Late Night Slice
Face it, anybody can make pizza. It takes a vision to turn a slice of pizza into a brand. I sat down with Mikey Sorboro at the Columbus Podcast Festival for a casual conversation about how to start a business, the virtues (or lack thereof) of owning a foodtruck, and the importance of a branding experience.
Shownotes:
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, a live recording of the Confluence Cast from the Columbus Podcast Festival. I sat down with Mikey Sorbough of Mikey's Late Night Slice fame for a casual conversation about how to start a business, the virtues or lack thereof of owning a food truck, and why, if you wanna start something, the best time is now and the best place is Columbus. One editorial note, uh, today's episode is slightly more explicit than normal. Nothing crazy, just some curse words. And it is not as highly produced as normal, so sorry about that. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored by Kepri, a full-service web and mobile development company specializing in design and programming services. Defined through skill and innovation, Kepri works with their clients to create user-centric, technology-based products that innovate. Kepri provides complete technology solutions with a solid strategy to meet your goals and grow your brand. See examples of their work and explore what Kepri can do for you at kepri.com. Enjoy the interview. For those of you who don't know, the podcast you're about to see is called the Confluence Cast. Podcast produced by the Columbus Underground, hosted by Tim Fulton. Really good podcast to know about the scene, uh, about Columbus in, in general. And his guest tonight is Mikey Sorbough. So guys, it is my pleasure to introduce host of the Confluence Cast, Tim Fulton, and his guest, Mikey Sorbough. Give it up for them, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sitting down, uh, with Mikey Sorbough of Mikey's Late Night Slice. Mike, how are you? Uh, well. Uh, excited to be here, and, uh, feeling great.
It's good to have you. Yeah. How'd you start a pizza shop? Wow, getting right into it.
Let's do it. I wanted to start with the fact that you told me just moments ago that I was not your first choice. On the occasion of doing the Columbus Podcast Festival, I thought, what, what would be a draw? Is anyone in the audience familiar with the name Zachary Alan Starkey? Whoo. That person was enthusiastic. Uh, rather enthusiastic.
Zach and I grew up together, and I had invited Zach to do it because Zach very publicly left Columbus. And I literally reached out to him and said, "I'm doing this podcast festival. I will pay for you to come in." Not a flight. Not a flight. I said from the first ask, "I will pay for the Chinatown bus- ... for you to come into Columbus to do this thing." And then I found out we only got half an hour, and- Here I am. Uh, Tim, I'll always be your-
Welcome ... I'll always be your number two. Always. How'd you start a pizza shop? And let's get to the bones of this conversation.
Let's see what I cut out of this. So, uh, I know, uh, a lot of people have probably heard how I started a pizza shop in Columbus, so, uh, we'll go through the, uh, extremely fast Reader's Digest version. Uh, I owned a pedicab company, uh, for a couple years. Being on the pedicab, you kept hearing a lot of people on the back of the cab going, "Where's the pizza by the slice? Where's the pizza by the slice?" I thought, where is pizza by the slice in this, in this area of the Short North of Columbus, where we're at? So I had this little shack downstairs from the apartment that I was living in. I asked my landlord if I could rent it. He said, "Knock yourself out." Got the health department in there. They said, "I don't think you should even stand in this thing, let alone serve food out of it. But as long as you have a three-compartment sink and a h- and a, and a hand sink and some other stuff, that you can open a pizza shop in here." If you can check off these boxes, you can do it. Yeah, if you can do-
Right ... these couple things, uh, you can do it. And, uh, Late Night Slice very, very quietly opened in, uh, July 4th weekend of 2009. And the reason it was very, very quiet is because we didn't have our, uh, health license at the time. Because that night, no shit, that night I called, uh, the health... or that day, I guess, and I was like, "Hey, we're ready to open. Come out and check us out." And the health department was like- Sir, that takes weeks. Uh, yeah, well, I didn't know that at the time. And they were, and they were like, "Uh, we're a little backed up. It'll be five weeks." I hung up the phone, and we opened that night.
Okay. Well, and that's a, a decision out of necessity, right? Like, that's- Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 'cause I, I had no money, right? Right. Yeah. Okay. I, I sunk every dollar.
That's where I, I put all this money assuming that the moment I'm ready, I get to sell pizza and, and can do it. Yeah. And I think we'll talk a little bit about the Columbus sort of infrastructure for th- those things happening, or maybe we won't even get to it because I'm on a finite amount of time. Let's hope.
How'd you start the, uh, pedicab company? So I traveled a ton throughout my 20s, and I was out in Vegas. I wa- I went out there for, like, a couple months. I ended up staying there for, like, a year and four months. And on a vacation from my vacation on, out to San Diego into the Gaslamp District, if anybody's ever been out there, uh, they have these pedicabs. And I saw those, and I was like, "Man, these things would be great in the Short North." And I knew I was moving back to Columbus. It's a really weird thing. Those of you ha- that have traveled out of Columbus, that have moved away, Columbus has this really weird way of drawing you back. It really does. And I knew that I was coming back to Columbus 'cause I missed friends, I missed family, whatever. And I knew pedicabs would j- they would just work here. So I got obsessed. I You figured it out how to do it I, I, yeah, it was bike taxis, you know? It was a very low risk-
Low invest- Yeah ... low, low capital investment Low investment, low risk. Exactly
Just to give a little bit of background, you went to Ohio State. Funny story about how you- Occasionally, yes ... y- you went to Ohio State. You had dropped out. Uh, before that, you grew up in, uh, Cuyahoga Falls That i- that is a very, that is a very good thing. I am a college dropout, yes
C- congratulations No, I know. You and Bill Gates. Just a side note that I wanted to mention, I don't wanna delve into it, but it, it's funny how it seems that a lot of sort of bastions that Columbus holds up tend to be people that, this is not a discrediting of you, but a lot of people who are really fucking good at things simply find oth- ideas other places. I hope that Columbus has the opportunity to find good ideas itself If you wanna get into a conversation about the merits of higher education, this is probably not the place.
