We were lucky to catch up with Garrett Taormina recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Garrett, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I wanted to have a pizzeria for anyone to come enjoy. I have always worked in mostly Italian kitchens thru out my career and when I decided to open my own pizzeria i knew exactly what I wanted it to be. I wanted the product to be amazing and the menu to be simple and highlight Italian traditions.

Garrett, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started working in kitchens over 15 years ago. In 2009 I decided to go to culinary school and leave my finance career. After working in a local top rated restaurant I knew immediately that hospitality was the industry for me. I started with the goal to work in the best kitchens around the world so i could have the best experience possible. When I was employed I always worked like it was my own business or restaurant. I was practicing and learning from the best and most importantly on someone else’s dime. After opening over 5 restaurants and two hotel restaurants I was able to experience many problems and successes. Now I have my own small pizzeria located in beautiful Laguna Beach, Ca right on Pacific Coast Hwy. Grazie Grazie Pizzeria offers Neapolitan style pizza in a casual counter service setting. We offer beer & wine as well. Everything is made in house other than our gelato we purchase from a small batch Italian owned business called Filos Gelato. I started my business with the intention of delivering great pizza at an affordable price and in a no fuss environment. I took over an existing pizzeria that had already had two previous pizza tenants before me. When I signed my lease in December of 2022 the restaurant was empty but had an existing Hood/Hvac and a walkin cooler. So ultimately i was able to start with a blank canvas to design my way and for my vision. I knew exactly what equipment i needed and the setting and flow of the seating. What i didn’t know I would figure out along the way. I am proud to say we have now been in business for 2 years and counting. Our first year was successful right off the bat and was welcomed by locals of Laguna Beach. My second summer is really when our business picked up and went to a different level. The first year and a half I personally made every single pizza that came out the oven. It wasn’t until one night we were so busy i had to cancel some doordash orders that one of those customers had come in threating me and wanting to fight me I knew i needed help after this. Business really started to pick up March of 2024 and really hasn’t stop slowing down since then. I have since hired and trained other people to help me but to this day i have still been here operating every single day.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Ultimately i think the product speaks for itself. I haven’t done any marketing for my business other than one paid social media post. So in the beginning it was organic and word of mouth which is what i wanted so that we could grow and adjust accordingly to more volume. We have 3 other neighbors that are food establishments. In the beginning just our pizza boxes alone would draw people into our pizzeria. People would come in saying that they were eating next door and kept seeing all of these people with our pizza boxes walking by and they had to come check it out.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started my pizzeria with no investors or partners. I had saved up enough capitol to start my own venture. This is a great thing as a chef because i didn’t have to answer to anyone about what i was going to serve and what my brand was going to be about. I did know that if this venture wasn’t successful I would be taking on all the risk which is a scary thought. I purchased everything brand new in my pizzeria other than my dish machine which i lease out. I told myself if this didn’t work out at least I own all of the equipment and furnishing so i could take them with me if i went out of business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.graziegraziepizzeria.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/graziegraziepizzeria
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/grazie-grazie-pizzeria-laguna-beach

Image Credits
Gemma Totten