Lee Kindell, founding father of MOTO Pizza, Seattle’s fastest-growing restaurant chain, by no means supposed to be a restaurateur. In actual fact, beginning a small native pizza joint was extra of a retirement plan for when he finally retired from working a hostel, the place he’d cultivated a neighborhood environment by taking friends on foraging journeys, introducing them to native meals, and internet hosting communal dinners.
In line with Kindell, it was throughout one among these gatherings that somebody advised making pizza, and earlier than lengthy, he turned fascinated with the craft of dough preparation. Over time, he realized the nuances of sourdough and grew to like the tactile pleasure of working with dough, and he would speak to his spouse, Nancy, about an eventual far-away plan to retire and run a small pizza restaurant.
However like hundreds of thousands of People, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed him right into a pivot sooner than he anticipated when his hostels closed, and his far-away plan quickly turned the subsequent factor up. He poured his financial savings right into a 500-square-foot house in Seattle’s West Seattle neighborhood—which they affectionately name “The Up Home.” With lower than $60,000, Kindell purchased used tools and salvaged furnishings from the aspect of the highway, and shortly, he soft-launched his little pizza store. However, in a shock to each Kindell and his spouse, a mushy launch rapidly become a viral sensation as bored home-bound prospects within the midst of a pandemic lined up across the block after studying about MOTO on social media and from an article in Seattle Eater.
“We went viral on day one,” Kindell mentioned.
From there, MOTO’s repute grew as Kindell devoted himself to bettering his craft. He turned a hands-on pizzaiolo, mixing dough by hand till an arm damage pushed him to undertake a mixer—a pivotal second that reshaped his views on scaling. Kindell realized that the mixer didn’t compromise the dough’s high quality, and shortly, he started exploring different instruments, corresponding to conveyor ovens and robotics, to do what he referred to as “scaling craft.”
Moto’s enlargement quickly took an surprising flip, touchdown a coveted spot on the Seattle Mariners Stadium after in the future speaking to a buyer who labored for the crew. Kindell pitched his concept to make stadium-friendly, hand-held pizzas, and it wasn’t lengthy MOTO was serving as much as 1,400 pizzas per recreation. Success at T-Cell Park led to extra alternatives, together with the Paribas Tennis Open in Palm Springs, the place MOTO served 3,000 pizzas a day through the event. “It’s a logistical nightmare,” Kindell mentioned, however he’s assured in scaling MOTO nationwide with out dropping the craft and authenticity that made it particular.
These days, MOTO continues to develop (they simply opened their first mall location at Bellevue Sq.) and Kindell has plans to develop nationally and even abroad. There’s no scarcity of investor curiosity, and Kindell and his crew plan on taking up extra funding subsequent 12 months as they develop their footprint and discover new expertise choices like drone supply.
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