Andrew Dana recounts his transition from a corporate career to founding successful restaurant brands, including Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza Company, on Give an Ovation.

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Give An Ovation is the podcast where we interview restaurant owners, operators, and experts, to get their strategies and tactics so that you can deliver a 5-star guest experience. Available on all major podcasting sites.

In this episode of Give an Ovation, we sit down with Andrew Dana, founder of Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza Company, to explore his path from an unfulfilled corporate career to building beloved restaurant brands. Andrew shares how his passion for food, a love for community, and a focus on authentic experiences have fueled his success in the restaurant industry.

Key Highlights:

Finding Passion in the Restaurant Industry (1:14)

“I was chasing a career path everyone thought I should follow, but deep down, I always dreamed of opening a pizza place.” – Andrew Dana

Andrew opens up about his early career struggles, bouncing between corporate roles that never quite felt right. His decision to follow his lifelong passion for food led to the launch of Timber Pizza and eventually Call Your Mother Deli.

Building a Brand Around Community and Authenticity (3:20)

“We wanted to create a place that feels like your neighborhood spot—where everyone knows your name and your order.” – Andrew Dana

From naming the deli to designing the guest experience, Andrew emphasizes how building authentic connections with customers has been a cornerstone of his brand’s growth.

Creating Unforgettable Guest Experiences (5:45)

“A great guest experience isn’t just about food—it’s about how people feel when they walk through the door.” – Andrew Dana

Andrew shares his approach to hospitality, focusing on personalized touches such as remembering customer names, making thoughtful recommendations, and empowering staff to go above and beyond to delight guests.

Scaling with Culture Intact (7:30)

“Growth is important, but only if we can keep our culture and values strong at every new location.” – Andrew Dana

With 16 locations of Call Your Mother and more on the horizon, Andrew talks about the challenges of maintaining the culture and authenticity that made his brand successful while expanding into new markets.

Empowering Employees to Drive Success (9:12)

“The guest experience can never exceed the employee experience.” – Andrew Dana

From career growth opportunities to engaging workplace culture, Andrew dives into why investing in employees creates a ripple effect that results in happier customers and stronger business performance.

Who Deserves an Ovation? (11:50)

Andrew gives a shoutout to Nick Wiseman, owner of Little Sesame, for his innovation in blending restaurant operations with a thriving CPG brand, all while staying committed to local sourcing and community values.

Follow Call Your Mother Deli:

Website: callyourmotherdeli.com

Instagram: @callyourmotherdeli

Tune in to learn how Andrew Dana’s journey from corporate life to culinary entrepreneurship offers valuable lessons in following your passion, building authentic connections, and delivering standout guest experiences.

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Transcript

00;00;00;01 – 00;00;21;55

Zack

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast, where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by ovation, an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions.

00;00;21;56 – 00;00;41;34

Zack

Learn more at ovation up.com. Today I’m so excited because we have someone that Amir of South Block mentioned on his podcast saying some that just is doing, some great things. I went and they checked him out and just rock star of a background. So excited to chat with Andrew Dana, founder of Call Your Mother Deli Timber Pizza Company.

00;00;41;39 – 00;00;44;08

Zack

Now, Andrew, welcome to the podcast, man.

00;00;44;08 – 00;00;47;57

Andrew Dana

Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. Shout out to Amir. That’s the homie.

00;00;48;02 – 00;01;17;32

Zack

Amen. Now you’ve had an interesting background Andrew, I want to dive into this because it’s like I look at your career before restaurants and it was like five months here, eight months here, five months here. It’s just kind of like I felt that early 20 angst of like, I just don’t want to do this. And then you hit restaurants and here we are 11 years later, you started Timber Pizza Company first and then call your Mother Deli, which is a Jewish deli.

00;01;17;37 – 00;01;36;00

Zack

And so what did you learn about yourself in those first few jobs, and what was the difference when you got into restaurants? Because the jobs that you had, I guess you did have a two year stint somewhere, but it seemed like at least from looking at your LinkedIn, it’s like I’m doing jobs. Everyone told me that I should be doing so.

