Pizza Today June 2021 - 53

Audrey Kelly
Audrey Jane's Pizza Garage
- Boulder, Colorado
How did you begin working the
pizza industry?

My first job in the pizza industry was working at Tony's Pizza
Napoletana in North Beach, SF. I
had just returned from Italy and
was obsessed with learning how
to make pizza. Tony (Gemignani)
had just opened his restaurant
and pizza school. I took one of his
classes and somehow talked my
way into working for him after
the class ended. He became my
greatest mentor and friend and has
given me my foundation for pizza
making.
What's been your biggest
challenge in the pizza business?

My biggest challenge has been to
balance my own expectations. I am
inherently a perfectionist and in the
beginning of opening my own shop
I wanted to do everything myself
so that it would be done correctly.
I was there from open to close the
first three years and made almost
every pizza. I have learned, and
am still learning, that in order to
succeed you have to not only be a
great pizza maker and have a great
product but even more importantly,
be a great teacher and leader. At
some point you have to let go and
trust other people with your product. To do that, I really had to learn
how to teach and manage my team.
It is a skill I am constantly trying
to improve on and one I think the
best owners possess.
What is something uniquely you
that you have brought to the pizza
industry?

I believe that my business and

pizza itself are unique. I took that
fundamentals of the classic pizza
making techniques and turned
them into my own product. Since
leaving Tony's I have become more
engrossed with sourdough starters and bread making and realized
just how important that is to pizza
making. We now do a 100 percent
naturally leavened dough using
some freshly milled flour. While
we definitely are not the only ones
doing this, ours will never be the
same as anyone else's. A lot of
owners create a recipe and business
model and continue to do the same
thing for years, I am constantly
trying to improve upon not only
my product but business itself.
Someone can try to replicate my
pizza and store but they will never
be able to capture the energy and
personality of it. To me, that is the
true beauty of small mom and pop
shops, they all bring something different to the game, something that
no one else can do or create.
What do you do to motivate
your staff during these challenging
times?

I think that the biggest motivator
is to lead by example. While I have
learned to delegate some tasks, I
will never be the type of owner/operator that expects my team to do
things I won't. I am in there every
day working just as hard, if not
harder than everyone else.
What is something you've
learned at Pizza Expo that has
helped guide your business?

Every year I walk away from
Expo with a wealth of new inspiration and knowledge. I learn from
the demos, panels and keynote
speakers, but also just from talking

with everyone else in the industry.
Some years I go into Expo feeling
a little burned out but consistently
leave feeling invigorated and ready
to take on the year. To me, more
than anything else it is the connections and support that Expo
offers that makes it invaluable. I
truly believe that the pizza industry
is unique in how open and willing everyone is to each other that
makes it feel like a second family.
The biggest thing that I have taken
away from Expo is that it is okay
to ask for help because everyone
needs it at some point. Everyone
has a different skill set and you can't
expect yourself to be good at every
aspect of the business.
What area do you feel like you
currently need to improve upon to
continue taking your pizza business to the next level?

For me, the best way to take my
business to the next level is to step
back a little so that I can look at the
bigger picture and expand upon it.
I am usually so focused on the day
to day and minute to minute action
that I never have the time or energy
to improve or fix the larger things.
It is something that I am truly trying to focus on and hope to make a
few changes in the next year. As my
uncle says, " Being on the counter
can be counter productive. " Basically, I always want to be at my shop
making pizzas and interacting with
customers, but I need to learn when
to step back and trust my team so
I can focus on smoothing out the
edges and expanding as well.

J U N E 2 0 2 1 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 5 3

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Pizza Today June 2021

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