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What makes New York, New York? According to many, it’s pizza by the slice. An estimated 4,500 slice shops pepper the city, which means you’re almost sure to find one on every block. And in a place where defending your favorite slice is a right of passage, L’industrie Pizzeria still stands out. L’industrie sets the New York standard according to the Infatuation and it’s earned the reputation, “One of New York’s Best” from Eater Magazine.
“Slice shops don’t work everywhere because slice shops are a New York thing,” Nick Baglivo, general manager of L’industrie, said. “You need something to eat real quick? You grab a slice. You want a dinner before dinner? You grab a slice.”
For Massimo Laveglia, L’industrie owner and native Italian, New York pizza isn’t just about culture. The difference lies in the cooking process. And what matters most is what you put into the product. “For me, there is good pizza and bad pizza,” he explained. “It’s New York style because we cook at a lower temperature than Neapolitan style. But it’s all about the quality. And that’s what we talk about all the time. When you have a good quality in your dough and your ingredients, it’s easier to make good pizza.”
L’industrie Pizzeria first came on the scene in March 2017 when Laveglia took over the business from a previous owner. A year later, after being introduced by a mutual friend, Baglivo joined. “I was a customer at first, and we just started talking, hanging out. When I was working in the city, I’d come back here, and he’d be rolling out the dough,” he said. “I made the pilgrimage to the city to work with him here. And then here we are, six years later.”
Together, Baglivo and Laveglia built L’industrie into the neighborhood favorite it is today by setting a strong foundation. They choose the best ingredients. They focus on delivering a consistent product that their customers love by challenging themselves to always discover new ways to improve. The effort has drawn crowds to their Brooklyn storefront and put them in a position to open a new location in the West Village late last year. The process of opening a new restaurant is a massive undertaking for any owner. But running their business on Square restaurant technology made it easier to start up their second location.
Perfecting the product, by the slice
In the very beginning, it was important for Laveglia to master the fundamentals. After all, he was new to the industry. But after first purchasing the restaurant, he learned best practices from the previous owner. “It was a learning process every day,” he recalled.
Laveglia launched the first menu with 25 slices, a combination of ten red and ten white. But due to the size and scope, it became difficult to fulfill orders quickly. After Baglivo joined, the team made the decision to scale back the menu to offer roughly 10 options, which helped boost order efficiency and dedicate more time towards perfecting the product.
Today, the team remains focused on learning how they can improve. “We’re always having a conversation about the product. ‘How’s the taste?’ ‘How’s it look today?’ ‘How’s the dough today?’ ‘What do we have to change?’ You always chase it and make it better. I mean, that’s what good business owners do. You invest in your business and continue to invest to make the product better, and you make the business better.”
Using data to make confident decisions
To make business decisions with confidence, L’industrie relies on regular reports within Square Dashboard on Square for Restaurants Plus. With quick information about their sales, the team can easily use their data to help guide their decision-making and make any improvements.
In addition to giving the L’industrie team insights about how their menu is selling, Square Dashboard data also helps with staffing decisions and running their online store. “For me, it helps because when I’m doing the scheduling and I’m able to see where peak moments are, I’m able to do the schedule based on that,” said Baglivo. ‘Okay, we’re making X amount of dollars per hour, I need X amount of people on their first shift.’”
“It works very well when I do merchandising, actually, because I’m able to put a count in there and I had a lot of issues prior when we would sell merchandise on the website that would never fully count down,” said Baglivo. “I would always, always oversell items. So if I came down to zero, it would still sell it on the website. With Square when I take something off, it’s off. And I don’t have these issues.”
Plus, having quick access to their restaurant data, even while they’re away from the store, helps avoid any roadblocks. “The software is super fast,” said Laveglia. “You’re able to see your report, like in a second, you know, when you go on your phone, and save time.”
Making expansion simple with streamlined restaurant technology
In the process of growing from one location to multiple, having the same restaurant technology helped the team open without any setbacks. Staff didn’t require additional training. And because everything is centralized, the team can always access what they need to keep things running smoothly. “We can do a schedule, we have our website, and shipping. Everything is still under Square,” said Laveglia. “Before, we used to use different platforms, like three or four, one for the schedule, one for the online ordering. So it was too much.”
As they were preparing to open the West Village location, setting up the menu took little effort. “It was very simple as far as clicking a button to get the same menu that we have in Brooklyn. So just replicating it into the West Village and then, you know, switching back and forth between two locations in the back office off my phone is extremely easy,” said Baglivo.
With two businesses to oversee, having access to both locations’ data makes it easy to benchmark against each other and stay focused on their goals. As “I click one button, bang, I’m in Brooklyn, and I can see all the analytics for Brooklyn. Bang, I click here, I’m on the West Village side,” said Laveglia. “And then the great part about it is, on the Dashboard, you’re able to compare and contrast both side by side. It’s made very, very user friendly.”
Over the years, as the menu has changed and L’industrie has grown, one thing remains the same: the team’s dedication to serving their customers. They have their community to thank. “You know, our customers really supported us from the beginning stages of everything. And they were really happy for us when we expanded,” said Baglivo. “So, you know, through word of mouth and putting out a good product, we were able to get where we are today.”
