Podcast Transcript
Steve DiFillippo:
Hi, I’m Steve Steve DiFillippo and I’m owner of Davio’s and I’m out taking a walk with my old friend Buzz Knight. Buzz, you look pretty good, man. This is really fun to be out of the streets with you. We’re not going to get arrested or anything, right. We’re out. It’s very safe. Right? Am I safe with you?
Buzz Knight:
Very safe.
Steve DiFillippo:
Okay, good.
Speaker 3:
Welcome to Takinawalk, an excursion to converse, connect, and catch up at a cool location with some of the most interesting people you can find. Here’s Buzz Knight.
Buzz Knight:
Well, Steve, it is so good to actually see you in person.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yes.
Buzz Knight:
And to be taking a walk with you. Thank you.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. Well, you know what? It’s this whole COVID thing is so nice. We’re not wearing masks. We’re hanging out together walking down the street. It’s two old friends.
Buzz Knight:
So, in the future now let’s refer to it as that thing. In other words, we’re all tired of the name. So, I should have pre-warned you that we don’t want to use that name on this Takinawalk podcast, but so we’ll just refer to it vaguely in the future.
Steve DiFillippo:
And you don’t have to ask me how’s business been? People, they into the restaurant. Right. And they go, obviously they know I own all these restaurants all over the place and they go, so Steve, how’s it been? I go seriously? How’s it been with the thing for two years?
Buzz Knight:
Right?
Steve DiFillippo:
How do you think it’s been? It’s been two years of the most difficult time and I’ve gone through… This is 30 years of owning Davio’s. I started in Newbury Street in 85 back when you had brown hair and I’ve been through recessions, I’ve been through presidents getting shot. I’ve been through obviously terrorism with planes going to buildings. I’ve been through it all and nothing even comes close to what we’ve had to go through. And we’re still in it. We’re not even far from done with this thing.
Buzz Knight:
How are your people?
Steve DiFillippo:
Well, the people we have left are doing great. It’s just, we need more people. I think what happened is people keep asking me that question. Where did everybody go? And I think a lot of people aren’t working 80 hours a week anymore. They realize that, you know what? Quality of life, I can get by if I work 40 or 50 hours. And so I think a lot of people who did those double shifts, aren’t doing it anymore. And we lost some people the forward and let’s face it. People went down south and people retired too. So it’s kind of a combination of many reasons, I think why we’re short people right now.
Buzz Knight:
So let’s move on to even better things. Okay. And I just, first of all, had never tried the Awaken 180 menu. I had a lovely zucchini with shrimp zucchini noodles. It was fabulous.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah, because it gives you the feeling that you’re eating pasta, but you’re actually eating noodles because so the whole 180 thing is actually quite interesting. They approached me, oh my goodness. It’s probably three years now to get involved with them. They wanted me to be their spokesperson for this weight loss program here in Boston. And had friends who have did did it and they did really well with it. So they came in and I said, well, if I’m going to do it, if I’m going to be your spokesperson, I need to do the program.
Steve DiFillippo:
So I did the program and I lost 35, 40 pounds three years ago and I’ve kept it off. And then we started doing a menu for the restaurant and now we have this great menu where you come in and there’s no carbs. There’s no sugar. It’s really a very, very healthy menu. And it’s actually doing really well. I never thought I would be on radio or TV talking about weight loss being in a restaurant business, but it’s actually been really good for our brand. And it’s been really good for me personally.
Buzz Knight:
Well you look fabulous, dare I say, almost boyish.
Steve DiFillippo:
I know. No, no, no, no, no. I’m definitely not boyish. I’m a grandfather now, I’m not boyish, but no. I run everyday, it’s funny. I always thought I was healthy, but I really would run a lot. I would try to eat right. And I was just eating the wrong things and I just had a little correction, I had to just stop eating certain things and now I’m doing fine with it.
Buzz Knight:
Well, what I think is cool about it though, is I think the power of partnerships for brands is really important for brands as you know. So the ability to merge with another, not merge literally, but to collaborate with a brand to help their brand, to help your brand, I think is really fantastic.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. Well I spent a lot of time with Paige Lopez who owns 180 and I was concerned about that. It’s funny you bring that up because when you do have that perception that you are part of another brand and they go down or they do something negative or bad, they can hurt your brand. So I was concerned about that because I had never gone and talked about, as you know, I’ve been doing a lot of radio and TV for the Today’s Show, I’ve been on shows all over the place. My book came out, I’ve done a lot of things, but it was about me. It was about Davio’s. I controlled the narrative, right.
