch
parties you can have when you pleas of
Christmas or Easter that you sit down at
1 p.m and you get up 4 for a wedding so
you get that but dinner party is you
know after the days over you compress
the darkness outside kind of like bring
the atmosphere and then you can stay can
St stay sitting at a restaurant like for
like three hours and just just
conversation as simple as that I love it
I I’m in I’m in the same boat so I love
it um you’re obviously very passionate
about food and about pasta is there a
homecooked meal that you’re famous
for one dish that you’d say you’re
famous for man H well provided that you
know I’m not a I mean decent cook and
and I cook a lot at home but that’s just
cultural but like the real
culinary tractor in our brand is filo um
I think
um Pasta Pomodoro like making a very
simple pasta but you make your own sauce
from scratch doesn’t take long 20 25
minutes little bit of H garlic and olive
oil extra Reginal o garlic onion suito
fresh tomato the best one you can find
and pasta cook it out d add a little bit
of par uh simple simple we have it you
know my kids love it and as Italians we
always Italian Kitchen Cuisine is a it’s
about ingredients but it doesn’t have to
be very
hard yes I’ll stay simple with
that and then um the last question I’ll
wrap up with here is um you obious
Seattle base is there a a restaurant
that’s out of your own that youd love to
shout out a famous a f restaurant you
love to go to a out of your own that
you’d love to shout out for the
listeners today
yeah
uh there is I haven’t been you know the
last I I I’ve had two kids in the last
um four years and so we haven’t gone out
very much we have
Co but yeah um the place that used to go
that we liked there’s a place called
Rock Creek is a true Pacific Northwest
kind of like Chef
driven restaurant that does a lot of
like great seafood and also like of
modern American Cuisine uh not too
expensive Stellar Cuisine I still
remember the the last dish we had I
think we went there like before our
first ke was born like a few weeks
before we had an amazing an amazing BR
you know hard to find Seattle so if you
go Seattle I’ll go Pacific Northwest and
I Seafood
brilant okay I’ll keep that in mind I
I’m due for a trip out there so I
definitely want to you know always love
getting recommendations from local
restaurants everywhere I go so that
that’s great so uh DAV thank you so much
I really appreciate the time I mean
these I feel like we could have gone for
hours with with your amazing Stories uh
and being so open with your background
and sharing so um to recap what are the
some of the things we learned I mean uh
branding is super important um you know
owning that customer data understanding
who your customers are and being able to
Market to that is is is also very very
important um I think the the industry
has a
long and it’s it’s something that’s ever
changing um and Technology we will find
a way at some point to to get it all to
to to work but again it’s it’s great
Founders like yourself that give us the
insight for for companies like us to be
able to action upon it um so to wrap up
again I’m your host run and this was
another episode of data
Delicacies um don’t forget to like And
subscribe and we’ll bring on amazing
amazing guests um just like David on to
to talk and share their stories um David
how can people get a hold of you if
they’d like to further the conversation
about what you’ve talked about today
they can always email me at David DAV
V dua.com check our website can also
reach me out on Instagram just you know
as we’re still like our ends are
everywhere so if you write us on
Instagram
I’ll see it and I can get back to you H
thank you so much for having me this was
a lot of fun
uh ex
absolutely yeah so thank you again de
and again you know where to find and if
you’re ever find yourself in SE Seattle
please go to D kach Restaurant they
amazing amazing food and soon to be in
Dallas Texas and then who knows where
else hopefully Across the Nation um
again if you’d like to connect and learn
more about it inia or data Delicacies
you can reach out to me directly um on
LinkedIn or my email is a run tio.com if
you want to be a part of the show please
reach out on LinkedIn be happy to
accepting many many guests that that’re
coming through um so please reach out if
you have some interest and we’ll find a
way to get you on the show uh for now
thank you very much for joining and I
really appreciate all your time Deb day
uh for our listeners thank you and we’ll
be on again soon
[Music]