Dan Costello oversees nine Chicago area pizza shops and a thriving frozen pizza brand as the CEO of Home Run Inn Pizza. That position gives him a front row seat in the battle for hearts, minds and stomachs in the Pizza Capital of the World.

In this episode of Forktales, Michael and Dan talk about brand storytelling, creating synergy between restaurant brands and CPG brands and, of course, pizza. Specifically, they discuss the origins of the Home Run Inn Pizza name, which meat tops more Chicagoland pizzas (hint: it’s not pepperoni) and whether deep dish pizza is really just a casserole disguised as pizza.

Joseph is a vice president of digital experience, an author of multiple books about modern marketing and brand-building and a board advisor to restaurant tech companies and startups. He’s also the former host of Forktales.

In today’s episode, we meet the new host of Forktales, Michael Pavone (President and CEO of Pavone Group, which includes Vigor). Michael and Joseph talk about how to be a good podcast host, effective email marketing, the future of the restaurant industry and we play a game that tests Joseph’s knowledge of past guests and Forktales episodes.

It’s no secret that attracting and retaining high-quality employees is one of the restaurant industry’s biggest challenges. Caroline Skinner knows that. She’s also leading the way at Tupelo Honey when it comes to implementing industry-leading hiring practices and building a strong, hard-working and happy employee culture. 

In this episode, Caroline shares tips for how to build employee support programs that work, how to use technology to build stronger relationships with customers and one of the most effective ways to communicate with younger employees.

After 15 years in restaurant marketing at Pizza Hut, KFC and TGI Fridays, Olga decided to focus her marketing expertise on loyalty and CRM. With that, OLLO Restaurant Loyalty was born and her clients include restaurant chains with five to 800 locations.

In this episode of Forktales, Olga talks about the challenges facing restaurant marketers today, how to put segmentation to work in your email marketing and how loyalty programs are a not-so-secret weapon when it comes to building your email database.

As the lead creative at Liquid Death – a canned water company hellbent on changing the way that water is packaged and marketed – Andy’s job is to give everyone creative whiplash. Along the way, Andy and the Liquid Death team pride themselves on creating a product that makes people healthier and makes the world a better place.

In this episode of Forktales, Joseph and Andy talk about the “sea of sameness” that is the bottled water category, zigging while everyone else is zagging and rewarding loyal fans on TikTok.

Just a few years ago, Andrew worked in HR for an accounting firm. He was 60 pounds overweight (but hungry for change) and then he discovered a yoga program sponsored by his employer. Today, he’s a certified wellness program coordinator (CWPO) and the founder and CEO of Wellspring, a company that creates kits filled with wellness products that employers can distribute to its employees to help build a health and wellness-based culture.

In this episode of Forktales, Andrew talks about all things wellness, including how wellness can impact a company’s overall productivity and its bottom line. He also chats about the importance of individualized care, building culture and his love/hate relationship with carbohydrates.

In the restaurant industry, data is king. And if data is king, Tom Yionoulis and Opsanalitica are the king-maker. Opsanalitica is an operations data platform that helps restaurants manage and measure human activity and avoid missing the “little things” that can impact profitability.

In this episode, we dive deep on data and its impact on restaurant profitability and talk with Tom about how restaurant owners and managers can put data and analytics to better use to boost the bottom line.

On January 6, 2018, Christopher Glenn closed up the taproom at Dry County Brewing in Kennesaw, Georgia and hopped in his Jeep for the drive home. While he was parked at an off-ramp, his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver. After a long and painful recovery process, Christopher found his calling and created Bottleshare – a company that gives financial assistance to craft breweries in need. In this episode, Christopher shares his amazing comeback story, talks more about the life-changing work that Bottleshare does and shares a few of his favorite beers.

The news is out! Vigor has been acquired by Pavone Marketing Group. This marks a huge step forward for the organization. In this episode, Michael Pavone, founder of Pavone Marketing Group, unpacks why this acquisition makes sense and what the future looks like for the organization. He also touches on why peanut butter is absolutely fantastic.

In my chat with Scott, we dive into the passion behind Italian food and home cooking. We discuss the trajectory and path from cook to James Beard Award-winning chef, developing his personality and approach, and his thoughts on what's next in the restaurant world. It's a fantastic discussion that will leave you hungry for great food and for advancing your professional and personal life.