Steve DiFillippo:
This is the first time I’ve actually gone out and tried to help another company. And I was concerned because I’m like, what if these people are frauds? Right. I don’t know. What if this thing didn’t work? And I got to tell you, it really works.
Buzz Knight:
That’s great.
Steve DiFillippo:
And they’ve had over 20,000 people in the program here, which is phenomenal that have done well. And so that, I kind of lucked out because there really good people. Now they’ve brought to like seven or eight locations too. They just had one when I started.
Buzz Knight:
That’s great.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
So the podcast is called Takinawalk.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yep.
Buzz Knight:
And we’re right near Davio’s here and the Park Plaza area. So how do you use taking a walk to kind of break you out of a mood you might be in or just release or just enjoy yourself. How do you do it?
Steve DiFillippo:
Well, actually I do that every morning. I actually go running. I run anywhere from five to eight miles every morning and that’s my release. I have to do it. If I don’t do it, I’m grouchy. It’s more than just a weight thing because if you go run every day and then go have a pizza and three beers, you’re not really doing anything. So I do it for my release and sometimes I go for a walk too, especially on the weekends with the dogs and just, I live up on the beach. So to me, I’m an outdoor person, it’s not like I don’t go hunting or anything. I just like being outside. I don’t go fishing. I don’t do any of that stuff. I like to ski, but I love to ski.
Steve DiFillippo:
I love to be outdoors. I like the beach. I like to go for walks and running and, and if I don’t, it really affects me. During the whole thing that we’ve had the last couple years, it was tough-
Buzz Knight:
I like how you did that, the thing.
Steve DiFillippo:
To do the thing. Yeah. To do a lot of what we’ve always been doing, was very difficult. It was hard to go skiing. It was hard to do things that I think kept us going in what we love to do. And I think that’s why a lot of people got grouchy. And I think a lot of people are just still in a bad mood. It’s like, it’s kind of frustrating. And I think it’s time for us to move on. And I know we have another variant, we have other things coming at us. You know what? We’ve dealt with a lot of problems in this country. We can deal with this. Let’s keep going. Let’s stop this craziness and be so negative. Let’s be positive and enjoy our life. And let’s get going. I’m just so tired of like the negativity.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. And I feel that I know me personally, I rediscovered the outdoors because I was always working five days a week. And maybe on the weekends, I go with my wife and the dogs-
Steve DiFillippo:
Is that when you do the bells, the cow bells?
Buzz Knight:
The cow bell.
Steve DiFillippo:
You do cow bells. Right? On the weekends?
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. So one of my favorite things was when I was working programming there with Greater Media and ultimately Beasley as well, I would get a text or a call from Steve when WROR used to do something called a more cowbell weekend.
Steve DiFillippo:
Oh.
Buzz Knight:
Right.
Steve DiFillippo:
Drive me crazy. I was like, really? How many times I got to hear these cowbells? I was like, I didn’t really understand it. I don’t know. It’s some rock and roll thing, but back in the sixties or something-
Buzz Knight:
Well, it’s from obviously the Saturday Night Live bit with Will Ferrell and basically yeah. There’s cowbells and songs. And it was just another way to showcase old music, but I used to get the call or the text and used to just crack me up with that. It was-
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. Well, I’m glad we moved on from that. I’ve been heard of cowbell in a while. So I think they’ve finally moved on.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. Well we’ve had our share of serendipitous moments, I would say throughout our relationship.
Steve DiFillippo:
I know you’re asking me the questions, but I want to ask you a question.
Buzz Knight:
Of course.
Steve DiFillippo:
So on the weekends, with radio, is it because people don’t listen to the radio on the weekend? Why is it that’s always like promotions, the weekend, they’re always talking about doing stuff on the weekends. Why is that?
Buzz Knight:
I think people listen a little less on the weekend. So I think you need to kind of wake them up and just kind of get them. Yeah, because the Monday through Friday grind is one thing. Obviously I think that’s changed since the thing as well, but I think the weekends, there’s different patterns. So it’s you got to remind him differently.
Steve DiFillippo:
Huh. Interesting.
Buzz Knight:
But I know it was always a ratings bonanza for the more cow bell. So that’s where I-
Steve DiFillippo:
I don’t think so.
Buzz Knight:
I said, Steve, do you know what ratings are?
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. I know what ratings are.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. So take me back to the first restaurant. That was Newbury. Right?
