Owner Brad Staba, Raymond’s Pizzeria, Richmond, California
Raymond’s Pizzeria
Richmond, California
Concept:
I just wanted to keep things simple and clean with more of a focus on quality of ingredients and a small menu with a fun vibe. I guess the opposite of quantity-based concepts built to scale into multiple brick and mortar locations. We don’t own a freezer and offer free time travel consultations.
Pizza Style:
Long fermented, thin-crust round pizza dough that’s actually proven magical via science and satellites. Then there’s days where we have special “More Magical” thicker dough for Pan Pies.
What attributes or skills have you taken from your skateboarding career and applied to your pizzeria?
Figure it out on your own, fail, then figure out how you failed, then try and fix it and not fail. Ask people who do it better for help when needed. But supply your workflow first before asking an opinion, I think, is good. Then you can get a response of “that looks good to me” or “maybe less salt” instead of just asking somebody how they do it. Skateboarding is something you push yourself to figure out on your own, then share and do with others. Pizza is really similar in my opinion.
With multiple businesses, how are you able to juggle your workload?
The fact that all of my projects are different helps a lot. Then you’re not burned out or stressed as much because you can migrate energy from one brand into another. Then there’s the chance you see some good results doing something completely different than moving back to something that might have been a jam up the day before. Then maybe the next approach, you have a fresh brain and stomp out the jam up with a new attack plan. Could be designing footwear one day then making pizza the next. Or making new skateboard shapes then the same day making garlic knots and washing dishes.
How did you manage to build out 80 percent of your restaurant yourself?
I grew up around people who always built things. From family members to friends, it was always around me. So, at an early age I just went for things with that DIY approach. Then fast forward some years and I bought a fixer upper in Berkeley and basically used that as a little project to learn even more. Then fast forward again and I just applied those skills to Raymond’s. Designed it, fabricated, tiled, toilets, countertops with a buddy, marketing, tables… headaches. I’m a big fan of learning as much as possible and think it sucks when people tell others what to do without knowing how to do it themselves.