That's fair But everyone in this could probably have a half an hour conversation on it. Eh, you know what? It's - it's, it's one of those things. You see an idea, then you go for it, and the way I did it is it was very low cost, very low risk, you know? So I didn't go out and spend $300,000 on a restaurant. I think I opened Late Night Slice for, like, five grand, and I didn't have five grand to do it. I rode my giant tricycle throughout the Short North, and after a week of doing that, I had, uh, you know, 800 bucks to buy a pizza oven. And the next week I'd have, you know, 4 or $500 or $1,000 to buy a couple of refrigerators. And after, you know, five or six weeks of doing this, it was like, "All right, cool, we got a pizza shop set up." But you- Who knows how to make pizza
But you moved back to Columbus with the intention of setting up the pedicab business Uh, yeah, yeah, in 2007, or in 2008 rather, yeah Okay. And so you were brought back simply by the people. You - you knew that you, this could work here, and this is what you wanted to do. What were you doing before that that gave you the idea to start a business? Uh, well, what was, what I was doing before that and what gave me the idea to start a business are two wholly different things, and-
Okay ... two really hilarious stories. Pick one I will say-
Let's do starting a business first All right. Let's go starting a business first. I had no idea how to start a business. I did not have any intent in starting a business. All I thought was, "Pedicabs, I think this will work. I'll figure the rest out later." People keep asking for pizza. Let's try this. I'll figure the rest out later 'Cause you even saw from afar, Short North, up-and-coming neighborhood, this is, this can work in this neighborhood Totally. Totally
Okay Yeah. If it was working elsewhere, why wouldn't it work here, you know? I mean, if there, if there's... Th- these aren't, like, groundbreaking things here. It was, it was pizza by the slice in a busy bar district. I- I'm not reinventing shit here. You know? Okay. You wanna just close the chapter on that? I mean, we can. I mean, I c- I can dig deeper. Uh-
Let's... How much market research? Tim, it's fucking busy All right, market research. Uh, I'm in a new market. This is working here. I think it'll work elsewhere. Like, it'll work at home Answer the other question then. What were you doing before the pedicab business in Columbus? All right. The, the, the, the fun question here. All right. So I was working. I spent the better part of my 20s working in gentlemen's clubs. I was, hence this chocolatey silk voice, a DJ at many men's clubs. And I was a corporate trainer, hence taking me all around the country, opening up gentlemen's clubs all over the country. So that took me all around the country, let me see a lot of things that were working elsewhere in the country, and, you know, some of those things ended up coming back here
Let me ask you first, were you doing that to... Why were you... You're in your 20s, so you don't have to have an answer to this. Yeah, no, it, it's- Were you, were you doing this- It's really crazy. A guy working-
You were like, "This is a fucking fun thing to do. I get to see titties all the time," and- I was gonna say, yeah. A, a guy in his mid-20s working in titty bars, Tim. It's, it's not a hard sell My other follow-up to that is my stripper name is Bambi. I'm really good at pole dancing, and my favorite artist is Akon. Go All right, gentlemen, let's make some noise out there. Gang, let's get crazy. Coming up to the stage right now, the beautiful Bambi. Stepping up for you right now. Let's make some noise out there. Columbus Podcast Festival.
So I also wanna point out a very small point that he just brought up. He was a trainer, and so you are the reason that everybody sounds that way Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, as far as Shit Mountain goes, I was on top of it. So- To be clear, there are, there is some process you were doing some training on, but you were literally coaching strip club DJs on how to do introductions for strippers Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah, all, all over the country. I'm not making that shit up, I promise I'm not. I wish I was. I am not
Let's fast-forward a little bit. I asked why you started a pizza company. How did you start a pizza company? How was... Okay, so it was, it was, it was all piece by piece, like I mentioned earlier. It was like, all right, we got an oven, we got a refrigerator, we got a prep table, we got all this stuff. All right, who knows how to make pizza? Um, YouTube. I, I learned how to make pizza off YouTube, no shit. And- No mentors, no outreach, no- No, no, no. I didn't have, like, a grandmother to have this amazing pizza recipe that I had to bring to the people. No, not at all. Um, we, there was a time-
So much passion in your story I know. I know, I know. Yeah. If, if anything a- anybody should take away from this story is anyone can do it, all right? This does not take any kind of, like, skill or, like, family recipe or anything. Like, all you have to do is, like, get an idea and start working. And, like, put your head down. Don't, like, think about the, the current economic climate, like, "Oh, it's not a good time to start a business." Nope, put your head down, work your ass off. That's it Once you get going and sort of, you know, you guys started in a shack. When did you make the decision to transfer to a larger space? We only started in a shack-
Or start a- ... because hut was taken Because the Hut was taken? Yeah, Pizza Hut was ta- we couldn't take... We couldn't do that, so we had to, like... And I'm assuming Shack is, too, we just didn't...
So what... I don't wanna not call The Shack a brick-and-mortar, but- Yeah ... you then went to food trucks. It was. So the reason we got a food truck is because we didn't actually want... We didn't have anywhere else to go, and I was like, "What if we take this to festivals?" Like, I wanted to do, uh, uh, Comfest, right? So-
Right ... I was like, "Why don't we get a tr- like, a truck or something?" We had no idea that food trucks were, like, a thing at this time. This was 2009. Food trucks weren't a thing in- In Columbus ... if you served food... Yeah, if you served food out of a truck, it was generally tacos, and you were around 270. There was no, like, food trucks in Columbus for the most part. Uh, we didn't know that there was a food truck thing going on, or that there would be. We just wanted something that we could drive to Comfest. So we found this food truck, and I I didn't have enough money to... Uh, this was six months after we opened, uh, in the Short North down here. Um, my buddy had a lot of money at the time, and I was like, "Hey, what do you think about giving me some of that money to buy this food truck?" And-
I've proven I can make pizza. Yeah. There is occasionally lines over here. It's pizza, busy bar district, easy stuff. So he was like, "Yeah, man," and, uh, hence my partner Bryce, he got involved in the business, and he is- And now you're- ... the one that keeps the business together at this point
... and now you're stuck with him. And now I'm stuck with him. So just to recap, The Shack, and then literally what, six months, six weeks? Yep. It was, uh, July and then November we bought the, uh, the first truck.
Okay. And at that time, Columbus wasn't even licensing food trucks. Oh, it was the Wild West. Oh man, it was great. It was lawless. It was... You could do anything. If anybody remembers, if anybody used to go out on Park Street- And you're... I'm sorry, you're not being facetious by, "It was great," because you could- It was great. It was-
... you could do whatever you wanted ... you could do whatever you want. It was absolute- You could be as cavalier as you wanted to. I used to go down to the Greek church. Remem- You know the Greek church down the road? Yeah. And they had a line that separated their driveway from their sidewalk, and I used to park right on the inside of their driveway. And they'd be like, "You can't park here," and I'd be like, "The city said I can." And the city would come out and be like, "You can't park here," and they'd be like, "The Greek church said I can." It was totally lawless. I got away with that shit for probably eight months-
And so the Park Street- ... parking down there ... so the Park Street District- Before they talked, and they were like, "I told him this," and they were like, "I told him that." They were like, "All right, he's honored." That, that was, that was, that was just, like, in the beginning.
And I have follow-up questions to regulations, 'cause I know some of the stuff that you've gone through recently, but why then go to brick-and-mortar? Uh, stability. Total stability. Okay. Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. M- Owning a food truck, owning a food truck sucks. Uh, uh, anybody that owns a food truck will tell you owning a food truck sucks. Like, there's never been anybody who was like, "I love owning a food truck." A food truck is a very easy and awesome way to get into the food, the, like, the food business, but it's terrible. It's like owning a restaurant, right? So you, you get to own a restaurant, and you have all the same problems of owning a restaurant. You have, like, equipment breakdowns, you have staff, uh, issues, you have everything else, and then you have all the problems with a 20-year-old car. So... And you have nowhere to house it generally. So it, it's like, it's... You have all these things going down. There is probably not one of you hasn't seen a Late Night Slice truck broken down on the side of the expressway at some point in time over the last eight years 'cause we have wi- missed so many events just being broken down.
Well, and at this point, how many food trucks do you own? I have, uh, three. Uh, excuse me, two. We just sold our third one. Okay. Yeah.