Steve DiFillippo:
So I started at Newbury Street, which is, that’s kind of the fashionable street in Newbury Street. They say that’s where all the fancy stores are. And we were actually like the fifth block up. So we really weren’t in a fancy block area, back in the mid eighties, when I started. I went to Boston University, then I went to a chef school and then Davio’s I started when I was 24 years old. I was a chef, a general manager because I worked at Faneuil Hall. I went at Seaside and I really learned a lot there how to run a restaurant. And I did everything there for being a busboy to being the head chef. So I was blessed that I worked at a great place and I always tell people that. Find your mentor.
Steve DiFillippo:
Because I had great mentors and that’s kind of how I got started at 24. But when I started, I was just, was a very small restaurant. We had about 15 people in the company. I was the chef, the general manager and then after a while I couldn’t even be the chef because it got a little busy. It’s amazing. We took this little tiny restaurant that was doing small sales and then we started this cafe upstairs and the cafe upstairs is really what, in my opinion, made our brand with pizza and pasta and David Beeper’s onion rings. I mean, we really changed the whole street. Nobody was gourmet pizza. I went out to California and I went to Spago and I remember I had smoked salmon pizza. I came from my parents from Providence, meatballs and chicken parm and stuff.
Steve DiFillippo:
I had never had anything like that. And it just blew my mind when we came back and I just started doing all these crazy pizzas and it just took off. And then we started having all the guys hanging out from Aerosmith to, it was just crazy. The Cars, Rick Okasek and David Robinson would be there all the time. In fact, one night Paulina and Rick came in and they go to pay and he didn’t have any money. And I was like, okay, you effing zillionaire, you just sold out the garden for three nights. You don’t have any… It was the funniest thing. He goes, I’ll be back tomorrow. Yeah. Okay. And he did. He came back. It was so funny and he was so nice. And I just think about Peter Wolf and Seth Justman and it just goes on and on.
Steve DiFillippo:
And then we were really good friends with the radio stations and Ken Shelton and Charles Laquidara and Mark Parenteau, all those guys in WBCN, they would plan these dinners. We had, oh my goodness. We had so many bands with Joan Jet and probably one of my favorite all time stories is Stevie Ray Vaughan. So they’re doing it night where he’s going to take the whole second floor after a show. I think he was playing at the Orpheum. After the show, he’s going to come over and we had this big menu plan for all the guests. Well, I got a call in the afternoon from his manager, says, Steve’s on a special diet and he wants to eat this rabbit tonight. And so we have the rabbit here. And do you mind if we bring it over?
Steve DiFillippo:
And I’m like, okay, is this Charles? Am I on the radio?
Buzz Knight:
It might be a spook.
Steve DiFillippo:
Is this Duane Glascock. I go, is this serious? The guy goes, sir, who? I’m sorry, what? He’s like kind of insulted that. I thought it was a joke. He goes, I’ll see you in about half hour. I said, okay. He comes over with this rabbit, it wasn’t like a rabbit with ears. It was like a rabbit loin. Okay. And it all wrapped up in packaging and I was like, holy shit. Oh, can I not swear on this thing?
Buzz Knight:
No, you can.
Steve DiFillippo:
Okay. Oh fuck. Okay. So anyway, so I got the rabbit now I’m like, so I call my cooking teacher. I called Roberta Dolly and I said, Roberta, I got this rabbit thing. What? Because I never could eat rabbit.
Steve DiFillippo:
I got rabbits all in my house. I just never ate that kind of thing. So she tells me how to do it, to braise it, da, da, da. So I cooked the thing and he loved it. He was so nice. He was just, I’ll never forget how much he loved the rabbit and his people loved it. And everyone else had a great time. And as you know, unfortunately about a year later or two years later, the helicopter thing and I’ve never forgot that and I always thought someday he would’ve come back. We made it again.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah.
Steve DiFillippo:
And he’s gone. So…
Buzz Knight:
So this particular Davio’s and of course the one on Newbury Street and I’m sure your others yet, it’s been a place where cool people, famous people of all walks of life have, have come through. Do you still get jazzed about meeting certain people that you’ve never run into, like for the first time?
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
What kind of jazzes you in that regard?
Steve DiFillippo:
Well, I got to tell you when Springsteen came in for the first time, that was… As you know, I’m a huge Springsteen fan, that was quite amazing. And he had knew me because I had friends with his band members. They used to come in and Wayne Lebeau his managers and all these people I used to bring spring roll and he calls me the Philly cheesecake spring roll guy, calls me with the spring roll guy when he sees me. So he kind of knows me, but not really knows me. He knows Davio’s obviously, because his son went to BC. And so he would come in his wife and they were really nice, but I got to tell you, we have a lot of sports guys that come in too. Jeter, in my book I talk about a lot of these people and it’s just a cool thing, and I’m thankful that they like the restaurant and from Tom Brady to whoever, and it’s great for the guests. It’s great for the people that work here, our inner guests.
