#090: Call Your Mother Deli - Founder Andrew Dana

Call Your Mother! Probably one of the most common phrases many of us have heard or thought about sometime in our lives. It's also one of the fast-growing delis in America and one of Bon Appetit's 50 Best New Restaurants In America.

Fran Racioppi sits down with Founder Andrew Dana to discuss his journey from community banking and window sales to purchasing a pizza oven and a truck on Ebay. Today, Timber Pizza is Andrew's other Bon Appetit ranked restaurant. 

They cover the ups and downs of what it feels like to follow your dreams and forge your own path. They talk about the risks entrepreneurs take to develop their product, their team and their value. And they also share how that one event, the one customer, the one meeting can be the single point in time that launches our whole plan and puts us on the map. 

Visit Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza the next time you're in DC. Find them both on Instagram at callyourmotherdeli and timberpizzaco. Learn more about their story at callyourmotherdeli.com and timberpizza.com. 

Read the full episode transcription here and learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website. Subscribe to us and follow @jedburghpodcast on all social media. Watch the full video version on YouTube.

Highlights:

• 0:00 Welcome to prep time at Timber Pizza 
• 5:50 Eating pizza for market research
• 7:15 What makes a great pizza?
• 8:17 From community banking to buying a pizza truck
• 16:23 Dani joins the team
• 19:30 Call Your Mother and marketing a bagel deli
• 26:44 Buying local
• 28:23 Taking the bank account to $0
• 32:07 Why split tips
• 33:22 Scaling to Denver and the Keys to Future Success
• 37:31 Andrew’s Three Daily Foundations to Success

Quotes: 

• “I at least had this moment where I was like, ok I don’t have to go to culinary school to figure out how to make pizza. It’s not rocket science.” (7:00)
• “Let’s just buy a pizza oven and we’ll figure it out.” (9:39) 
• “We were just relentless in showing up. I truly believe if you show up enough, good things start to happen. You make your own luck.”  (11:30)
• “Don’t have failure to launch. Start. And then just run through every fricken wall that there is.” (13:17)
• “Either the food and the service is good enough to come back, or it’s not.” (24:32)
• “We’re gonna pay you all as much as we can until the bank account goes to zero.” (29:34)
• “In 2022, when you can get anything delivered to your couch, people are coming to us because it’s an experience.” 
• “Never forget who your road dogs are. Who’s helped you get to this place.” (37:13)

Andrew’s Three Daily Foundations to Success:

• Meditate aggressively
• Exercise aggressively
• Eat healthy…but save room for pizza and bagels in moderation! 

This episode is brought to you by Jersey Mike’s,  18A Fitness & Compass Workforce Solutions