- Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Stefan Zeller.

Stefan is the owner.

President.

He's everything.

Manager.

You name it of Avanti's.

Ristorante.

Did I say that right?

- You did.

- [Matt] Okay.

Welcome Stefan.

- Thanks Matt.

- I appreciate you coming on.

Let's start off with you.

Did you grow up in the restaurant business?

- Oh yeah.

I started working for my dad when I was 12 years old.

- [Matt] I thought I was wondering how how early of age did you start.

- Busting tables on the weekends.

- Yeah.

So are you originally from central Illinois?

- I am born and raised.

- Yeah.

So your dad, everybody knows your dad, Albert Zeller.

He was born in Switzerland and he came over in 1959, but he came over.

It's something very unique.

He was a cheese maker.

Is that right?

Tell us the story about that.

- Well, I'll go a little bit back further when he did his apprenticeship because in Switzerland at the time and still largely today not everyone goes to universities they studied an apprenticeship similar like we do trade schools, so you know, to become a welder, et cetera.

He did his apprenticeship in cheesemaking and his apprenticeship was done in my mom's hometown of Mosnang which is a little village in North Eastern Switzerland.

And he did his apprenticeship there and that's how he met then her brothers.

My mom had three brothers, so and he met them and that's how he met my mother.

Dad then's came here in, as you said, 1959 and came to work for another Swiss man who owned a cheese factory in Walnut Illinois, called Walnut cheese.

It eventually turned into a broad line distributor that also owns Walnut cheese still to this day but it's called Avanti foods.

- [Matt] Okay.

I've actually heard of that.

So how did he decide to start what's now known as Avanti's?

- Well, he was working for a Tony Zueger the Swiss that owns Walnut cheese and he was drafted into the US army and he either had to go to the US army for two years or he had to leave the country.

So he decided to do two years here in the US army.

- [Matt] Oh cool.

- Upon leaving the US army, he came back to Walnut and Tony Zueger had started a frozen pizza factory and my dad ran this frozen pizza factory and he always had wanted to open up a restaurant.

My dad's older brother Ghetto came to this country then and was the truck driver for Avanti foods in the Peoria market.

- Oh wow.

- So Ghetto came across the restaurant that was for sale on Main and University and to let my dad know And so my dad came up and worked for this Italian that owned the Italian restaurant.

I think it was called Le Darnell's and worked for free for the guy for a few weekends to get to know the restaurant business.

And eventually then bought the business from Mr.

Le Darnell.

And that's how it all started.

- So the original building where you're at now on campus, is that the original building?

- We're right across the street from campus.

So we're on the North side of a University and Main.

So we were on the South side of University and Main - [Matt] I didn't know that.

- on the Eastern side And that was, we didn't own that building.

Dad didn't own the building that was owned by somebody else.

And when the city widened University, they tore down that building.

And so we had to move.

And so dad was able to purchase the building that we're in now and retrofit that into the Avanti's so that it is - So there was an original now there's so in the existing restaurants that you have now that's the oldest of the restaurants.

- Correct.

- [Matt] Okay.

And so, I mean, what memories do you have of that?

- The old main street?

- Yeah.

Was that done before you were?

- Oh no, no.

I was a kid.

I remember mom dropping us off, just opening the car door.

We get out and we'd have to squeeze in through all the people that were waiting around the block to get in.

And we would have we could go pick up some food, my brother and I and dad would give it to us and we'd run back out and jump in the car and mom would leave them.

So I remember a great deal of those days.

And of course, you know, when I, as I got older we still cruised main street.

- [Matt] Right.

- So I remember those days when it was there.

I remember when dad remodeled several times.

So no, I remember it quite well.

- I mean, were you always did you always have that sense of pride because everybody liked Avanti's?

I know you still, you do now - But growing up, I was kind of, it wasn't really the attention I wanted.

So you know, it just, you got the recognition but it's not something that you really cared.

- [Matt] Cared about.

- Yeah.

- So this show's called Business Forward and Avanti's means forward in Italian.

I thought that was kind of cool.

How so, did your dad come up with the name because of Avanti foods?

- [Stefan] Yes.

- Okay.

- He borrowed the name a little bit - [Matt] Borrowed the name a little bit, but changed it - Correct.

It's the same, but different.

- It's the same, but different.

So now you fast forward all these years and a couple of years ago, you decided to buy the company from him - Right.

- Is that an easy process being in the family or - This is very different because I had some shares in the company already, as well as my siblings did.

And so I was not just a buyer.

I was a seller.

So that prove, you know, that, and of course with family involved, it was very difficult in ways my other siblings were really not so vocal about it.

So they really just whatever dad wanted.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- And, you know, I put together a proposal with my a couple of a few investors that I have and we proposed it and of course it was accepted.