Steve DiFillippo:
And it’s just good for the brand when you have that happening and it’s just fun.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. Yeah. I remember when the convention was here, you had a bunch of-
Steve DiFillippo:
The senators?
Buzz Knight:
The senators, right?
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. Yeah. We actually had 61 senators here. 61 U.S. senators.
Buzz Knight:
Wow.
Steve DiFillippo:
And president Biden was here. He was there that night. Obviously wasn’t a president then. So people say has never been a president been to Davio’s? Oh yeah. Biden’s been in, even though he was a Senator, he came three times and he never was the president then. But so I kind of, it’s one of those gray area things. When you’re an author, you make up stuff. So…
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. We don’t call it, make it up. It’s just, you’re right as a writer.
Steve DiFillippo:
Exactly. Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
So talk about the book.
Steve DiFillippo:
Sure.
Buzz Knight:
And specifically the motivation behind the book.
Steve DiFillippo:
Well, it’s called, It’s All About the Guest. And I talk about the history of, of the company and the brain and everything. But when you hear it, it’s all about the guest, most people think it’s about the guests who walks through that front door. And yes. We talk a lot about the outer guests, but my whole passion in the Davio’s way is about the inner guests, which is the employees. We don’t call them employees at Davio’s. We call them inner guests and we treat everyone amazingly well. That’s why we still have people that’s 30 years, 35 years. And I always felt if you took care of everyone who came in through that back door, as well as the front door, you’re going to do pretty well, because that’s a hundred percent of the equation. So I talk a lot about what we do for our guests, inner guests.
Steve DiFillippo:
And I talk about the Davio’s way. I give the whole history lesson and I do a lot of stories. The book is all about stories. And I talk about mentors. I do chapter on numbers, and his recipes, it’s a great book really for any business. I do public speaking all over the country from Whole Foods has had me to car dealers to dry cleaning, big company. It’s amazing how many companies that I’ve spoke to that weren’t restaurants. In fact, I’ve probably done more non restaurants than I have other businesses and a lot of colleges as well, which I really enjoy doing. And so the book has really helped me with that. It’s obviously it’s got me on national TV and writing a book is a lot of fun and I really just wanted to help people because I think when you’re read the book, it’s just a helpful tool for anyone who’s in business.
Steve DiFillippo:
My landscape, guy that does my lawn up and bought when Wenham, he read the book, he’s like it changed his business. So that’s what I wanted to do. I just wanted to help people and kind of, because everywhere I go, people come up to me, want to know how I did it or they want to know about the restaurant and they don’t understand what happens with the food if they people don’t buy? All these crazy questions and I kind of go through a lot of those kind of things. I’ll be in stop and shop or a supermarket. People come up to me and start asking me questions about the restaurant and says, I should put a book together and it took a couple years and a lot of work and I’m glad I did it.
Steve DiFillippo:
And I think we’ve sold a lot of them all over the place. It’s been a lot of fun. I didn’t do it to make money, really. I did it really just to help people and we have made money, but that wasn’t my focus. In fact, I don’t do anything, but my focus was never about money. People ask me that question all the time. I just have a passion for this business. I love the restaurant business. And I think any person who gets into any business, I don’t care what you do. You better love it. You are obviously they’re still doing this. You love what you do.
Buzz Knight:
I do. Yeah.
Steve DiFillippo:
And it’s that work. Right?
Buzz Knight:
I love talking to people. I love interviewing people. I love the process of putting it together.
Steve DiFillippo:
Right.
Buzz Knight:
Even though this experience, I’m learning it in different ways because it’s not like I have six people.
Steve DiFillippo:
Right.
Buzz Knight:
As you see my crew with me.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yeah. Well, they’re having lunch right now, drinking champagne at Davio’s while we’re out here on the sidewalk walking around.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah.
Steve DiFillippo:
But my whole point is just find your passion and you’re going to do great in life. And don’t worry about the money. The money will come and today, unfortunately a lot of the kids always want to say, well, how much am I going to make? Oh, how much time am I going to have off? When does my vacation start? Can I get Sunday off? All these like questions. We never asked these questions.
Buzz Knight:
Right.
Steve DiFillippo:
We’re like, what time you want me there? And we showed up.
