Matthew Ptasienski owns and operates Windy Metropolis Pizzeria in Louisville, Kentucky. Situated in an ailing a part of the River Metropolis, about midway between the College of Louisville and historic Churchill Downs, Windy Metropolis, as its identify implies, provides its prospects a style of Chicago.
PT: You’re just about a one-man-show right here, proper?
MP: Just about. I’m the one one working. I solely have one worker. I’ve a supply driver who works evenings. He’s extraordinarily competent, and he can do just about all the pieces within the store besides prepare dinner. And he does. And I can do something within the store, so between the 2 of us he handles all of the deliveries and I deal with all of the cooking. Every little thing else in between, whoever can do it … does it.
PT: You appear to have numerous common prospects who both dwell or work in your neighborhood. Have you ever gotten to know most of your prospects nicely?
MP: I could not know what all people’s identify is, however I do know in all probability 75 p.c of the faces.
PT: Why not rent servers? Do you not have the quantity crucial for that?
MP: It’s strictly a enterprise standpoint. On this economic system, it’s extraordinarily troublesome for me to foretell my enterprise day-today. Each time I stroll via this door, I don’t know whether or not I’m going to be slammed or useless. And there’s no rhyme or motive for it. There are only a few individuals on this neighborhood who’re prepared to return in and work on a Friday, Saturday night and have at some point the place they make $6 in suggestions and the subsequent day they make 50 bucks in suggestions. There are few individuals who may put up with that unpredictability. If I rent them and within the first two days they’re right here they make 8 bucks in suggestions in 5 hours, they ain’t gonna stick round. It’s impractical.
PT: How do you go about cultivating common prospects?
MP: My philosophy is that if I can get them in there the primary time, I can get them again. We’ve acquired an actual distinctive product. I believe it’s a high-quality product.
PT: If you first opened, did you discover that folks in Louisville have been accustomed to Chicago-style pizza?
MP: No. It took a very long time. I opened within the first week of November (11 years in the past), and I didn’t begin doing stuffed pizza till in all probability February (of the next 12 months). It was a very overseas idea to this neighborhood. This neighborhood doesn’t provide a complete lot of selection so far as eating, so it was utterly new. Some individuals took to it actually rapidly, and a few individuals have been postpone and didn’t prefer it in any respect.