00;01;36;00 – 00;01;37;23

Zack

Yeah, tell me about that.

00;01;37;28 – 00;01;57;04

Andrew Dana

Yeah. I mean, it’s super cliche, but like, I just hadn’t found the passion, right? And I had the privilege of going to a really good high school. I went to a good college. I went to Fordham for grad school. And part of it is, I think when you go to good schools, it almost like narrows your perspective of what you think you can do because everybody’s going into these like certain channels.

00;01;57;04 – 00;02;22;40

Andrew Dana

Everybody’s trained to be a lawyer. I was getting my MBA and I was going into finance. And so you’re almost feel like pigeonholed to have to do something that everybody else is doing. And I don’t think I really had the confidence to go like branch out and chase my dreams, which for whatever reason, had always been restaurants. Like even since high school, I’ve been saying I want to open a pizza restaurant, but felt sort of the societal pressure and the school pressure to sort of chases more traditional career paths.

00;02;22;45 – 00;02;31;43

Andrew Dana

So I was just sort of going through the motions, right? And was finding joy in life and everything except for work, really living for the weekend to be super cliche.

00;02;31;48 – 00;02;38;59

Zack

And because, I mean, you don’t go into like quarter million dollars in school debt to like, deliver pizzas, right? Yeah.

00;02;39;03 – 00;02;57;40

Andrew Dana

For sure. My capstone project for my MBA program was a pizza restaurant, and the teacher was like, thank you. Came to the wrong school, man. Yeah, I mean, I got married so. Well, but then I was working for this company. Ever find, like, I was making really good money and climbing the corporate ladder, but just, like, hated it.

00;02;57;47 – 00;03;12;09

Andrew Dana

And so, like, it was one that hour, it was like March. It was like when it was still getting dark at 5 p.m., I just sit on my desk sucks. And I was like, I’m just going to start a pizza business. And I didn’t really have the skills or the wherewithal to, like, start a proper business. And I was like, what’s the way to start this?

00;03;12;09 – 00;03;32;34

Andrew Dana

And a bite sized chunk and started Timber Pizza as a food truck in 2014, having never made pizza, having never run a business, just sort of was like, all right, let’s just run through the fricking wall and figure this out and, hit the ground running and just out grinded everybody. And that led to the first timber 2016 What to Call Your Mother, 2018 and here we are.

00;03;32;41 – 00;03;35;42

Zack

What your family think when you started the food truck.

00;03;35;48 – 00;03;36;18

Andrew Dana

They thought.

00;03;36;18 – 00;03;37;14

Zack

I was batshit.

00;03;37;14 – 00;03;54;32

Andrew Dana

Crazy for sure, but they’re a super like my dad. Part of the reason I open call your mother is my dad had always dreamed of opening a Jewish deli. And so I think while he thought the idea was batshit crazy and I was in student debt and all that, he was also stoked because he was like, oh, this is sort of like living my dreams.

00;03;54;44 – 00;04;04;58

Andrew Dana

Once I got over the initial shock that I was giving up my six figure job to make $12,000 the first year, and living in my friend’s basement, and they came. Then they became supportive.

00;04;05;03 – 00;04;23;06

Zack

Yeah, That’s awesome. And obviously you got to do this with a I to the guest, right? Like, obviously everything starts with the guest and especially with like, Call Your Mother Deli. It’s like you started with a very catchy name. Where did that name come from? And then I want to dive into the guest experience.

00;04;23;11 – 00;04;38;46

Andrew Dana

Yeah. So like, I can sort of picture the end restaurant before I come up with the name. So with Timber Pizza, like I kept saying it like summer camp in the Adirondacks. So I was thinking like, what would like a summer camp at the end or on next be. And so came up with timber, whatever. And then for Call your Mother.

00;04;38;46 – 00;04;56;51

Andrew Dana

A lot of my Jewish deli experience growing up was visiting my grandparents in South Florida, and so I wanted it to be bright pops of pink and teal and super playful. And so I was just like, it’s got to be something sort of funny and catchy and like, Jew ish. And so one night I was with my friends and we were like, what’s funny are Jewish moms or grandmothers?

