Kimberly Wolff

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Wish we were coming to you today with a different episode. By the way, we are powered by Pepsi. This interview today is with Kimberly Wolf and she is one of the owners at 312 Pizza. 312 Pizza is an amazing little place over in Germantown. We have been working with them at NARA for about three or four months, maybe longer, and we've been helping them with all kinds of little things and they are awesome. They are just awesome and they do amazing food. They're just a nice, great family. The mom is kind of the main investor and then you have Kimberly and her husband, Aras, and their daughter, Mimi, who's always in the restaurant.

01:17We were just at the restaurant show the other day and it was Aras and Kim and Mimi were there. She actually asked the mayor a question and they got to chat. She texted me last night and said, hey, we're going to call it quits. Monday is our final day. We're going to close it up on Monday. I said, no, this is not okay. What's going on? We talked for a little bit and I said, let's figure something out. We've got to figure some things out. Let's make some phone calls. Let's do some things. I don't want it like this. This is not it. Come on. We've got to get the community involved. Today, I came in and I said, I want to hear in your words what's going on. Tell me exactly what is happening. What can we do? You have to listen to it. I'm not going to go into the whole story, but listen to it. It's like 20 minutes. This is kind of exactly why I say we need to support local. This is why when you go out to eat, it makes a difference because these are families that put everything on the line to serve their community.

02:26I think the community needs to answer the call right now. She's not going to close. We've worked some things out. We go into it in the interview. We need your help. We need your help to support them. Listen up and afterwards, I'll have my thoughts. Thanks, guys. Friday the 4th, we are live at 312 Pizza and we are with Kimberly Wolf. Kimberly, how are you today? That's a loaded question. That is a loaded question because I know how you're doing today. That was performative. Yes. Let's just get to the nuts and bolts. I got a text message from you last night. You said, hey, just wanted to let you know Monday is going to be our last day at 312 Pizza. Correct. Tell me about that text message. So for the last several months, we have been hanging on as much as we possibly can. I have done everything that I can possibly think of to stay alive.

03:33And last night, we were hit with the realization that there's really no other avenues to keep going, that it was over. So we talked about it yesterday, had a meeting with our staff this morning, and the plan was to close on Monday. Labor Day. Yes, and have that be our last day. I mean, that's the farthest thing that we wanted. If we ever do close, I would love to be able to give our staff even more time than a weekend. But we have literally been trying to stay alive. What are some of the factors as to why you've got to this point? We have been slow. I think these past several months in particular, the past several months in particular, we have just not had as many customers come through our doors like we used to. And that is the biggest one.

04:34But I've seen you do so many initiatives. You had that funny video the other day where you threw the pizza on your husband's car. Yes. I knew it was your husband on Alex's car. And you did the 3-1 Tuesdays. You're trying to promote other local businesses. You're just not getting traction. No, I feel like every avenue that I have gone down to try and bring in business just hasn't worked. I just feel like it has produced zero results. And I mean, the only thing I can attribute it to is the economy and people are pulling back on their spending. And in response to that, we have tried to make 3-1-2 a more affordable experience for people. We do 25% off pizza on Monday. We do $10 pizzas on Thursday. And on Sundays, when there's a game that you can come watch, every Sunday we do 20% off pizza, $5 drafts, $2 off slices. And I'm even struggling to get the word out about that. I mean, we email all of our customers, send text messages, put it on social media, put it on Facebook, do Google Ads, and I just feel like crickets.

05:47Yeah, you certainly put a lot of effort into it. And I've been working with you guys now for a few months. We negotiated a new food deal for you. Is that helping? Yes, it has. We've tried to mitigate and find the best possible ways. But really, is this a property tax issue? I think this is more of a customer flow issue. We need the support of our community to come and dine with us more than ever. Support local is what I can say. I know that we're not the only restaurant in town that is feeling this. I know that for a fact. We've talked to so many other restaurant owners that are in the exact same boat as we are. Support local is the biggest thing I can say. So with NARA, we have so many chains coming to town. And everything you just described was when you have all of these chains come to town, they have marketing teams. They have somebody who sits in an office in Chicago and figures out how to market specifically to your guests and get you to go to their restaurant instead of come to your restaurant.

06:58And as much as I've known you, it's you and your husband and your mom who's in here all the time. There's a table set up behind me right here where Mimi sits. And I love her. She's the sweetest little girl on the planet. I give her a hug every time I see her. But she's always here. When you talk about mom-and-pop restaurants, you guys are literally a mom-and-pop restaurant. You don't have a marketing team that can strategically go find that guest and bring them in here. You're relying on organic. We want to reach out to the community. We want to support the community. You're here supporting other local restaurants. And people are not dining. The city is so oversaturated right now that they're just not dining here. I wanted to give you the chance to come on here and talk about this because I think there's a narrative right now that everything is property tax and that the mayor is ruining the city. And look, I'm not saying that's not a thing. I'm not saying that the property tax is just no big deal. And you're close to downtown. Your proximity is there.

