For a lot of the previous couple of many years, Lee Kindell ran a backpackers hostel and boutique resort in Seattle the place he made pizza for vacationers as a approach to make them really feel welcome and share tales over meal.
The pizza was so good that visitors typically informed Kindell he ought to open his personal restaurant. He thought it seemed like long-term plan however one thing he may do after he retired from the resort enterprise.
However then COVID hit.
“We misplaced our enterprise, and I stated, ‘You realize, that retirement plan of constructing pizzas, we’re going to do it now.’”
Quick ahead to right this moment, and Kindell is working one in every of Seattle’s (and America’s) hottest restaurant ideas. In simply two years, MOTO Pizza has expanded from one non permanent location to 3 everlasting ones with extra on the best way and a spot inside T-Cell stadium the place Kindell’s staff serves up pizzas to hungry Mariner followers throughout each residence recreation.
If you wish to get your fingers on one in every of MOTO’s craft pizzas, you could arrive early (in different phrases, simply after opening or, within the case of T-Cell, the primary couple of innings) and have somewhat luck. If you happen to’re okay with ready, you may add your identify to the month-long ready record MOTO pronounces on its web site and socials each few weeks.
When requested if the ready record is a few advertising and marketing gimmick, Kindell says it was out of necessity.
“After we first opened, we had a four-hour wait,” Kindell informed me. “Now we’ll do 250 pizzas an evening at one location, and it’s all timed.”
MOTO’s POS system permits the scheduling of pizzas, nevertheless it’s removed from the one use of know-how Kindell has embraced as he’s seemed for tactics to scale his enterprise.
“After I damage my arm, I needed to cease making dough by hand and use a mixer,” Kindell stated. “After I began utilizing a mixer, I noticed the delta between making dough by hand and machine wasn’t that far aside.”
Kindell began searching for different methods to leverage know-how. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than he heard of one other Seattle firm, Picnic, which makes pizza robots. Now, he makes use of the Picnic robotic so as to add cheese, sauce, and toppings to lots of of pizzas day by day and is searching for extra know-how.
“Now, I’ve been reaching out to everyone, drone supply, sidewalk supply robots. Every little thing I can consider.”
In keeping with Kindell, his use of know-how has enabled his pizza to get into the fingers of extra prospects. He’s additionally re-shaped his processes and pizza codecs, when essential, to achieve extra prospects. For T-Cell Park, the place MOTO serves up a thousand pizzas or extra per evening, Kindell and his staff created a brand new single-serve pizza measurement that matches in hand like a cell phone.
“Take into consideration how comfy that cellphone is in your hand,” Kindell stated, holding his cellphone. “I needed a slice to be that comfy in your hand.”
Whereas a lot of Kindell’s early success is because of onerous work and his embrace of latest know-how, he’d even be the primary to inform you a few of it – particularly MOTO’s presence at a significant league ballpark – has to do with luck.
When Kindell noticed a few guys consuming his pizza within the entrance yard in West Seattle, he requested how they appreciated it. After they informed him it might survive in New York, he requested what they had been doing out right here, they usually stated they labored for the Seattle Mariners.
“I requested one in every of them, ‘How do I get into the stadium? Who do I speak to?’. He stated, ‘me.’”
The lengthy traces and quick development have drawn a lot of consideration to MOTO, together with from buyers. However, whereas buyers “are pulling down the door,” Kindell stated he’s not in any hurry as he figures out a means to make use of know-how to optimize his processes even additional to take his idea nationwide.
“I simply need to be one step forward with every thing that I’m doing as a result of when the time comes, I’m going to have my techniques in place and able to go so I can do it in stadiums throughout. I can do it within the grocery retailer. And in city and suburban areas.”
Hopefully, by then, there received’t be a wait.