Buzz Knight:
When did you know, this is really what you wanted to do?
Steve DiFillippo:
Oh, when I was a little kid, I used to cook with my mom growing up, my Italian grandmother, my mom, who Portuguese working with her. And then my dad, I was just blessed. My dad was this incredible businessman, ran this huge company. So I had this hybrid kind of life. I was up cooking with my mom and then I had my father was this great businessman. So he was always teaching me to pay attention and-
Buzz Knight:
And what was his business called?
Steve DiFillippo:
[Universe], it’s an industrial farm company, very large company. My uncle owned it. My dad was the president. My uncle Aldo was the CEO. And then my brother’s in the company. He’s still there. A lot of my cousins are in the company. It’s a huge company all over the country and actually Canada, Mexico, Europe. It’s $2 billion company and it’s not something that I… It wasn’t 2 billion, obviously years ago, it’s grown so much in the last 25 years, but it wasn’t my passion.
Steve DiFillippo:
I loved the business. I think they do an amazing job. I was a restaurant guy as a little kid. I always loved to serve, like when my parents would go away and I would be the cook. I would just 10 year old cook in the kitchen. My brother and sister, I would make them breakfast in the morning. I would get dinner together. It was just what I would do. It was like, they would always say, Stevie, what are we having for dinners tonight? And I’m like 11 years old. I’m like this little kid. And I was destined to do this, and people saying, oh, I’m 61 now, my daughter had a baby last week. People keep saying to me, it’s 36 years, Steve, what are you getting out of this thing?
Steve DiFillippo:
Because a lot of my friends have sold, they’ve moved on in this business and I really have no intention to ever leave because I don’t know what else I would do actually. I think they’re going to take me out of here in a box because I’m just not going anywhere. Honestly, I just can’t wait to be in today. This is my third Davio’s today. That’s what I do and I love it so much and it’s harder, I must say because of that thing, it’s been tough, but we’re going to get through it. We’re Americans, we’re tough. And we’re just a resilient group and we will get through this.
Buzz Knight:
So let’s talk about 2022 on a final note. Do you most looking forward to about 2022?
Steve DiFillippo:
I am looking forward to hopefully some people will start working more again. I think because of that thing, I think people have kind of got used to not working as much. I think a lot of people that I know used to work 70 hours a week at working 35 hours a week, 40 hours a week. I’m looking forward to people not being home as much and being more in the office, looking forward to people traveling more in the hotels to be back to the more conventions and just getting back to, I mean we live in Boston is such a great city, but here we are walking down the street here, Buzz, and you don’t really see a lot of people, which normally you would see a lot more people around and I’m looking forward to 22 that we put this thing behind us and we’re not going to let it beat us.
Steve DiFillippo:
I think some people have just let it take over life and they have to stop this madness. Okay. We’ve had AIDS for 40, 30 years. We’ve had a lot of crazy things happen to us and we just move on. For some reason, no one wants to move on with this thing. It’s time to move on. I’m sorry. Look, I lost a brother-in-law. I’m not saying it’s a very real thing. I’ve had three vaccines. I’ve had shots everywhere. I’m not against any of it.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah.
Steve DiFillippo:
But it’s be safe and move on.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. And lead a life.
Steve DiFillippo:
Yes.
Buzz Knight:
Right?
Steve DiFillippo:
Yes. Lead a life.
Buzz Knight:
And you know what? Leading a life where I get to come and talk to cool people and cool locations like you, hook up with all friends, have an amazing lunch, boy, a lot to be grateful for.
Steve DiFillippo:
Right. We are grateful people. And I think some people just want to be sad.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah.
Steve DiFillippo:
Let’s stop being sad. Let’s keep going. They were all like, oh, this is your Thanksgiving that thing’s going to make all these people… I’m like, oh my goodness. They’re trying to people not to get together again for Thanksgiving. It was just making me crazy and you know what? And we were packed. It was a business Thanksgiving had ever, we did not as much to go as we did last year, it was very small to go. The restaurants were just sold out. And that was a great sign in 22.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. Thank you for everything.
Steve DiFillippo:
Thank you.
Buzz Knight:
Thank you for your friendship. And thank you for all the great times.
Steve DiFillippo:
You know what? We should have had a cow bell to end the episode. That’s bang. That would’ve been fun.
Buzz Knight:
Maybe we’ll put some extra production.
Steve DiFillippo:
All right. Nice seeing you.
Speaker 3:
Taking a walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
About The Author
Buzz Knight
Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.
After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.