08:06One of the major things that restaurants are dealing with is just people supporting their local restaurants. Yes, that is a huge one. And I want to say something to what you just said. One of the reasons that is helping us get through this weekend and potentially hang on for a couple more weeks is the mayor. I had a conversation with him this morning and he has offered some help and support to strategize to keep us going for a little bit longer. And I did not expect that. And I'm also very grateful that that even came to fruition. Yeah. So that was my next question. I said, so you're not going to close on Monday. Now we're not. I mean, honestly, thanks to him and what he was able to get some strings pulled for us. However, the next couple of weeks are up in the air. I mean, this is a let's see how we do this weekend and see what we can accomplish in the next couple of weeks to see if we will be able to stay open.

09:07So much so that I started a GoFundMe today to also just help alleviate some of the financial stress that we are feeling. What's the GoFundMe called? How can people find that? And I can link this in this episode. If you want to go support 312, I think there's a couple ways you can support them. One is come eat here. Yes. Come dine at 312. Say hi to Kim. Say hi to Ross and Mimi. But come in and eat the food. This whole next couple months. I mean, we're going to see in the next two weeks what happens. Yes. And you got a couple weeks. I mean, you talked to your staff this morning. Yes, we told them what was going on. I mean, our biggest thing, the people that work here, we love them. And I think the biggest thing for me was I was like, I don't want to tell them that they might not have a job after Monday. And I'm grateful that that's not the case right now. But it is also in the air. They'll have one in a couple weeks. So we are just asking that if you love 312, if you've been here, come meet here. If you haven't, one of the things is like, you know, we're a family from Chicago. You really, there's, I can't even count on one hand how many Chicago places there are here in Nashville.

10:22So if you don't know, we just come and eat. I mean, all of the things Chicago that if you're from Chicago and you miss thin crust pizza, we've got it. Deep dish, Italian beef, Chicago style hot dogs. And we're making it all from scratch in our kitchen. And it's clean. Everything here is clean ingredients, right? She's past retirement age, not having anything left after this. So this is one of those moments where I see on Facebook, you told me last night, you're going to announce it today. And I said, wait, let me see what I can do. We pulled some different things together.

11:26And today I said, let's do a show. I want people out there. Instead of going on social media, I'm arguing, oh, I love that place or saying, oh, this is another casualty. Everybody wants to find blame. And I'm giving you and giving the, I said, I want to give the general public the chance right now, instead of going on Facebook and saying how much they love that place and how sad it is that they're going away. This is your chance to stop that. This is your chance to fix that. This is your chance to say, hey, we were there. We're going to give one shot. If you guys can help us save what we're doing, we have the business. All of your everything else you're doing is really tight. We've looked over every single thing you're doing. Your food cost is really good. All down your P&L, you guys are running a really good business. But without those sales, everything makes it really hard. You're in Germantown. This is a tough place to have. Rent here isn't cheap. And you want to be here for your community. So this is our plea. Guys, don't be the person that said, oh, I used to love that place. Be the person that says, I do love that place and come out and support them right now.

12:31You hear this, come out tomorrow. They need you here. We do. And I think the biggest thing, when you get on social media, you put on a different face than maybe what's actually happening behind closed doors. And it takes a lot to sit back and say, should I be honest about what, like I'm throwing pizza at my husband's car, but really inside I'm panicking saying, I hope that video gains some traction because we're on the verge of closing our doors. And it takes a lot to swallow that and just put on a face and say, well, this is actually what's happening. I mean, a part of me didn't even want to create the GoFundMe because it feels weird asking for help. But if I don't, then there's only one result that happens. And if I do ask for help, then maybe I'll get a different result and we can stay. This is entrepreneurship. This is the highest pressure and actually going to the community saying, we need the community support. There's a lot of people out there that want to support local and that do support local.

13:32I want to gear those people that come down here because this is an amazing family. Your husband is amazing. Your daughter's amazing. Your mom's amazing. I know all of them. And I love what you guys do here. The whole vibe is amazing. If you've never experienced 312 Pizza, please come out here. Become a regular. I would love five years from now when there's a wait to get in the door here for me to go. Remember that day that you almost closed? Oh my gosh. I dream about that. I mean, I'm already on a different cloud right now just for the fact that we don't have to close on Monday. And I feel like there's hope. Yesterday, I felt like there was no hope. I feel hopeful. And I hope that in several years, we can look back and say, man, look how far we've come. I don't have a lot more questions. When we talked last night, I said, don't close. Let's do something. If we can use this platform to let people know how dire this is.

14:36I don't want another story out there that is another casualty of our mayor. And listen, restaurants open, they close. It's a thing. But this is one that should stay open because you're a pillar of this community and you guys are amazing. And I wanted you to be able to tell your side of this. Yeah. And I'm asking for the community to come and support us. And I also want to thank you for everything that you're doing for small local restaurants. I mean, what you have done in a short amount of time. I was thinking about that today. What you've built in a few months is incredible and how you've helped small families that run businesses is amazing. So thank you, too, for even giving us the platform to get this out there. It's my pleasure. And it's hard for me to hear that because it seems second nature. This is what I want to do. When I first started NARA, it was like, how do we avoid families with small children who run a local business who care about their community?