So- So we're, we're downsizing on the food truck thing ... do you think you're getting out of that business? Uh, no, not getting out of the food truck business, but it is becoming more of a promotional f- arm as opposed to a, you know, an actual profit center.
I see. And so but when you moved into brick-and-mortar, you had to raise capital, right? Not really. Or did you not? No. No, no, no. Like, Lido's, when we opened up up there right behind Lido's, that was totally bootstrapped, and when we opened up at Woodland's Tavern, totally bootstrapped. I... Everything we did up until Oddfellows-
But those are, those are places where you're negotiating with a bar owner who already has- Ex- exactly ... you're subleasing a space. Exactly, exactly. Low cost, low risk.
So it's fair to say that it's the s- it's the steps, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically, I'm, for lack of a better term, I'm subletting a garage to a food truck, which is I bought a car, to, "Hey, can I borrow the closet that you're not using in a, in the back of a bar?" What was the biggest transfer of sort of, "Holy shit, we're doing this now"? I, I don't know if that was the story of us or Jewel. Like, "I was living in my car serving pizza down by the river." What was the big step? The big step was Oddfellows, for sure.
Okay. That, that was when we actually took out money. Up until two or three years ago, like, Late Night Slice was 100% bootstrapped. Uh, we just, you know, every dollar we'd make, we'd go into something else. Um, but yeah, Oddfellows was... You know, that space we had there, I knew I wanted to do something with it. Uh, it was a total passion project, and we had to take out some money to build that place, and then it was kinda like, "All right, we learned how to take out money. We learned how to borrow money to open a business." That, that's the one good thing about everything we've done is, like, we've never... You know, nobody, no- nobody in our organization comes from any kind of really legitimate experience with anything, so I mean, other than it costing us incredible amounts of money and time, huge things, uh, we've done everything, you know, just by tripping, stumbling, falling, and crawling, so. How have you set up the processes that you have? This is such a good question. Uh, it's, it's, it started with, uh, all of our, our team members, our employees, right? So we used to have team members that taught us so much throughout this process. We called it, uh, the Kevin, and we called it the Lindsay, uh, process, where we literally, we had to coach these guys so much on what to do. It was like, "Step one" Open door. Step two, turn on light. And that's where we had to document every one of these processes because it was like, we'd get a call at, like, midnight. It'd be like, "Mike, something's wrong. The oven just turned off." It'd be like, "All right, Kevin, what's wrong? Is it plugged in?" "Hold on, let me check. Okay, it wasn't plugged in." "Something happened. It's plugged in now and it's working." "All right, Kevin, thanks a lot."
Thank you so much- "Have a good night" ... for your call. "All right. It's Tuesday. Good night." Uh, so yeah, every one of our processes came from employees that we just had to deal with, you know? And it was, it was such a valuable experience to have to deal with just, like, documenting every little thing that we did from, like, literally open door, turn on light.
Well, and I think you're talking about a lot, sort of the value of starting small, of having those... 'Cause it's not a failure then. No. But it's a failure if you say, "Hey, I'm gonna open three stores," and I'm, you know- Yeah
... frankly, I look- There's a lot of... There's- ... at a lot of places in the Short North, and there are, there's money behind it certainly. Totally.
But, and a branding effort, but not a whole lot of goodwill for them or, uh, a whole lot of proving out their concept. Yeah. Because they're just starting, and that's the virtue of starting in a shack. And that's, that's, that's such a huge point, and you're so right. And I think what the point there was, was some people just expect to open up in, say, a busy bar area like the Short North, and they think that it's automatically gonna be awesome. And I think you've seen a couple of, uh, ventures, restaurants, businesses that just, they go under rather quickly because they don't understand that this area is incredibly particular. It really is. We just don't, you know, when a, when, when a... I'm really having a hard time not saying names here. When a particular business opens up in the Short North, you know, everybody thinks like, "Oh, I'm gonna open up in the Short North. It's just gonna be, you know, automatically raking in money," and it, it just isn't that way. It's, it's, it's really a very particular neighborhood, and you have to be very authentic. Um, and that's, that's, that's hard for people because a lot of times they think the food is the first thing they do, or the, the, the product that they serve is the first thing, and it really is the last. Like, for us, pizza is absolutely last because when you go to Late Night Slice, the last thing you get when you experience going and standing in line and watching a movie and, you know, doing whatever else you do in the experience of going to Late Night Slice, the last thing you do is give money and you get pizza, and that's the last thing, you know? And then you leave.
Where did that come from? Like, how did you get there? Because a lot... Again, a whole lot of people... You were just at the International Pizza Expo a couple of weeks ago in Vegas. Yep. And I imagine there were a whole lot of assholes there- ... just saying, "Hey, I'm gonna open a pizza shop 'cause I know how to make a great pizza." And l- let me just bury the lede here. Y- you didn't know how to make pizza when you started this. Sure.
How did you make that decision of saying, "This is about a brand experience, and, and this is about the experience of the customer"? I think it came from... So around my travels in my 20s, I worked at Dick's Last Resort in, uh, Myrtle Beach. If you guys have been to North Myrtle Beach, there's a Dick's Last Resort there. I worked there for a few months when I was traveling around. And I, I, I learned there that people love to be, you know, harassed a little bit. They love to be, you know, just, they... Everybody loves to laugh. Just, just, just poke the bear. Everybody loves to be... You know, a- as long as you do it with a smile. And I think I took that back, and when Late Night Slice opened, it was like, I wanna fuck with people a little bit, you know? I wanna make funny hats. We didn't... We did that for, like, one weekend. It didn't really work out. Um, we, I... It was just, you know, we, we had funny signs out there. We had movies on the wall. It was, it was an entire experience. And we realized that, you know, this isn't about the pizza that we make 'cause honestly, you can walk out that door and you can walk five minutes in any direction that you choose, and you'll probably run into somebody that has some kind of pizza, all right? Who gives a shit, all right? Everybody makes pizza in this city. What makes us different? And that was what we really focused on, is what makes the experience of going to get a Late Night Slice pizza different than anybody else? 'Cause it's not about pizza. It's about the experience that you have when you go to get it. So I think, I think that's what, you know, it tends to set us apart a little bit in this industry because there are so many places that make pizza. There's something like 350 pizza places within-
Yep ... the Loop, and that's not different pizza places. That's different brands. You know, like, Donatos has something like 60 within this market or something like that. So just as a side note, how do you bring a brand like that, that is sort of poking people a little bit, into, like, the cafeteria at Nationwide? That was a, that was a fuck-up. That was a mistake.
Tell me. Totally. Totally. Okay. Now, it w- it wasn't a, it wasn't a, it wasn't a, it wasn't a fuck-up like in-
It was a bad decision for you? Eh, it wasn't a bad decision money-wise because we didn't, like, lose anything on it, but what I... W- the reason why we got, why, why we got out of the Chase Center and w- the reason we got out of Nationwide- Mm-hmm ... is 'cause it didn't, it didn't do anything for the experience, you know? That wasn't... When you just went up to a, a, a counter and just got a slice and left during your lunch, you didn't experience, eh, really almost anything about, you know, Late Night Slice. It wasn't doing anything for the brand, so we didn't think it fit anymore, and we, we pulled out.