00;04;56;51 – 00;05;13;34

Andrew Dana

But he yelled at us and my friend sister said, call your mother. I said, oh my God, that’s it. It’s funny, it’s catchy, and it’s so classically Jewish, but it also spans all cultures, right? Like, yeah, my wife and business partners from Argentina and her mom loves it. So here we are.

00;05;13;36 – 00;05;32;10

Zack

I love that I can go back. I went to Newark Academy in Jersey and we got off all the Jewish holidays. It was right across the street from Kushner Academy. And like, yeah, I mean, I could think of going over to my friends houses in there. They’ll get home. And the first thing that grandma would say is, did you call your mother to tell her that you’re home?

00;05;32;15 – 00;05;37;31

Andrew Dana

You know, you should eat something, but meat on your bones? Yeah. Those are the other ideas for the restaurant names. Yeah.

00;05;37;32 – 00;05;49;13

Zack

Oh, I like that. So thinking about the guest experience, because obviously you’ve curated this from a great vision into a restaurant. What do you think are some of the most important aspects of guest experience?

00;05;49;18 – 00;06;17;02

Andrew Dana

I mean, do even go back a step further. This is part of why I was attracted to the restaurant industry is. So I got my MBA in marketing, and so much of it is like fluff in bullshit. And there’s something so real about restaurants. Like either you go and have a good enough experience and get enough food where you want to come back or you don’t like, maybe you can get somebody to come for one time on marketing and fluff, but to like, create that real sort of like long term customer, it has to be real and like authentic.

00;06;17;09 – 00;06;45;12

Andrew Dana

And so from day one and all of our restaurants, we call them GF’s now great experiences. And you know, in this day and age, you can get anything delivered to your couch. Like if you’re going to go out like you want to have an experience, an experience can mean a five star dinner with multiple courses, or it can mean the person taking your order at the register is like, really happy and asks you how your day is and like makes really great suggestions of what you should order and when your orders right.

00;06;45;12 – 00;07;08;19

Andrew Dana

Like you get it with a huge smile and the playlist is on point. Nostalgic to when you’re in high school and the volumes perfect. And so we constantly hammer home these GSEs, and it’s just about always going above and beyond and creating memorable moments. And that could be everything from seeing somebody a little down to blessing them with a cookie, to making a cute drawing on the coffee cup that has your name on it when you get it.

00;07;08;19 – 00;07;12;09

Andrew Dana

So it’s just these like little magical moments that make it a true experience.

00;07;12;14 – 00;07;33;17

Zack

I love that, and when I go and do seminars about guest experience, one of the things that we always talk about is that the little things matter, because you could fake the big things, right? I can do like some big apology and like give you $20 for free drawing a face on the coffee cup. It’s like those little things matter.

00;07;33;22 – 00;07;47;03

Zack

My kids, when we’re leaving Costco, they look forward to what face that person is going to draw on the receipt. Yeah, it’s a little thing, but it means a lot because you can’t fake those little things.

00;07;47;07 – 00;08;10;05

Andrew Dana

Amen. Now, Amen. And like when I open Timber Pizza, part of the training was we would draw a pizza and call it the five star experience. And that has eight slices in food is only one of them. Right. Like everybody thinks like, yeah, it’s great. Like it’s enough. But food is only one of the eight slices. And then it’s how is like after you take your order, does the person totally set expectations of when the food’s going to come out?

00;08;10;05 – 00;08;14;52

Andrew Dana

So you’re not like, left questioning anything. So it’s the whole pie. It’s the little things that add up.

00;08;14;56 – 00;08;19;36

Zack

And how many across the two brands, how many locations Chuck’s like, where are you guys at?

00;08;19;41 – 00;08;25;05

Andrew Dana

Yes, we have 16. Call your mothers and we have six timber pizza companies.

00;08;25;10 – 00;08;28;48

Zack

How have you kept that culture as you’ve grown?

