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I'm out. I closed today

I am just sharing who was interested. There were others very well known in food as well. Doesn’t matter how long or how many hours you do. That does not equal success. What equals success is knowing every facet of fermentation, matching/balance of ingredients, business, customer relations, and hiring staff that reflects your values. The bigger you get it becomes pretty much impossible to do this. Pizzerias were founded by immigrants like my 94 year old mother from Italy. It was strictly 1 shop, simple menu, family only run. If you do it right, and make it an art, stuff like this happens. I learned from the best, 1st generation pizza makers in the NJ NYC metro area. I wonder why some people get so upset when someone shares a success story. You, or anyone could do the same if you have the right training, hold a 5 star attitude for service, food, staff, consistency. I am one of the last of the old school model of pizza guys.
 
Oh my, we know your story, you post it every damn time you’re on here. No one asked who bid on your place but your enormous ego keeps having to add more this and more that to every post. I’m convinced you just like to read the stuff you write to keep that ego growing.
 
December asked in their post, “Wow I am jealous. How did you find someone to buy it?” I simply shared how we got to the sale. All I have posted is part of how we were able to get a bidding war going for the shop. For the record, I have been around pizza making 65 years, involved with pizza making for 52 years, about 30 of them full time.

Success is something you have to create, and as the owner you are the cause of every success and failure. Sorry our success pisses you off.

PMQ magazine was also part of our success. They did a 3 page spread in the magazine and have supported us in several other mentions in the magazine over the years.
Walter’s Kids: Teaching real-world pizzeria skills to special-needs youths - PMQ Pizza Magazine

Norma Knepp, the Caputo Cup Champion, myself and Steve, the editor of PMQ, wrote this one. Norma and I have done extensive research on the Mastros and are friends with the family.
The Pizza Kings: The Strange, Sad Story of Two Great Visionaries - PMQ Pizza Magazine
 
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Thanks for sharing you have been to our shop. Did we have time to talk? I hope so. I am an old school guy with pizza. It was hard to let it go seeing how so many pizzerias are mediocre to poor who now rely on a continually new item/mega fancy toppings/and they know little to nothing of dough, balance, and the history of pizza. I grew up with great family only run pizza on every corner. The mentor model has just about died or been morphed into a 1-week class. I share our way of doing pizza with hopes it inspires someone to seek out a master and mentor under them until they master it all. “Mastering” it has changed today as well. It can now mean a 1-week course where in my upbringing it meant many years to get good enough to just begin to learn the art of pizza and the art of dough. Then it becomes a lifetime learning the stuff that 99% of pizzerias have no clue to. If great pizza was so easy to make, why is there so little great pizza today?
 
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Glad i could start a thread to give Mr. Smiling W. Hope another chance to brag about his business. Selling out of dough each day means zip if you are only making 50 lbs . glad you got your chance to gloat, but Yelp is the absolute worst system anywhere to objectively rank anything.

Glad your out. As for the old Allied pans ? I’m in Detroit, have many of those pans, but prefer Lloyds Pans for a much better bake. So did my customers, here.where they were ‘invented’
 
It is ok you don’t like them and shouldn’t like them for Detroits. We have the top pizza guys in the USA endorsing ours as they are made for Sicilian/Grandma, not Detroit. Allied pans are completely different than llyods and they started them in 1946. They are the gold standard for Sicilian and Grandma, never for Detroit. Detroit pans are thin steel and crimped folded. Allied, and ours are rolled over a rod on the top of the pan and are much thicker steel than a Detroit pan. Get your facts straight before shooting off your opinion. Yelp does not let owners delete reviews and if you have a solid product and vibe you will hardly get a bad review and the bad ones are funny and shows the public that person is just an angry monster on the net. Paulie Gee called us the greatest little pizzeria in the country and came from NYC to eat our pie. I will share we put over 300k a year in our pocket with our “crappy little shop” when open Tues- Sat 5-8pm. Do it right by learning from a master and you got no competition. Bragging? No, just a fact. I feel sorry for the pizzeria owners that work 60+ hours a week and could make more selling hot dogs.
 
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The attacks here are why the greats like Tony G, John Arena, Chris Bianco, and their peers, do not post on pizza forums. I continued to post our story with the hopes it might inspire a person considering opening a pizzeria or an established shop looking to find a different way. At least a 1/2 dozen new pizzeria owners and a few established ones, have thanked me for sharing how we operated.
That made it all worth it. When I read of someone who is successful the first thing I feel is happy for them. The second thing is I love to hear how they got there. There is always something to be added to ones knowledge from hearing how others made it doing it differently than the norm.
 
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Hey Tim,

Congrats on the sale! I had a few questions for you if you don’t mind. I’ve been considering this in the next year or two. What’s your plan now?

How long did it take to sell the shop, from engaging with broker to signing the APA?