Can I challenge you a little bit there then? Why start Oddfellows? We pulled out. Sorry, I just- You pulled out? I thought, I thought that needed a little bit of-
Oh, you wanted to make a dick joke. So- That's why I'm on stage, Tim. Pizza and dick jokes. So, but- ... you talk about the brand a lot and about aligning it. We... Oddfellows is not that brand. It's, you know, sort of- You know what? It so is.
Okay. It so is, though. Oddfellows was, and that was our, on that marquee we have on, uh, right when you walk in the door, it said, "Fina-" The first thing that I put on that marquee was, "Finally, a shitty place to drink in the Short North." That is still one of my favorite things. And it's, it's not shitty. It's, I mean, like, Oddfellows really isn't, like, a shitty bar or anything, but that was what we were going for, you know? Like, finally a dive bar. And it wasn't even a dive bar. I mean, Oddfellows is, is, is, uh... The way we... Here's how we classify Oddfellows now: classy as fuck. All right? Odd Fellows. That's why, that's why our brunch is named, like, the Classiest Fuck Brunch. Uh, it's just, it's, it's kinda self-deprecating. It's, it's crude, but it's still kinda weirdly classy in kind of like a pedon kinda way, you know? So that's, that's what we're going for in that place. What's next for Late Night Slice? Uh, so if you guys have been down to the 4th Street location, the one next to, uh, 16 Bit and Hadley's, uh, we wanna do more of those. In fact, I'll choose right here and right now as a time to, uh, let you know about the next Late Night Slice, which is going to be in the Yankee Trader building, which is between Bare Burger and Martini, uh, on High Street, right across the street from the Convention Center.
Fantastic. So I know... We tried to announce this the same time they were announcing the new North Market thing, but- Oh, 35 Stories of Fuck. 30 s- 35 Stories beat our pizza shop, so-
Yeah ... we'll be putting that out next week. That press release didn't... Yeah. Yeah. It got buried real quick. Um, but yeah.
Sorry, Jason. We're taking over that, uh, that space right on High Street, right on the corner, right next to Martini, so I can sit there and stare at Cameron Mitchell out my window. All right, motherfucker. How do you feel about him? Pizza. How do I feel about Cameron Mitchell?
Yeah. He's awesome. Honestly, I, I have so much respect for him. I've seen him talk. I've met him a bunch. Like, he, he... He's, he's, he's doing great shit. I, I absolutely love the way he's built his companies around here. I think he has great concepts. Um, I, I... Cameron Mitchell gets thumbs up from me. Absolutely. I can't talk shit about him. I just wanted to make sure you couldn't say, "I stare at him out my window and despise him," and then- Oh, no, no, no, no
... and then that- No, that was just like, "I'm next to you now, man. All right?" Why do you stay in Columbus? Why do I stay in Columbus? All right. Columbus, uh, I think I mentioned it earlier, Columbus has always been a town that brings me back. All right? Columbus has so much potential, and it, it has. There has never been, I think, a better time nor a better place than right here and right now to start a project. All right? And a project is what you do before you start a business, all right? You... Before you have an idea or before you wanna, like, quit your job and start a business, you have an idea, and that idea you can turn into a hobby. And I think you should turn that hobby, if that is working for you, into a side hustle. And if you're making a little bit of scratch off that, you can move that into a business at that point. There has never been a better time nor a better place than Columbus to, to, to do your own thing. Um, it, it keeps bringing me back. Honestly, the... I, I've always said there's, there's really nothing that Columbus is saturated with right now. I will asterisk that, and I think breweries. Like, if you wanna start a brewery, it might be a little bit, little bit saturated right now. There is... Every time I hear somebody wanna start a brewery, I'm like, "Really? Here?" We started a pizza shop seven and a half years ago, and, uh, recently we were voted number one best traditional pizza by Columbus Alive. And if you don't say anything, uh, we got voted number one best traditional pizza in Columbus by 614 Columbest, which I, I don't think that comes out for another couple days, but don't tell anybody. Uh, so it, it, it just goes to show you that if you have an idea, that you can go into the most saturated point in that market, and if you just listen to people, and have fun, and be yourself, and have personality, that you can, you can, you can, you can rise, too, in this town. People want authentic stories. People want s- Here's what I say. When you get off the plane or, or, or when you, when you pick somebody up, when you pick some- like a friend up that has never been to Columbus, and you're at the airport, and you're like, "All right. I gotta take you to, to this place, this place, and this place," be one of those places, you know? Be a Thurman's. Be a Jenny's. I hope Late Night Slice is on that list, you know? You know, be one of those, like, iconic places that you have to take your friend to that's never been to Columbus. Um-
Well- There, there's, there's hardly anything that is saturated in that market yet. There is so much room for people to have their own ideas right now. And I think that you are certainly a testament to it. Mikey, thank you so much. Please give him a round of applause. Thanks, everybody.
Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite pizza proprietor. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.
Transcript6,057 words
Tim Fulton Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, a live recording of the Confluence Cast from the Columbus Podcast Festival. I sat down with Mikey Sorbough of Mikey's Late Night Slice fame for a casual conversation about how to start a business, the virtues or lack thereof of owning a food truck, and why, if you wanna start something, the best time is now and the best place is Columbus. One editorial note, uh, today's episode is slightly more explicit than normal. Nothing crazy, just some curse words. And it is not as highly produced as normal, so sorry about that. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored by Kepri, a full-service web and mobile development company specializing in design and programming services. Defined through skill and innovation, Kepri works with their clients to create user-centric, technology-based products that innovate. Kepri provides complete technology solutions with a solid strategy to meet your goals and grow your brand. See examples of their work and explore what Kepri can do for you at kepri.com. Enjoy the interview.
Mikey Sorboni For those of you who don't know, the podcast you're about to see is called the Confluence Cast. Podcast produced by the Columbus Underground, hosted by Tim Fulton. Really good podcast to know about the scene, uh, about Columbus in, in general. And his guest tonight is Mikey Sorbough. So guys, it is my pleasure to introduce host of the Confluence Cast, Tim Fulton, and his guest, Mikey Sorbough. Give it up for them, everybody.
Tim Fulton Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sitting down, uh, with Mikey Sorbough of Mikey's Late Night Slice. Mike, how are you?
Mikey Sorboni Uh, well. Uh, excited to be here, and, uh, feeling great.
Tim Fulton It's good to have you.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah.
Tim Fulton How'd you start a pizza shop?
Mikey Sorboni Wow, getting right into it.
Tim Fulton Let's do it.
Mikey Sorboni I wanted to start with the fact that you told me just moments ago that I was not your first choice.
Tim Fulton On the occasion of doing the Columbus Podcast Festival, I thought, what, what would be a draw? Is anyone in the audience familiar with the name Zachary Alan Starkey? Whoo. That person was enthusiastic.
Mikey Sorboni Uh, rather enthusiastic.
Tim Fulton Zach and I grew up together, and I had invited Zach to do it because Zach very publicly left Columbus. And I literally reached out to him and said, "I'm doing this podcast festival. I will pay for you to come in."