00;08;28;53 – 00;08;47;58

Andrew Dana

Yeah, part of it is like when we can we promote from within and so like, call your mother, for instance, a lot of our people have been with us from day one, and we’re in the first store and have grown into bigger and sort of bolder positions. So the guy who runs our social media and marketing was a food runner in the first store.

00;08;47;58 – 00;09;04;22

Andrew Dana

And just like the DNA of the brand, is pulsing through his veins and vice versa, right? Like he’s rubbed off on the brand. And so I think it’s really important to like, have those culture carriers, which from day one I told people, don’t look at this as a restaurant, look at this as a startup where you can really build a career.

00;09;04;22 – 00;09;23;46

Andrew Dana

And so that’s been like a lot of the driving force behind why we want to grow is to create the opportunities that we promise for people. It’s a lot of it’s people growing with us. And then too, it’s just like not resting on your laurels is like making sure your staff is having a great experience, because the only way that customers are going to have a great experience is if your staff has a great experience.

00;09;23;46 – 00;09;44;32

Andrew Dana

And that’s from everything from onboarding to training to that’s the employee of the month. Get a dope present to. Yesterday we had our holiday party and raffling off, you know, big screen TVs and iPads and that one person won $1,000 cash. And it’s like this event every year, like the staff so pumped for. And so it’s just like the core of everything is your staff.

00;09;44;32 – 00;09;56;18

Andrew Dana

And so the better sort of you can make your staff feel, it’s this cycle that just feeds off of itself and they really give an asset, and then they’re better with the customers and the customers tip more, and then they make more money, and then they’re more stoked to work there. And then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00;09;56;29 – 00;10;07;12

Zack

I love that because the guest experience cannot exceed the employee experience. And so having that culture, having that love, having that vibe works really, really well. Love hearing that.

00;10;07;16 – 00;10;10;44

Andrew Dana

Yeah. It’s not just for the customer. This is for the staff too. Yeah.

00;10;10;44 – 00;10;29;16

Zack

So there you go. I love that. I mean, obviously I think you’re just kind of going into some of those tactics of making sure that the employees have a great experience, but what are their tactics are using to improve the guest experience. And by the way, I do think that a giant holiday party like that is a great tactic to improve the guest experience because again, it’s like culture building.

00;10;29;16 – 00;10;33;10

Zack

So I love that. But anyway, go ahead. What are some tactics that you’ve used to improve the company?

00;10;33;10 – 00;10;49;11

Andrew Dana

Just like the nitty gritty stuff, right where it’s like no order should ever take more than ten minutes and we’re like hammering that home just so people are always getting what they want. And like, we’re always hammering home consistency on food and things. And so there’s like the day to day nuts and bolts. But none of that’s sexy, right?

00;10;49;16 – 00;11;13;56

Andrew Dana

We always try and do sort of super shiny creative menu changes every couple months, which is just to keep things fresh and top of mind. But really for the guest experience, like we’re pretty basic. It really is just gives all day long. And so it’s remembering guests names. It’s remembering that kid’s name and what’s their favorite order. So it’s like it’s with Call Your Mother.

00;11;13;56 – 00;11;33;41

Andrew Dana

We have 16 locations, but at our core, we want to be your neighborhood bagel shop. And what would that mom and pop neighborhood bagel shop be like? And that’s our northern star. So it’s remembering names. It’s picking people up with little freebies here and there. And so we really empower our staff to like, you never have to ask a manager to give away a sandwich or a cookie.

00;11;33;46 – 00;11;44;36

Andrew Dana

You never have to, like, ask a manager to rush in order to get some do what they want. So really empower the staff to just constantly be picking up gas and sort of like looking for those little edges to make their experience better.

00;11;44;50 – 00;11;57;03

Zack

With something like that, of giving away like a cookie, for example. Is that something you guys encourage? Like, hey, when you’re on your shift, like look for ways to give cookies? Or is it just kind of like, hey, keep that in your back pocket. Like, how do you manage to. Yeah.

