March 14, 2017

Meet Mark Davoli of Metro Diner in Roswell

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Davoli.

Mark, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Back in 2000, with the help of my brother John Davoli, Jr, and father, John Davoli, Sr, we embarked on a great opportunity to purchase a small diner in a quaint neighborhood called San Marco, which is only about ten minutes from downtown Jacksonville, FL. Right from the start, we began to improve the quality of the food and focused on 100% guest satisfaction. Our goal is always to bring freshly cooked comfort food with a flair at a great price. I think what sets us apart from most restaurants is that we treat our guests like family. Our diner is defined not only by its generous food portions, but also by our ability to get to know each and every guest of ours that walk through the door.

In 2010, we were featured on Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives. One of the last things Guy Fieri said prior to leaving is, ” I don’t normally say this to people we feature on the show, but the combination of how you guys do things, how good the food is, and my notoriety, you are going to double sale sales over night. So we took this to heart and we hired more staff, more equipment, and when the show aired, we did double sales and did a really good job of taking care of business. As we continued to open diners, we did it with the same systems and procedures and again those systems and procedures are just taking care of guests, great food, at an honest price. I believe if we continue to stick to those basics beliefs, we will continue to be successful with each diner we open.

Our partnership with ConSul Hospitality Partners has been incredible. It is so great to work in a partnership that everybody believes in the same thing. It makes it really easy to carry on the Metro Diner way in each and every diner we open.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s the restaurant business. There is always some challenges but that’s what makes our jobs fun. We’ve build strong relationships with our guests, employees, and business partners.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Metro Diner story. Tell us more about the business.
We are in the service industry so our goal is to have 100% guest satisfaction by taking care of our guest and if we make a mistake we take care of it the right way. One of our main goals is for each shift, we touch every table. What that means to us is to make sure that every guest that comes into our diner has a great experience. If the guest does not we make sure prior to them leaving that we have acknowledged our short comings and we make sure that the guest knows that. I’m most proud of where we are right now to have 22 diners in 6 states all carrying out the Metro Diner way is amazing to me.

We our known for our Black Board Specials. Once they become popular, they make the menu. A couple of our biggest sellers is the Fried chicken and waffle. The chicken (1 Breast, 1 thigh, 1 leg, 1 wing off of a 3 1/2 pound bird) is brined for 24 hours, marinated for 24 hours, and fried to order on the third day. it is accompanied by a Belgian Waffle which is topped with a homemade strawberry butter. We serve a dipping sauce for the chicken which is maple syrup mixed with Louisiana hot sauce. Sounds crazy until you try it and then you are hooked.

Like I said before it is a tough business. It takes 1000 things to go right on a daily basis to run a great shift and our Managing partners are up to the task. I know we will make some mistakes but it is how you recover from those mistakes is what sets us apart from the competition.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Well in life I was lucky enough to marry my high school sweetheart, who has been an absolute rock she knew nothing about the restaurant business until she married me and she has adapted well to the madness that it is. When it comes to business I think you make your own luck. If you work hard and treat people like you would like to be treated I think you become far more blessed then lucky. So I feel we are very blessed to be where we are today.

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