What was the SDE multiple it sold at?
 
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So heres the deal, this message board is a meeting place for pizza owners to come to, vent there headaches, ask for advice, and share ideas and help each other out. A lot of people that come here are people in the industry who are struggling and need some help or want to flesh out a new idea and your contributions are simply to tell people they operate wrong, that you do it the correct way, and then you never offer help to those that need it. Other posters on here are literally sharing processes and recipes to try and help each other out because we remember the struggle. You mention Tony G. and I took one of his classes and that’s something he mentioned to me was how important it was to help other pizzeria owners out.

in addition your business model is not sustainable for 99.999999999% of any other businesses and its a model that I would respect a hell of a lot more if you weren’t constantly coming in here to demean others who dare operate differently. Operating on a 9 hour opening schedule will close an almost 100% of business who operate that way and while I have zero doubt your food is top notch, your bragging about the $100 tips, the great yelp reviews etc… all seem to constantly dodge the fact that your business is a quasi charity. Nobody is going to a business that gives meaningful employment to people with disabilities and then going on yelp to write you a poor review.

And just look at your response to my question about selling price, which was actually directed at tkelly248, to see why you get the vitriol you do. Its exactly what I talked about in the first paragraph, just exudes arrogance and is completely devoid of any details that would actually help anyone.

Enjoy your two new Toyota’s man, were all gonna still be here fighting through this slog and trying to help each other out.
 
Smiling, I congratulate what you have done, especially for the disabled community.

However, here is my issue with you. You constantly mention low labor. One man shop etc. Labor below 40, paying $9 an hour. In the same breath you mention all you are doing for the disabled community. Which one is it. You can’t have both.

Furthering this, the advice you give is plan awful and it’s disservice to all newbie’s who come here with dreams of opening a profitable pizza shop.

I used this page extensively when I opened my first shop over 15 years ago. The advice I received here was invaluable and I certainly wouldn’t have made it without this board

You mention you worked 80hrs a week. We all have. Great if you want to do this, but no one with family or any other hobbies thinks this is a sustainable or enjoyable life.

Pencil/Paper- This works great if you are a one man shop. If not the amount of micro managing this requires to not be stolen blind you could only be open 15 hours a week as the remaining 65 would be be going through paper.

Please stop attacking posts on this forum for doing something different than you did. You have proven yourself your business is not scalable. Once your senior citizen body could not do the work you had to scale back yourself. That in itself is not a business, that is simply a job.

We are here to make our businesses grow and be the most profitable they can be. I want every pizza going out of my shops to be great, I however do not want to make every single pizza my shops sell
 
I sold for $175K on gross of just short of $800k. I put up for sale in the hopes of coming out even after the last 6+ years, which I did plus some. I had the decision to either put a bunch of effort in the get that to $1MM plus, with less actual work by me, or jump. My wife is happy because I can now actually accompany her to friends and family events.

I’m sure we all slaved to tweak and perfect our products. I know I did, constantly. I’ll put my products up against anyone, unabashedly. As would you, sparrow, doughboy, Steve, December, Daisy and all the rest. I’m sure we’d all be very happy with a pie from any of your places, and I thank each of you for the knowledge sharing for the past 6+ years. I’m leaving a good pizzeria, and a stable platform for the next owner to grow
 
Thanks tkelly, for the little bit of info. Im just north of you by about an hr drive or less. Good luck. I to am looking to get out after 40+ yrs. I have just ran outta steam. Did you own the building? as im leasing a space and know its not the same as a brick and mortar. We had a local business owner take his ppp money and gave it to his employees, then in turn, turned and sold the employees the business, sounded like a win win for all. Im thinking of doing the same with my erc money, give to my head cashier as a bonus and turn around and sell to her to where she has a substantial deposit to buy the business.
 
I did not own the building, and leases never go down! I grew the business for 300k to 800k and with food costs up and labor being ridiculous in cost and scope, i decided it was time. Lettuce going to $100+ a case pushed me over the edge on the same day one of the kids called off just because
 
Tim- Thank you for all the actual information on what it sold for. Very helpful for what shops actually sell for. Good luck. I’m jealous you never have to deal with made up employee drama ever again
 
Somewhat unrelated but for the last 5 years or so that my grandpa owned a store there were constant threats of him just locking the doors and closing the place (which was a little worrisome to the 10-15 people he employed lol).
Anyways he managed to sell and the new owners moved locations a few years later (he owned the building). After sitting empty for about 2 years it caught on fire, he drove down while they were fighting the fire and someone brought him a chair…and he proceeded to sit there for hours and watch the thing burn/as the firefighters tried to put it out.

https://www.portclintonnewsherald.c.../fire-hits-former-marblehead-market/30895699/

I think he got his lifelong wish of watching 45 years of nightmares burn lol
 
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