What’s the Ian’s Pizza origin story?

Staci: Ian knew that he wanted to open a late night, pizza-by-the-slice restaurant in a college town, but he envisioned the university being very much a part of the city and not on the outskirts of town. He visited (among others) Bloomington, Indiana, Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, Ames, Iowa, and Iowa City. When he came to Madison in January of 2001 and saw everyone out on the streets on a cold winter night he knew he had found his place.

Ian’s Pizza has seen some explosive growth over the past few years with eight locations in Madison, Milwaukee, Denver, and Seattle. What’s the secret to your success?

Staci: Our growth has happened by encouraging long-time employees who have the desire to own their own Ian’s. One of the foundational ideas of Ian’s was that people could have the chance for ownership if they were motivated, so all of our locations have been founded by people who originally worked here in Madison and figured out a way to take Ian’s to Milwaukee, Denver, and Seattle (so far!).

In Madison alone, you’ve donated over $6k in pizzas to various causes in 2021 alone. We know that donations and work in your community have been baked into Ian’s Pizza culture from day one. Why has this been such an integral part of your mission?

Staci: Acting as a force of good is a core part of our values here — Ian founded this place with the idea that he couldn’t do everything, but he could provide one place that supported both its workers and the community that supported us. We have a robust donation program that gives free slice cards or up to three freshly-made pizzas to a wide variety of different groups. We also have donation nights where a portion of our dinner sales go back to local nonprofits or area organizations.

We hear that your staff are your biggest supporters. What advice do you have for hiring and maintaining successful teams?

Staci: Ask for — and listen to — employees’ input, offer them room for growth, and make ongoing training available. We hold classes on food quality, customer service, unconscious bias, leadership training, and de-escalation training. We are an open-book finance company, so we talk about the financials and the important numbers to a restaurant: labor, food cost, and the day-to-day costs of running a business. If you make people feel like they are a part of the restaurant’s success their actions will reflect that.

Do you have any new community projects coming up on the horizon that you’re particularly excited about?

Staci: We just launched our “2030 Vision”, which is our way of looking to the future to try to create achievable goals for the entire company and its employees. Our goals include more diversity, greater opportunities for employee ownership, continued focus on food quality and sustainability, and greater employee happiness. In Madison we have been working on a couple of things recently. One is our head chef reformulating some of our recipes to include more whole foods and fewer processed ingredients. Another is growing the catering offshoot of Ian’s. Customers have been very excited about having us at the milestone events in their lives – weddings, graduations, company parties, etc. – and we are thrilled to be able to show up with ovens and employees and serve slices just like we were in the restaurant!