How Do You Define Success As a Business Owner? This Is How Dan Richer Does It.
Septemner 5, 2022 | JIM SERPICO
In the latest podcast episode of Bread For the People, a replay of my very first episode, I sat down with Dan Richer, the author of the recent New York Times Best Seller, Joy of Pizza. Dan also owns the acclaimed Razza Pizza Artigianele, named Best Pizza in North America by the New York Times in 2019.
When did you make your move to become an entrepreneur and start your own place?
I bought a failing restaurant in 2006. I maxed out three credit cards, borrowed small sums of money from a bunch of people, and bought this pre-existing restaurant. It was doing poorly, but it happened to have two wood-fired ovens. And that was one of the biggest successes of my life. A twenty-six-year-old, I don’t come from money, and I got the deal done, and I owned a restaurant. It was a transitional moment in my life.
And once I had the space and a twenty-year commercial lease, I had to get out of bed every day and make sure that my team could get paid and that that rent could get paid.
That sounds like an extraordinarily long lease. How did you fall into this place, and was the location great? I know you said the ovens were attractive, but when you walked in, did you just know that this was the place?
I knew the previous owners, and they told me to come work for them for two or three years, and then they’d sell it to me. And that’s what happened. It was pretty crazy that it actually happened.
How long did it take for you to realize this was working?
About six months in, it was very busy. It was fast. And then five years later, I’m like yeah, the restaurant was so busy, with lines out the door, and it was more of just trying to keep up with the pace. I wasn’t able to be creative. The place was kind of running itself at that point, and I was bored.
So I started Razza in 2012, and I just parked myself there. And for the first four years, it was very, very slow. I was just expecting maybe six months of pain and not being busy, but it took four and a half years to really get enough people in the door, to get everyone paid, and to take any money from the business.
So what do you think happened after four and a half years? Was it word of mouth? Was there one specific award or mention in a newspaper?
The first thing that I did was I sold the first restaurant. The successful one. Because I believed in Razza, I believed in Jersey City. I knew our food was better than the first restaurant. I knew it wasn’t realizing its full potential, and it was because my time was divided. I couldn’t put the effort into Razza that I thought it needed. So six months after I sold the restaurant, it was busy. We got a New York Times Review. The review was so good that we’ve been busy pretty much every day since then.
Did it shock you that the restaurant was named Best Pizza in North America? Did you even know you were in consideration? How does something like this happen?
Quite a shock. I don’t know. I have no idea. All those lists, they’re kind of nonsense. They help, and they’re special. I flew to Naples, and they had this giant ceremony in a very old hall, like Carnegie Hall, and I’m up on stage accepting this award. It was in front of all…I mean, the Italians went. They love this stuff, they love this particular list. It was a special moment. But it’s not the reason why I do it. I don’t do it for praise. I don’t do it for any of those reasons.
Do you have someone that’s a right-hand person that you rely on? Because in my case, my wife is that person. So many logistics and other things go into making this business work that has nothing to do with the actual baking, and I could only imagine what you have going on. And you have a family, a young family, I believe.
Oh, yeah. We have a huge team of people at the restaurant at this point. In the beginning, I felt very alone. And I was alone, day one. I feel successful when the restaurant’s culture is thriving and when the people are happy. When one of my teammates buys a house or has a baby, that’s how I measure success. You know, the more of those moments that happen, somebody can buy a house by making pizza at Razza? That’s amazing. You gotta start building and nurturing. Just like you nurture your sourdough starter, you must nurture your team. And that’s the big difference between successful food businesses and not.
Did all of these people have an interest in food or study baking or cooking, or do you think it’s possible to take someone who just wants to be part of a team and a team player and teach them from scratch?
Those are my favorite people to work with. People who just really want to be a part of the team and have a slight interest in it. We had a kid maybe five years ago who didn’t have the best time in college. He just wanted a job as anything, any part of the business. He just needed a job. So we started him. We didn’t know if he would be the right fit for the front or back of the house. So we gave him a few days on the dishwasher and a few days as a server assistant (a bus boy), and he grew with us over the past five years. He is now running our dough program for all our breadmaking and pizza at the restaurant. His name’s Jonah. I was just with him ten minutes ago talking about dough. He’s learned the science, he’s done the work, and now he’s crushing it. He understands it very, very well. Those are my favorite type of people who to work with.
Razza is located at 275-277 Grove Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302
Follow Razza on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter @RazzaNJ