- [Matt] That's awesome.

- So, yeah.

So it's been very positive.

Matter of fact, I, I think I have a better relationship with my father now than I ever did before.

- [Matt] Well, that's neat.

- So actually we can actually be father son where before we were predominantly employer-employee type of relationships.

- So which puts stress in the, in between?

- Yeah, it does.

It does.

- So how many locations do you have?

Because I, someone, I know you get asked all the time about the Bloomington location too but there's a story behind that, right?

- Well, yeah.

My dad and Ghetto, they opened that store after main street.

I don't recall exactly the date but it was after the main street and then Ghetto ran that location.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And then eventually my father sold the property of the building to Ghetto.

I want to, I can't remember exactly the day but I want to say it, it was in the eighties at some point in time and they predominantly have always run their restaurants contrary to what we do.

So they, they have, they can do whatever they want.

What they do is they, they we have the trademarks for the name Avanti's Home of the Famous Gondola gondola described as a sandwich.

And so they have to, they have signed a license agreement with us to, to use the names.

- Okay.

All right.

So he brought it up.

I got it.

I just had one a couple of days ago.

So you're famous for the gondola.

- [Stefan] Right.

- What else are you proud of?

I know you, you're proud of all the food that comes out of your kitchen, but people in the restaurant business have their favorites too.

So what's what, what comes out of that kitchen then you sit there and go, I love that.

- I love my spaghetti meatballs.

- [Matt] Oh yeah.

- Spaghetti meatballs with meat sauce.

That's probably one of my favorites and with a salad with a tiny dressing or blue cheese.

- Yeah.

Your, your meat sauce is special.

- We make it, it's homemade.

- Right.

And I, and I wanted to bring that out of you because that is something that you take pride in it's homemade.

- Right.

- And people don't always think of.

- We kind of, we try to improve it throughout the years a little bit just as we have other things or we have new meatballs now that are larger in size and have a much better flavor.

So, you know, we've been in trying to improve things quality-wise, for years.

It's difficult when you want to keep your prices low It's difficult to really use the finest ingredients that are out there.

So we try to do the best we can, as far as quality is concerned ingredients while still being able to offer it at a low price.

- Yeah.

And, and that's tough on your end because you're always you know, you've got a business.

- [Stefan] Right.

- Got a big business.

And so when you look at, you know, back to the gondola I just think how many gondolas just you don't have to give totals but thousands of gondolas in a week is that if you added all the restaurants together - We did approximately the last time I looked I think it was a year or so ago.

We did, we sold right around 600,000 whole gondolas in one year that doesn't include the half gondolas all the other sandwiches and et cetera, but just the whole gondola about 600,000 here in the Peoria area.

And that's not including whatever Bloomington normal does.

So I think with Bloomington normal we're probably at least close to a million, if not, you know, eight, 900,000 I would suspect.

- [Matt] That's a lot of bread.

- Yeah.

We produce about a one and a half to 2 million loaves of bread a year.

- So how does that process start?

In the morning, does somebody.

- 4 o'clock in the morning, my bakers come in and we produce, we've automated it to some degree with machinery.

And, but yeah, it's all still made made from scratch on a daily basis.

It's a scaled and divided, wracked, cooled down and then shipped to the restaurants daily fresh so that they can be baked off fresh at the restaurant.

- Wow.

Wow.

So how do you come up with new menu concepts or items?

Do you have a team or is this just a Stefan thing?

- No.

No, not really.

It's a, it's a team effort.

We have general managers meetings once a month.

And when we decide we want to add something to the menu, I pretty much asks all my general managers, what they would like what they think, you know, what might sell.

And so we've had a couple now too A few years ago, we had we added on the Bristol sandwich and the Bristol is basically a club sandwich.

Well, that was brought up by my general manager in East Peoria, Russ Bristol.

So we named the sandwich after him to give him credit for the, for the, the idea.

Last year my human resource manager, Nancy Rate, she came up with a new Italian salad that we have on the menu.

So she didn't want to name it anything.

So I just let it be, but if she ever wants to name it something, you know we could certainly name it, whatever she likes.

- That's one of my favorites.

- That's right into the people that are helping you run the business and driving the business.

It's all about the people.

It's not about me.

It's about, it's about I have a really good team of people close to me.

And they're the ones that really make things happen.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- I just kind of, you know, you know push them along a little bit and - You're the conductor.

- Well, they push me and I pushed them and we all just try to keep, continue to do better things.

So there's a lot of things I do on my own decisions for the business that need to be made.

But most of the time it's it's certainly is a, I think a team effort.

- Yeah.

Are you a chef yourself?

Do you cook?

- No.