Mikey Sorboni Not a flight.
Tim Fulton Not a flight. I said from the first ask, "I will pay for the Chinatown bus- ... for you to come into Columbus to do this thing." And then I found out we only got half an hour, and-
Mikey Sorboni Here I am. Uh, Tim, I'll always be your-
Tim Fulton Welcome
Mikey Sorboni ... I'll always be your number two.
Tim Fulton Always. How'd you start a pizza shop?
Mikey Sorboni And let's get to the bones of this conversation.
Tim Fulton Let's see what I cut out of this.
Mikey Sorboni So, uh, I know, uh, a lot of people have probably heard how I started a pizza shop in Columbus, so, uh, we'll go through the, uh, extremely fast Reader's Digest version. Uh, I owned a pedicab company, uh, for a couple years. Being on the pedicab, you kept hearing a lot of people on the back of the cab going, "Where's the pizza by the slice? Where's the pizza by the slice?" I thought, where is pizza by the slice in this, in this area of the Short North of Columbus, where we're at? So I had this little shack downstairs from the apartment that I was living in. I asked my landlord if I could rent it. He said, "Knock yourself out." Got the health department in there. They said, "I don't think you should even stand in this thing, let alone serve food out of it. But as long as you have a three-compartment sink and a h- and a, and a hand sink and some other stuff, that you can open a pizza shop in here."
Tim Fulton If you can check off these boxes, you can do it.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah, if you can do-
Tim Fulton Right
Mikey Sorboni ... these couple things, uh, you can do it. And, uh, Late Night Slice very, very quietly opened in, uh, July 4th weekend of 2009. And the reason it was very, very quiet is because we didn't have our, uh, health license at the time. Because that night, no shit, that night I called, uh, the health... or that day, I guess, and I was like, "Hey, we're ready to open. Come out and check us out." And the health department was like-
Tim Fulton Sir, that takes weeks.
Mikey Sorboni Uh, yeah, well, I didn't know that at the time. And they were, and they were like, "Uh, we're a little backed up. It'll be five weeks." I hung up the phone, and we opened that night.
Tim Fulton Okay. Well, and that's a, a decision out of necessity, right? Like, that's-
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 'cause I, I had no money, right?
Tim Fulton Right.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. Okay. I, I sunk every dollar.
Tim Fulton That's where I, I put all this money assuming that the moment I'm ready, I get to sell pizza and, and can do it.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah.
Tim Fulton And I think we'll talk a little bit about the Columbus sort of infrastructure for th- those things happening, or maybe we won't even get to it because I'm on a finite amount of time.
Mikey Sorboni Let's hope.
Tim Fulton How'd you start the, uh, pedicab company?
Mikey Sorboni So I traveled a ton throughout my 20s, and I was out in Vegas. I wa- I went out there for, like, a couple months. I ended up staying there for, like, a year and four months. And on a vacation from my vacation on, out to San Diego into the Gaslamp District, if anybody's ever been out there, uh, they have these pedicabs. And I saw those, and I was like, "Man, these things would be great in the Short North." And I knew I was moving back to Columbus. It's a really weird thing. Those of you ha- that have traveled out of Columbus, that have moved away, Columbus has this really weird way of drawing you back. It really does. And I knew that I was coming back to Columbus 'cause I missed friends, I missed family, whatever. And I knew pedicabs would j- they would just work here. So I got obsessed. I
Tim Fulton You figured it out how to do it
Mikey Sorboni I, I, yeah, it was bike taxis, you know? It was a very low risk-
Tim Fulton Low invest-
Mikey Sorboni Yeah
Tim Fulton ... low, low capital investment
Mikey Sorboni Low investment, low risk. Exactly
Tim Fulton Just to give a little bit of background, you went to Ohio State. Funny story about how you-
Mikey Sorboni Occasionally, yes
Tim Fulton ... y- you went to Ohio State. You had dropped out. Uh, before that, you grew up in, uh, Cuyahoga Falls
Mikey Sorboni That i- that is a very, that is a very good thing. I am a college dropout, yes
Tim Fulton C- congratulations
Mikey Sorboni No, I know.
Tim Fulton You and Bill Gates. Just a side note that I wanted to mention, I don't wanna delve into it, but it, it's funny how it seems that a lot of sort of bastions that Columbus holds up tend to be people that, this is not a discrediting of you, but a lot of people who are really fucking good at things simply find oth- ideas other places. I hope that Columbus has the opportunity to find good ideas itself
Mikey Sorboni If you wanna get into a conversation about the merits of higher education, this is probably not the place.
Tim Fulton That's fair
Mikey Sorboni But everyone in this could probably have a half an hour conversation on it. Eh, you know what? It's - it's, it's one of those things. You see an idea, then you go for it, and the way I did it is it was very low cost, very low risk, you know? So I didn't go out and spend $300,000 on a restaurant. I think I opened Late Night Slice for, like, five grand, and I didn't have five grand to do it. I rode my giant tricycle throughout the Short North, and after a week of doing that, I had, uh, you know, 800 bucks to buy a pizza oven. And the next week I'd have, you know, 4 or $500 or $1,000 to buy a couple of refrigerators. And after, you know, five or six weeks of doing this, it was like, "All right, cool, we got a pizza shop set up."
Tim Fulton But you-
Mikey Sorboni Who knows how to make pizza
Tim Fulton But you moved back to Columbus with the intention of setting up the pedicab business
Mikey Sorboni Uh, yeah, yeah, in 2007, or in 2008 rather, yeah
Tim Fulton Okay. And so you were brought back simply by the people. You - you knew that you, this could work here, and this is what you wanted to do. What were you doing before that that gave you the idea to start a business?
Mikey Sorboni Uh, well, what was, what I was doing before that and what gave me the idea to start a business are two wholly different things, and-
Tim Fulton Okay
Mikey Sorboni ... two really hilarious stories.
Tim Fulton Pick one
Mikey Sorboni I will say-
Tim Fulton Let's do starting a business first
Mikey Sorboni All right. Let's go starting a business first. I had no idea how to start a business. I did not have any intent in starting a business. All I thought was, "Pedicabs, I think this will work. I'll figure the rest out later." People keep asking for pizza. Let's try this. I'll figure the rest out later
Tim Fulton 'Cause you even saw from afar, Short North, up-and-coming neighborhood, this is, this can work in this neighborhood
Mikey Sorboni Totally. Totally
Tim Fulton Okay
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. If it was working elsewhere, why wouldn't it work here, you know? I mean, if there, if there's... Th- these aren't, like, groundbreaking things here. It was, it was pizza by the slice in a busy bar district. I- I'm not reinventing shit here. You know?
Tim Fulton Okay. You wanna just close the chapter on that?
Mikey Sorboni I mean, we can. I mean, I c- I can dig deeper. Uh-
Tim Fulton Let's... How much market research? Tim, it's fucking busy
Mikey Sorboni All right, market research. Uh, I'm in a new market. This is working here. I think it'll work elsewhere. Like, it'll work at home
Tim Fulton Answer the other question then. What were you doing before the pedicab business in Columbus?