00;11;57;07 – 00;12;19;38

Andrew Dana

Yeah. No, we we absolutely encourage little like special moments. Right. And so whether that’s a cookie for somebody who looks sad or whether that’s a cool sticker that we have for a kid who’s in the store, or we encourage our staff to like, listen to what the customers are saying. So if in line, they’re between two sandwiches and they’re dining in and they get one, like hit them with the second one if it’s their first visit.

00;12;19;38 – 00;12;35;10

Andrew Dana

Right. And so you say, hey, heard you wanted to try this one too. Like this one’s on us this time. And they’re saying, whoa, shit. They were listening. I got to try this extra sandwich and then you have a repeat customer. So really empowering the staff to, like, it’s easy to say it’s just cookie giveaways, but it’s like, more than that.

00;12;35;10 – 00;12;39;36

Andrew Dana

It’s like listening to what they think the customers telling you they want and then sort of fulfilling that.

00;12;39;36 – 00;12;46;10

Zack

So are there any good questions that you ask in the interview process to suss out, is this person going to be a good fit?

00;12;46;15 – 00;12;48;59

Andrew Dana

The number one question is why do you like being around people?

00;12;49;04 – 00;12;51;10

Zack

Because so interesting.

00;12;51;10 – 00;13;13;53

Andrew Dana

We need people. People, right, who like love being around people interacting, talking. And so that answers super telling because a you’ve all worked that shift where like there’s the one staff member who sort of like grouchy and sort of like rubs off on the rest of the staff. So you want a team that, like, likes being around each other, loves interacting, and then that energy becomes infectious and it spills into the gas.

00;13;13;53 – 00;13;18;07

Andrew Dana

So why do you like being around people is probably the most important question we like to ask.

00;13;18;19 – 00;13;26;50

Zack

Love that. Now speaking of people, Andrew, obviously 11 years in this industry who is someone that deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry?

00;13;27;03 – 00;13;44;01

Andrew Dana

Yeah, I want to give a shout out. I’ve known this guy since I was a kid and that’s not why he’s getting the ovation. It’s Nick Weissman. He’s the owner of Little Sesame. So Little Sesame, they have one restaurant, but then they also do CPG hummus nationwide in Whole Foods and across the country, and a bunch of grocery stores.

00;13;44;01 – 00;14;06;22

Andrew Dana

And they started as a restaurant. And I think Nick is just a great example of constantly reinventing yourself, constantly sort of looking for angles to make your business sort of more scalable and better. They’re great in their community. The way they source their food is top notch. They work directly with their farmers. They’re always sort of building up their community, and they make the best hummus in the game.

00;14;06;22 – 00;14;08;52

Andrew Dana

So shout out Nick Wiseman’s Little Sesame.

00;14;08;57 – 00;14;13;56

Zack

I love that. And where do people go to find and follow you and your brands?

00;14;14;01 – 00;14;30;27

Andrew Dana

We’re on Instagram. Call your mother deli, I believe as they handle call your mother deli.com. That’s pretty much it. Get on our email list or phone or cool. Check us out on Instagram email list and come through all the shops. Look on the website. We’re in DC and Denver right now.

00;14;30;32 – 00;14;33;02

Zack

Oh, DC and Denver, when you coming to Utah?

00;14;33;06 – 00;14;35;34

Andrew Dana

Honestly, it’s on the short list, so watch out.

00;14;35;43 – 00;14;38;39

Zack

I think that there’s like one Jewish deli in Salt Lake.

00;14;38;52 – 00;14;42;08

Andrew Dana

It’s a natural next joke from Denver. So watch out that we’re coming.

00;14;42;15 – 00;14;52;57

Zack

Here we go. I’m ready for it. Well, Andrew, for giving us a reminder to care about each other and to call our mothers. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you so much for joining us. I’m given ovation.

00;14;53;02 – 00;14;54;36

Andrew Dana

Thanks, ma’am. Pleasure.

00;14;54;41 – 00;15;17;12

Zack

Thanks for joining us today. If you liked this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We’re all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by ovation, a two question, SMS based, actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants. If you’d like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at ovation up.com.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the whole episode, as well as other interviews with restaurant gurus by checking out “Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants” on ovationup.com/podcast or your favorite place to listen to podcasts.

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