We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben and Gabriella Spangler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben and Gabriella below.

Ben and Gabriella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

When it comes to paying your employees and how, the debate of the best way to do so has been a point of discussion for a very long time.

We’ve tried several methods, and found the best method for us during this current business climate. This current climate has a lot of things to consider – our city has a higher minimum wage than many ($14.50 for a small business as of today) and various regulations on tip pooling and how it can be distributed.
We are also amidst a time where affordability of our product for customers, even while cost of goods is higher and cost of labor increases, is at the forefront of our minds.

So how do you balance both factors that seem to be very contrary to one another? We’ve opted to be as transparent with our customers as possible on how employees are paid.

Employees are paid a base rate, based on skills and responsibility (We do not take seniority into account for this. Time does not always = acquired skills or responsibility. This part is clear with staff.) Beyond that, front of house (anyone that comes in contact with customers) has a traditional tipping model. These tips are distributed each day by hours worked to each employee.

There is a clear expectation on what an AM opener should accomplish – prep, stocking, tasks to really prep our PM team for success. The PM team has a clear expectation to help more customers and create an engaging and compelling environment for guests (our PM is busier like most places). Closers must leave the space ready for the openers when they depart. They self regulate this with the team and their Supervisor.

But what about our Back of House? Those that create the delicious ice cream and those that prepare their food. Those that typically get paid the least in a traditional business model. Since both of us have come from an environment where we’ve experienced that inequity, we’ve made an effort to really change how that is structured.

In Minnesota, we legally cannot distribute any tips to an employee that does not come into contact with a customer. A service fee can be distributed to them. In our retail shops, a 5% service fee is charged on every transaction. This 5% is distributed to our Back of House employees by hours worked.

This alleviates some of the pressures of payroll on small businesses and keeps our pricing competitive with some larger, more corporate companies within the area. At the end of the day, when a customer sees the line item and how a small amount of money can go a long way for the person that prepared their delicious meal, customers generally feel very good about it. They know exactly where their money is going. It also creates a space for education on how a customer’s tip can go further in thanking a restaurant for all aspects of service.

This allows for us to pay a competitive living wage in the area, give the customer more power with their dollar, and create a work environment that empowers every employee.

Ben and Gabriella, 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?

We own Bebe Zito Ice Cream and Burgers, and now Ouro Brazilian Pizzaria. We serve high quality, considered, ice cream, burgers, fried chicken and pizza to the public in fast casual settings at an accessible price point.

We both came from the service industry – Ben has been an award winning chef for about 20 years, and Gabriella worked in the service industry while in school for Interior Architecture and Design.
What we’ve found successful working together is that each of us specializes and succeeds at what the other doesn’t, so we’ve been able to keep many things needed for our business in house for as long as possible.

Our business started in Minneapolis, MN in 2020, amidst the pandemic and civil unrest. Everything was uncertain and unpredictable. What we needed to do to succeed is to be flexible, reactive and modify our business model, our menu, hours, offerings, etc as quickly as needed. Change was the only thing you could count on happening during the early years of our business.

We’ve now grown to 4 locations by 2023, completely debt-free, with anticipation of expanding our brand even further.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We swiped right on Tinder! Our relationship started when we were both unemployed for a summer. We fell in love, and then went back to our careers in the Fall.
Ben became an Executive Chef and Gabriella worked as an Interior Architect. The whole time, dreams of being our own bosses and owning an ice cream shop would grow. It started with one small idea, and grew into a full-fledged business model.

Eventually, the demand of being an Executive Chef became apparent – non-stop working, missing every holiday, missing funerals, missing so many life events and not being able to continue to build relationships with others. It had to end if we wanted our relationship to survive.
So we started pop-ups serving ice cream at our friend’s restaurants and local events. Eventually at an event, we were approached about our first brick-and-mortar location and the rest is history!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

So we started an ice cream business in Minnesota during a pandemic and civil unrest…. A lot of that wasn’t planned (except for the ice cream in a cold state with statistically some of the least amount of consumption of ice cream in the country) and we needed to pivot FAST when winter came around.

When we first opened, Gabriella came across a listing for a very cute food trailer on Facebook Market. It was saved to dream about and forgotten about for a summer.
Once the temperature started dropping, we knew to financially survive the winter we needed to pivot. So we drove to Iowa, picked up this custom trailer, and drove it back to Minnesota to offer burgers on the weekends.

People absolutely loved them. They showed up in the cold for them. Then they started lining up for them… for blocks… for hours… all for smash burgers we now call The Bebe Burger TM in SUB ZERO CONDITIONS. They also weren’t allowed to eat them inside, so they’d eat these burgers on tables in the snow, or inside their cars.
It was one of the most memorable times when we started our business.

We now offer these burgers 7 days a week at each of our locations, and the menu has grown to chicken and a few other burger variations. That little red food truck started a Minnesota phenomenon that local news called a “cult burger”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bebezitomn.com and ouropizza.com
• Instagram: bebe.zito and ouro.pizzaria
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bebezitoicecream

Image Credits
Headshot – Alex Just Photography Pizza Shot – Jux Agency All Other Photos – Bebe Zito