Mikey Sorboni All right. The, the, the, the fun question here. All right. So I was working. I spent the better part of my 20s working in gentlemen's clubs. I was, hence this chocolatey silk voice, a DJ at many men's clubs. And I was a corporate trainer, hence taking me all around the country, opening up gentlemen's clubs all over the country. So that took me all around the country, let me see a lot of things that were working elsewhere in the country, and, you know, some of those things ended up coming back here
Tim Fulton Let me ask you first, were you doing that to... Why were you... You're in your 20s, so you don't have to have an answer to this.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah, no, it, it's-
Tim Fulton Were you, were you doing this-
Mikey Sorboni It's really crazy. A guy working-
Tim Fulton You were like, "This is a fucking fun thing to do. I get to see titties all the time," and-
Mikey Sorboni I was gonna say, yeah. A, a guy in his mid-20s working in titty bars, Tim. It's, it's not a hard sell
Tim Fulton My other follow-up to that is my stripper name is Bambi. I'm really good at pole dancing, and my favorite artist is Akon. Go
Mikey Sorboni All right, gentlemen, let's make some noise out there. Gang, let's get crazy. Coming up to the stage right now, the beautiful Bambi. Stepping up for you right now. Let's make some noise out there. Columbus Podcast Festival.
Tim Fulton So I also wanna point out a very small point that he just brought up. He was a trainer, and so you are the reason that everybody sounds that way
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, as far as Shit Mountain goes, I was on top of it. So-
Tim Fulton To be clear, there are, there is some process you were doing some training on, but you were literally coaching strip club DJs on how to do introductions for strippers
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah, all, all over the country. I'm not making that shit up, I promise I'm not. I wish I was. I am not
Tim Fulton Let's fast-forward a little bit. I asked why you started a pizza company. How did you start a pizza company?
Mikey Sorboni How was... Okay, so it was, it was, it was all piece by piece, like I mentioned earlier. It was like, all right, we got an oven, we got a refrigerator, we got a prep table, we got all this stuff. All right, who knows how to make pizza? Um, YouTube. I, I learned how to make pizza off YouTube, no shit. And-
Tim Fulton No mentors, no outreach, no-
Mikey Sorboni No, no, no. I didn't have, like, a grandmother to have this amazing pizza recipe that I had to bring to the people. No, not at all. Um, we, there was a time-
Tim Fulton So much passion in your story
Mikey Sorboni I know. I know, I know. Yeah. If, if anything a- anybody should take away from this story is anyone can do it, all right? This does not take any kind of, like, skill or, like, family recipe or anything. Like, all you have to do is, like, get an idea and start working. And, like, put your head down. Don't, like, think about the, the current economic climate, like, "Oh, it's not a good time to start a business." Nope, put your head down, work your ass off. That's it
Tim Fulton Once you get going and sort of, you know, you guys started in a shack. When did you make the decision to transfer to a larger space?
Mikey Sorboni We only started in a shack-
Tim Fulton Or start a-
Mikey Sorboni ... because hut was taken
Tim Fulton Because the Hut was taken?
Mikey Sorboni Yeah, Pizza Hut was ta- we couldn't take... We couldn't do that, so we had to, like... And I'm assuming Shack is, too, we just didn't...
Tim Fulton So what... I don't wanna not call The Shack a brick-and-mortar, but-
Mikey Sorboni Yeah
Tim Fulton ... you then went to food trucks.
Mikey Sorboni It was. So the reason we got a food truck is because we didn't actually want... We didn't have anywhere else to go, and I was like, "What if we take this to festivals?" Like, I wanted to do, uh, uh, Comfest, right? So-
Tim Fulton Right
Mikey Sorboni ... I was like, "Why don't we get a tr- like, a truck or something?" We had no idea that food trucks were, like, a thing at this time. This was 2009. Food trucks weren't a thing in-
Tim Fulton In Columbus
Mikey Sorboni ... if you served food... Yeah, if you served food out of a truck, it was generally tacos, and you were around 270. There was no, like, food trucks in Columbus for the most part. Uh, we didn't know that there was a food truck thing going on, or that there would be. We just wanted something that we could drive to Comfest. So we found this food truck, and I I didn't have enough money to... Uh, this was six months after we opened, uh, in the Short North down here. Um, my buddy had a lot of money at the time, and I was like, "Hey, what do you think about giving me some of that money to buy this food truck?" And-
Tim Fulton I've proven I can make pizza.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. There is occasionally lines over here. It's pizza, busy bar district, easy stuff. So he was like, "Yeah, man," and, uh, hence my partner Bryce, he got involved in the business, and he is-
Tim Fulton And now you're-
Mikey Sorboni ... the one that keeps the business together at this point
Tim Fulton ... and now you're stuck with him.
Mikey Sorboni And now I'm stuck with him.
Tim Fulton So just to recap, The Shack, and then literally what, six months, six weeks?
Mikey Sorboni Yep. It was, uh, July and then November we bought the, uh, the first truck.
Tim Fulton Okay. And at that time, Columbus wasn't even licensing food trucks.
Mikey Sorboni Oh, it was the Wild West. Oh man, it was great. It was lawless. It was... You could do anything. If anybody remembers, if anybody used to go out on Park Street-
Tim Fulton And you're... I'm sorry, you're not being facetious by, "It was great," because you could-
Mikey Sorboni It was great. It was-
Tim Fulton ... you could do whatever you wanted
Mikey Sorboni ... you could do whatever you want. It was absolute- You could be as cavalier as you wanted to. I used to go down to the Greek church. Remem- You know the Greek church down the road?
Tim Fulton Yeah.
Mikey Sorboni And they had a line that separated their driveway from their sidewalk, and I used to park right on the inside of their driveway. And they'd be like, "You can't park here," and I'd be like, "The city said I can." And the city would come out and be like, "You can't park here," and they'd be like, "The Greek church said I can." It was totally lawless. I got away with that shit for probably eight months-
Tim Fulton And so the Park Street-
Mikey Sorboni ... parking down there
Tim Fulton ... so the Park Street District-
Mikey Sorboni Before they talked, and they were like, "I told him this," and they were like, "I told him that." They were like, "All right, he's honored." That, that was, that was, that was just, like, in the beginning.
Tim Fulton And I have follow-up questions to regulations, 'cause I know some of the stuff that you've gone through recently, but why then go to brick-and-mortar?
Mikey Sorboni Uh, stability. Total stability.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Mikey Sorboni Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. M- Owning a food truck, owning a food truck sucks. Uh, uh, anybody that owns a food truck will tell you owning a food truck sucks. Like, there's never been anybody who was like, "I love owning a food truck." A food truck is a very easy and awesome way to get into the food, the, like, the food business, but it's terrible. It's like owning a restaurant, right? So you, you get to own a restaurant, and you have all the same problems of owning a restaurant. You have, like, equipment breakdowns, you have staff, uh, issues, you have everything else, and then you have all the problems with a 20-year-old car. So... And you have nowhere to house it generally. So it, it's like, it's... You have all these things going down. There is probably not one of you hasn't seen a Late Night Slice truck broken down on the side of the expressway at some point in time over the last eight years 'cause we have wi- missed so many events just being broken down.