I cook but I would never consider myself a chef but I like to cook.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- I cook at least two three times a week at home as does my wife.

So we enjoy to cook.

We also enjoy to go out too, but most of the time it's home.

- Yeah.

So you're just talking about I mean you take pride in your employees.

How many employees do you have?

300?

- We had 360 and we're down about 260 now due to the coronavirus and and the shutdowns and the lack of business.

We're still in the dining rooms.

We're very blessed that we have a good model as far as the carry-out is concerned and delivery which has sustained us throughout this last year, 2020, but you know, dining rooms are coming back.

I think people have pent up demand.

The problem is getting the employees back to work too.

- And you're ramping back up though.

I mean, you're, you're ready to go.

So, if anybody needs a job, call you right?

- You know, in our catering business last year in 2020 was almost nil, but already, you know all those people that canceled weddings last year and and other types of ceremonies, et cetera, celebrations they're all doing it now.

And so this year is really looking to be strong as far as catering is concerned.

I think still part of the problem is that we're not able to gather in large groups as we would like I think people are kind of betting on it for the summer, but, you know, that's where we're seeing a lot of caterings coming as it's summertime.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Probably into the fall and winter.

- Yeah.

So when you're talking about the employees and you're talking about having to make change during this past year, what did you do to kind of keep the vision alive to the employees?

Because that's, there's a morale issue there.

- Right, right.

Oh yeah.

It was very difficult because the, you know for my servers and my host staff especially my servers that, you know really count on the tips for a large part of their income, you know, that went away.

And luckily we very quickly adapted to curbside pickup.

That was an idea that I came up with with some other people that work at Avanti's.

And we adjusted very quickly by offering curbside pickup so people didn't have to come inside.

We go to the cars.

So we were able to shift a lot of our dining room personnel to the curbside service model, which thankfully, we were able to retain a good portion of our serving staff.

Others did leave to go, you know they went to grocery stores because grocery stores were - [Matt] In need.

- In need.

They were hiring tremendously, someone on to other industries other than the food service industry.

So I think that was one of the best things that we did early on was move toward a curbside pick up.

- That's cool.

So one of the things that that happened during the pandemic and I spoke to you about it months ago was you've always been a guy that's taken pride in cleanliness, but to talk about it the way you did and to take it as serious as you did really should make your customers just feel extra special because you took it to a different level.

And I appreciated that as a consumer of your gondola.

- Right.

- That's pretty cool.

So the restaurant business has changed.

You just, you mentioned catering.

No, I was just thinking you said it was almost nil but now it's, it's ramping back up.

And so some people that might be servers now might be in catering, and now you're just having to actually just transform your whole business.

Right?

- Right.

It's coming back to the way it was.

But again, I think there's going to be a large larger portion of our business will be catering this year obviously lower dining room sales.

It's everywhere that way.

I think, you know, the carry-out, the curbside pickup will still be a very popular way of serving the guests.

And of course, catering the trick is again finding the employees to help with the catering.

because right now we're we're struggling looking to see how we're going to be able to fulfill these catering orders because of the lack of staffing that we have.

Again, we're, we're hiring, we've we've been hiring all year long.

It's just trying to find those people.

We're starting now people out at $12 an hour minimum wage is 11.

We're starting people at 12 with no experience.

With experience I mean, 13, 14, $15 an hour management wise, too, you know we're starting them out several thousands of dollars higher than we were last year in the past.

- Yeah.

And I, I think, you know, when you look at like your financials on a monthly basis quarterly however you do it.

Not being in the actual restaurant affects bar, affects things like that affects in person dining.

Has the business of curbside, Do you look at it saying, okay, we offset this over here and over here.

Is that, I mean, is that how you look at it?

- Our dining room business was approximately 36% of our business in 2019.

- [Matt] Okay.

- In 2020, of course it was virtually zero but our carry-out business went to 85%.

- [Matt] Okay.

- So we, the business that we did do we gained a lot of business in the carry-out curbside pickup that we had lost in the dining room.

So again, fortunately, we were lucky that people did that normally would come to the dining room, still dined with us but in the curbside or carry up part of the business.

- Yeah.

And so you were had to really reinvent every pocket that you had.

- Yeah.

For the most part it was a lot of shifting around a look.

A big difference.

- [Matt] That is, that's interesting.

- Still is, still is a big difference in shifting is now again, dining was coming back.

Now you have to shift people back.

And again, with the lack of employees in the labor force it makes it very difficult to, to be able to serve as guests at all the different areas that we do such as like we talked about, you know, carry out walk-in, carry out curbside pickup, phone head pickup, dining room, catering.

These are all services that we provide.

And it's difficult when you don't have those people.

- I was just thinking there, and most people don't think about this from a restaurant standpoint but there's a technology angle here too, isn't it?