15:39I don't want your life to get blown up. Let's figure out a way to do this. Like we were talking last night. I was like, let's fix this. How do we do it? So community out there, this is your role. Get out there and go to 312 Pizza. It's all I got. I mean, go do it. And come in and say hi to Kim. Let Kim know when you're here. Ask to say hi to Kim. She wants to come meet you. She wants to know you. She wants to know if you're in the neighborhood. She wants to know where you traveled from to dine here. Especially if you're from Chicago. Yes. If you're from Chicago, come watch the Bears game here. We show them every Sunday and that's starting. So come here. How long have you guys lived in Nashville? Since 2011. So you're not like, we just moved here from Chicago and open. I mean, you've been here over 15 years. Yeah. More than most people are listening to the show. You're local. So how long has this restaurant been open?

16:4012 years. 12 years. So the mayor has a 15 year. And this is what I love about it. We were at the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance Independent Restaurant Show. That's a mouthful. Yes, it is. The other day and the mayor was speaking and you asked the mayor a question. You said, hey, we're 12 years. Can we get some help? And it's amazing because he's already been in touch and he's talked to his team and he's working on because of your comment, how can we reduce that number from 15 to 12? Yeah. What can we do? And that's, he's already jumped in to help you. And I just love that. He has. It wasn't a no and he was open to talking about that and seeing what we could do to hopefully change that, but also the help that he's given us with this situation. I mean, I'm grateful. Good. Well, come support 312 Pizza. They're here right in smack in the middle of Germantown, right on the corner of, if I can see the sign there. Fourth and Monroe. Fourth and Monroe. Yes, right in the corner of Fourth and Monroe. Kim, you are amazing. And hopefully we'll see you at 312.

17:47Yeah, thanks. All right. So there it is. It's about 18 minutes with Kim talking about their situation. Unfortunately, this is a all too common occurrence. And, you know, it's tough for me to even talk about this because this is I talk about this so much. It sounds so redundant, but you guys might not hear it. I don't know who hears it. Local restaurants are sitting ducks right now. And it's not because the mayor. It's because, I mean, like I said in the thing that taxes are a thing. But when you look at a restaurant that has multiple locations in major cities, they have marketing teams and they have people that do so much for them. I mean, they're looking at the diners data from open table and toast and they're looking at all of their data and they're strategically marketing to people based around complex algorithms of spending habits.

18:56It's there's so much data out there and these chains use it so well. They also have marketing budgets and the money to do so many things on the inside. And it's like the general public. It's a shiny. Whoa, look at this new restaurant that just came out. And there's 10 new restaurants every month here. And so everybody goes to those new restaurants while you have people who've been pillars in their community. They've gone through tornadoes, pandemics. They've made it through all of that. They've supported everybody. And now nobody's eating there because there's not the new place. And I'm seeing it all over and people are. I mean, I don't I'm not just blaming the general public. I'm saying it's just not there for like operators like how what they're able to do. And I really, you know, that's this is going to sound self. Like I'm promoting ourselves, but that's what Nara Nashville dot com is for now. We want you to be able to see which restaurants are local. We want you to be able to say, you know what, he's right. We need to support local restaurants. That's why we have it categorized by neighborhood in cuisine. So if you want to go out to eat, go to Nara Nashville dot com.

20:14Look at which restaurants have banded together to help each other. I mean, I just saw that in my pie re shared that video. And you know what? When a pizza place that's right down the street is sharing a video saying save our friends. That's what it's about. Like that's that's one of my favorite things because we're all local together. We're all people that are from Nashville and everybody who hates what's happening to Nashville. Don't continue to let it happen. Vote with your wallet. Go to places that have always been there. They've been there for you. And not the new fancy place that came in from, you know, Houston or Austin or New York or Chicago. There's so many though. So anyway, please go support 312 pizza and hopefully I don't have to do many more of these. We're hopefully going to take back the city from all these chains. Let's do this thing together. And I know you guys, if you listen to the show for a while, you know, I mean, this isn't this isn't something I'm just saying because it's a hot topic right now. It's saying it for years.

21:30We started a business around it. We want to help local restaurants. And so go help Kim. I'm going to shut up. I want to bed. It's late. It's been a long week. By the way, thank you to everybody who did come to the independent restaurant show. We're going to we've just been recovering from everything. It was absolutely incredible. We had 150 restaurants show up and 38 vendors in the band. Downriver Collective was downright amazing. It was a whole vibe, guys. It was so much fun. Thank you for everybody who came. Thank you for the hugs. Thank you for the kind words. Thank you for just showing up and hopefully you got a lot out of it. Hopefully you're able to, you know, like Kim said, Hey, I met the mayor. Now that I'm talking to the mayor about my situation, you know, we want to help put you in positions to where we can help you succeed. So let's do it. And if you want to get more involved with Nara, you can go to NaraNashville.com. You can join the waitlist. We'd love to get to you as soon as we possibly can. All right, guys. Hope that you're being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.