Tim Fulton Well, and at this point, how many food trucks do you own?
Mikey Sorboni I have, uh, three. Uh, excuse me, two. We just sold our third one.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah.
Tim Fulton So-
Mikey Sorboni So we're, we're downsizing on the food truck thing
Tim Fulton ... do you think you're getting out of that business?
Mikey Sorboni Uh, no, not getting out of the food truck business, but it is becoming more of a promotional f- arm as opposed to a, you know, an actual profit center.
Tim Fulton I see. And so but when you moved into brick-and-mortar, you had to raise capital, right?
Mikey Sorboni Not really.
Tim Fulton Or did you not?
Mikey Sorboni No. No, no, no. Like, Lido's, when we opened up up there right behind Lido's, that was totally bootstrapped, and when we opened up at Woodland's Tavern, totally bootstrapped. I... Everything we did up until Oddfellows-
Tim Fulton But those are, those are places where you're negotiating with a bar owner who already has-
Mikey Sorboni Ex- exactly
Tim Fulton ... you're subleasing a space.
Mikey Sorboni Exactly, exactly. Low cost, low risk.
Tim Fulton So it's fair to say that it's the s- it's the steps, basically.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Fulton Basically, I'm, for lack of a better term, I'm subletting a garage to a food truck, which is I bought a car, to, "Hey, can I borrow the closet that you're not using in a, in the back of a bar?" What was the biggest transfer of sort of, "Holy shit, we're doing this now"?
Mikey Sorboni I, I don't know if that was the story of us or Jewel. Like, "I was living in my car serving pizza down by the river." What was the big step? The big step was Oddfellows, for sure.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Mikey Sorboni That, that was when we actually took out money. Up until two or three years ago, like, Late Night Slice was 100% bootstrapped. Uh, we just, you know, every dollar we'd make, we'd go into something else. Um, but yeah, Oddfellows was... You know, that space we had there, I knew I wanted to do something with it. Uh, it was a total passion project, and we had to take out some money to build that place, and then it was kinda like, "All right, we learned how to take out money. We learned how to borrow money to open a business." That, that's the one good thing about everything we've done is, like, we've never... You know, nobody, no- nobody in our organization comes from any kind of really legitimate experience with anything, so I mean, other than it costing us incredible amounts of money and time, huge things, uh, we've done everything, you know, just by tripping, stumbling, falling, and crawling, so.
Tim Fulton How have you set up the processes that you have?
Mikey Sorboni This is such a good question. Uh, it's, it's, it started with, uh, all of our, our team members, our employees, right? So we used to have team members that taught us so much throughout this process. We called it, uh, the Kevin, and we called it the Lindsay, uh, process, where we literally, we had to coach these guys so much on what to do. It was like, "Step one" Open door. Step two, turn on light. And that's where we had to document every one of these processes because it was like, we'd get a call at, like, midnight. It'd be like, "Mike, something's wrong. The oven just turned off." It'd be like, "All right, Kevin, what's wrong? Is it plugged in?" "Hold on, let me check. Okay, it wasn't plugged in." "Something happened. It's plugged in now and it's working." "All right, Kevin, thanks a lot."
Tim Fulton Thank you so much-
Mikey Sorboni "Have a good night"
Tim Fulton ... for your call.
Mikey Sorboni "All right. It's Tuesday. Good night." Uh, so yeah, every one of our processes came from employees that we just had to deal with, you know? And it was, it was such a valuable experience to have to deal with just, like, documenting every little thing that we did from, like, literally open door, turn on light.
Tim Fulton Well, and I think you're talking about a lot, sort of the value of starting small, of having those... 'Cause it's not a failure then.
Mikey Sorboni No.
Tim Fulton But it's a failure if you say, "Hey, I'm gonna open three stores," and I'm, you know-
Mikey Sorboni Yeah
Tim Fulton ... frankly, I look-
Mikey Sorboni There's a lot of... There's-
Tim Fulton ... at a lot of places in the Short North, and there are, there's money behind it certainly.
Mikey Sorboni Totally.
Tim Fulton But, and a branding effort, but not a whole lot of goodwill for them or, uh, a whole lot of proving out their concept.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah.
Tim Fulton Because they're just starting, and that's the virtue of starting in a shack.
Mikey Sorboni And that's, that's, that's such a huge point, and you're so right. And I think what the point there was, was some people just expect to open up in, say, a busy bar area like the Short North, and they think that it's automatically gonna be awesome. And I think you've seen a couple of, uh, ventures, restaurants, businesses that just, they go under rather quickly because they don't understand that this area is incredibly particular. It really is. We just don't, you know, when a, when, when a... I'm really having a hard time not saying names here. When a particular business opens up in the Short North, you know, everybody thinks like, "Oh, I'm gonna open up in the Short North. It's just gonna be, you know, automatically raking in money," and it, it just isn't that way. It's, it's, it's really a very particular neighborhood, and you have to be very authentic. Um, and that's, that's, that's hard for people because a lot of times they think the food is the first thing they do, or the, the, the product that they serve is the first thing, and it really is the last. Like, for us, pizza is absolutely last because when you go to Late Night Slice, the last thing you get when you experience going and standing in line and watching a movie and, you know, doing whatever else you do in the experience of going to Late Night Slice, the last thing you do is give money and you get pizza, and that's the last thing, you know? And then you leave.
Tim Fulton Where did that come from? Like, how did you get there? Because a lot... Again, a whole lot of people... You were just at the International Pizza Expo a couple of weeks ago in Vegas.
Mikey Sorboni Yep.
Tim Fulton And I imagine there were a whole lot of assholes there- ... just saying, "Hey, I'm gonna open a pizza shop 'cause I know how to make a great pizza." And l- let me just bury the lede here. Y- you didn't know how to make pizza when you started this.
Mikey Sorboni Sure.
Tim Fulton How did you make that decision of saying, "This is about a brand experience, and, and this is about the experience of the customer"?
Mikey Sorboni I think it came from... So around my travels in my 20s, I worked at Dick's Last Resort in, uh, Myrtle Beach. If you guys have been to North Myrtle Beach, there's a Dick's Last Resort there. I worked there for a few months when I was traveling around. And I, I, I learned there that people love to be, you know, harassed a little bit. They love to be, you know, just, they... Everybody loves to laugh.
Tim Fulton Just, just, just poke the bear.
Mikey Sorboni Everybody loves to be... You know, a- as long as you do it with a smile. And I think I took that back, and when Late Night Slice opened, it was like, I wanna fuck with people a little bit, you know? I wanna make funny hats. We didn't... We did that for, like, one weekend. It didn't really work out. Um, we, I... It was just, you know, we, we had funny signs out there. We had movies on the wall. It was, it was an entire experience. And we realized that, you know, this isn't about the pizza that we make 'cause honestly, you can walk out that door and you can walk five minutes in any direction that you choose, and you'll probably run into somebody that has some kind of pizza, all right? Who gives a shit, all right? Everybody makes pizza in this city. What makes us different? And that was what we really focused on, is what makes the experience of going to get a Late Night Slice pizza different than anybody else? 'Cause it's not about pizza. It's about the experience that you have when you go to get it. So I think, I think that's what, you know, it tends to set us apart a little bit in this industry because there are so many places that make pizza. There's something like 350 pizza places within-
Tim Fulton Yep
Mikey Sorboni ... the Loop, and that's not different pizza places. That's different brands. You know, like, Donatos has something like 60 within this market or something like that.