- Yes, there is.

You know, again, we've our, our app you can order from, we have an Avanti's app for both iPhone and for droid.

You can order it from your laptop on our website.

And honestly, that is, we prefer that because I don't have to have someone answer the phone in the restaurant which takes them away from making sandwiches.

So they have to stop making sandwich, go answer the phone.

Do they have to switch their gloves change, go back to the you know, et cetera.

So, - [Matt] Cash them out.

- We, we would much rather that our guests order via the app.

- [Matt] Oh, that's good.

- It really helps us save on labor.

And we think the speed of service increases when we have customers order more on the app.

- So all viewers go the app store and download the Avanti's app.

- Right.

- It's going to make things more efficient.

So that's pretty neat.

Yeah.

But then you also have the social media site.

And so do you have, you know, with with the brand, because Avanti's Avanti's is over the years has become a big brand.

And so you have to keep that up and so I'm guessing you have marketing people that are constantly pushing out everything.

- Yeah.

I have someone that's been with us.

I've been doing business with, for several years now and and her and her team have done a really good job I think on our social media sites on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook.

So, and she also does our website.

So I think we're in good hands there, I think.

- Cool.

So you talked about keeping food at a fair price and I think that's one of the, if not, the most appealing things about Avanti's is the fair price.

Quality is a given, but the fair price is very important to you and into your business.

How do you continue?

Are you, is it a constant battle with food prices constantly going up and one day cheeses up and then the next week rates up, how do you, how do you fluctuate?

How do you do that?

- Well, it's you know, there's not a lot you can do with the commodities and the fluctuations in the market but we have to negotiate very well with our vendors to be able to get those keep those prices low.

Thankfully, we do purchase a lot and so we have good buying power, but again, it's still it doesn't help when you know that we had several times throughout this year, we had we had to switch different ingredients because we couldn't get them from the manufacturer because the manufacturer, for example, our, the Hormel our meat provider, you know we had to switch some things around because they had COVID issues in their factories.

So, and we, we've been seeing this all year long the factories have had COVID issues.

Their employees sick.

So that prevents production from happening.

Then we have the supply chain, you know it all affects everything.

The, one of the biggest ones I would say that we have this year is late nitrile gloves the hand forming gloves.

We were paying right about $120 a case.

Now it's $240 a case if you can get them.

So we've had to switch to a different glove, a vinyl glove which still is $140 a case.

So it's been a really challenging to maintain prices the way they are, of course, minimum wage going up.

Insurance goes up, all the costs of business go up, gas prices go up.

That affects my delivery drivers, my delivery trucks.

Correct.

So it's very difficult to maintain the pricing as it is, as low as we do given all the increasing costs.

I remember, you know we used to focus mainly on food cost.

Labor costs was always okay.

Now it's opposite.

We don't worry about as food cost as much as we do the labor cost.

So the way of doing the costs of doing business have really changed dramatically in the last few years since Illinois has increased their minimum wage.

- Yeah.

And you're right.

You don't think of the cost of gloves, toilet, paper, and paper towels.

I mean, those paper products add up.

- [Stefan] Right.

- Pretty heavily.

Dishwashing detergent.

- Of course.

- [Matt] All those types of things.

- Well, luckily, you know, with that dining room is being shut down, we didn't spend that much money on the way we didn't spend that much money money on ware washing like we did when we were serving a lot in the dining room.

So we did see some cost reductions in that cost reduction, but - [Matt] Pockets of safe.

- Right?

Exactly.

The cost of doing business went down in dining rooms where we weren't heating and cooling the dining rooms because we were shut down.

So we saved significant money in HPAC costs because of it.

- Well, that's true too.

So maybe last question, do you have head chefs or head cooks that at each store get together and they talk and because I'm always thinking of how do you keep everything consistent?

- Well, we do, we have a commissary which is basically a central kitchen.

And at the commissary, it's a it's basically a food manufacturing facility.

And at the commissary, we produce all of our meat sauce.

We do the slicing of our meats.

We do all of our dressing production out there.

We do our dough production, our pizza cross production and then ship daily to each of the stores, again, in with the bread, it's shipped in a raw state where it can then be baked fresh throughout the day at each location.

- To me, that's one of the coolest things because the logistics that you deal with on a daily basis is pretty cool.

So, well, we all love Avanti's.

I'm glad you came on the show.

We appreciate it.

Yeah.

We, we appreciate everything that you do.

You do so much for charities in the community.

Don't get credit for it.

You don't want credit for it but I'm going to give you some credit for it.

So thank you for everything you do there.

It's greatly appreciated.

Stephen Zeller of Avanti's I'm Matt George and this is another episode of Business Forward.