Tim Fulton So just as a side note, how do you bring a brand like that, that is sort of poking people a little bit, into, like, the cafeteria at Nationwide?
Mikey Sorboni That was a, that was a fuck-up. That was a mistake.
Tim Fulton Tell me.
Mikey Sorboni Totally. Totally.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Mikey Sorboni Now, it w- it wasn't a, it wasn't a, it wasn't a, it wasn't a fuck-up like in-
Tim Fulton It was a bad decision for you?
Mikey Sorboni Eh, it wasn't a bad decision money-wise because we didn't, like, lose anything on it, but what I... W- the reason why we got, why, why we got out of the Chase Center and w- the reason we got out of Nationwide-
Tim Fulton Mm-hmm
Mikey Sorboni ... is 'cause it didn't, it didn't do anything for the experience, you know? That wasn't... When you just went up to a, a, a counter and just got a slice and left during your lunch, you didn't experience, eh, really almost anything about, you know, Late Night Slice. It wasn't doing anything for the brand, so we didn't think it fit anymore, and we, we pulled out.
Tim Fulton Can I challenge you a little bit there then? Why start Oddfellows?
Mikey Sorboni We pulled out. Sorry, I just-
Tim Fulton You pulled out?
Mikey Sorboni I thought, I thought that needed a little bit of-
Tim Fulton Oh, you wanted to make a dick joke. So-
Mikey Sorboni That's why I'm on stage, Tim. Pizza and dick jokes.
Tim Fulton So, but- ... you talk about the brand a lot and about aligning it. We... Oddfellows is not that brand. It's, you know, sort of-
Mikey Sorboni You know what? It so is.
Tim Fulton Okay.
Mikey Sorboni It so is, though. Oddfellows was, and that was our, on that marquee we have on, uh, right when you walk in the door, it said, "Fina-" The first thing that I put on that marquee was, "Finally, a shitty place to drink in the Short North." That is still one of my favorite things. And it's, it's not shitty. It's, I mean, like, Oddfellows really isn't, like, a shitty bar or anything, but that was what we were going for, you know? Like, finally a dive bar. And it wasn't even a dive bar. I mean, Oddfellows is, is, is, uh... The way we... Here's how we classify Oddfellows now: classy as fuck. All right? Odd Fellows. That's why, that's why our brunch is named, like, the Classiest Fuck Brunch. Uh, it's just, it's, it's kinda self-deprecating. It's, it's crude, but it's still kinda weirdly classy in kind of like a pedon kinda way, you know? So that's, that's what we're going for in that place.
Tim Fulton What's next for Late Night Slice?
Mikey Sorboni Uh, so if you guys have been down to the 4th Street location, the one next to, uh, 16 Bit and Hadley's, uh, we wanna do more of those. In fact, I'll choose right here and right now as a time to, uh, let you know about the next Late Night Slice, which is going to be in the Yankee Trader building, which is between Bare Burger and Martini, uh, on High Street, right across the street from the Convention Center.
Tim Fulton Fantastic.
Mikey Sorboni So I know... We tried to announce this the same time they were announcing the new North Market thing, but-
Tim Fulton Oh, 35 Stories of Fuck.
Mikey Sorboni 30 s- 35 Stories beat our pizza shop, so-
Tim Fulton Yeah
Mikey Sorboni ... we'll be putting that out next week.
Tim Fulton That press release didn't... Yeah.
Mikey Sorboni Yeah. It got buried real quick. Um, but yeah.
Tim Fulton Sorry, Jason.
Mikey Sorboni We're taking over that, uh, that space right on High Street, right on the corner, right next to Martini, so I can sit there and stare at Cameron Mitchell out my window. All right, motherfucker.
Tim Fulton How do you feel about him?
Mikey Sorboni Pizza. How do I feel about Cameron Mitchell?
Tim Fulton Yeah.
Mikey Sorboni He's awesome. Honestly, I, I have so much respect for him. I've seen him talk. I've met him a bunch. Like, he, he... He's, he's, he's doing great shit. I, I absolutely love the way he's built his companies around here. I think he has great concepts. Um, I, I... Cameron Mitchell gets thumbs up from me. Absolutely. I can't talk shit about him.
Tim Fulton I just wanted to make sure you couldn't say, "I stare at him out my window and despise him," and then-
Mikey Sorboni Oh, no, no, no, no
Tim Fulton ... and then that-
Mikey Sorboni No, that was just like, "I'm next to you now, man. All right?"
Tim Fulton Why do you stay in Columbus?
Mikey Sorboni Why do I stay in Columbus? All right. Columbus, uh, I think I mentioned it earlier, Columbus has always been a town that brings me back. All right? Columbus has so much potential, and it, it has. There has never been, I think, a better time nor a better place than right here and right now to start a project. All right? And a project is what you do before you start a business, all right? You... Before you have an idea or before you wanna, like, quit your job and start a business, you have an idea, and that idea you can turn into a hobby. And I think you should turn that hobby, if that is working for you, into a side hustle. And if you're making a little bit of scratch off that, you can move that into a business at that point. There has never been a better time nor a better place than Columbus to, to, to do your own thing. Um, it, it keeps bringing me back. Honestly, the... I, I've always said there's, there's really nothing that Columbus is saturated with right now. I will asterisk that, and I think breweries. Like, if you wanna start a brewery, it might be a little bit, little bit saturated right now. There is... Every time I hear somebody wanna start a brewery, I'm like, "Really? Here?" We started a pizza shop seven and a half years ago, and, uh, recently we were voted number one best traditional pizza by Columbus Alive. And if you don't say anything, uh, we got voted number one best traditional pizza in Columbus by 614 Columbest, which I, I don't think that comes out for another couple days, but don't tell anybody. Uh, so it, it, it just goes to show you that if you have an idea, that you can go into the most saturated point in that market, and if you just listen to people, and have fun, and be yourself, and have personality, that you can, you can, you can, you can rise, too, in this town. People want authentic stories. People want s- Here's what I say. When you get off the plane or, or, or when you, when you pick somebody up, when you pick some- like a friend up that has never been to Columbus, and you're at the airport, and you're like, "All right. I gotta take you to, to this place, this place, and this place," be one of those places, you know? Be a Thurman's. Be a Jenny's. I hope Late Night Slice is on that list, you know? You know, be one of those, like, iconic places that you have to take your friend to that's never been to Columbus. Um-
Tim Fulton Well-
Mikey Sorboni There, there's, there's hardly anything that is saturated in that market yet. There is so much room for people to have their own ideas right now.
Tim Fulton And I think that you are certainly a testament to it. Mikey, thank you so much. Please give him a round of applause.
Mikey Sorboni Thanks, everybody.
Tim Fulton Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite pizza proprietor. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.