2023 Jean Malnati Miller Carryout Award Recipient: Park Ridge

Congratulations to Park Ridge on earning the 2023 Jean Malnati Miller Award for our carryout restaurants!

The annual winner is determined by using selective criteria that combine to represent our core values; THE GIFT (Teamwork, Hospitality, Excellence, Growth, Integrity, Family and Tradition). Essentially, it is the store that best represents Jean’s spirit of genuine care, warmth, and generosity.

So, what exactly does that look like? The winning store is the store that posts the highest combined scores in three critical areas: Our staff, our customers, and continued growth of the store (profitability).

While many stores perform well in one or more of these areas, the winning store must excel in all three and lead by example for our 80 stores.

The categories are:

• JOIN: Internal Net Promoter Score: Would our team recommend Lou Malnati’s as a place to work? (2023 Top Workplace “Join” score).
• HOSPITALITY: New Promoter Score: Would our customers recommend Lou Malnati’s as a place to eat? (2023 Tattle Score – total count, average score, and average rating).
• GROW: Development of our people (# of staff who became a manager in 2023 who originated in this store).
• PROFITABILITY: 2023 EBITDAR Growth.

Congratulations again to Park Ridge for a great year! Thank you for exemplifying Jean’s spirit in everything you do and passing that on to not only the team members in your store but also to our customers.

Here’s a peak into what makes Park Ridge such a deserving winner:

• On this team, everybody from the managers to our dishwashers, says hello and goodbye to each person in the store on their way in and on their way out. They are very intentional about recognizing one another in this way.
• There is exceptional teamwork in this store. Cross training in FOH and BOH.
• When there are issues, the team addresses them quickly, resulting in the staff feeling like they matter.
• The team is super competitive! Especially the GM. They want to win every contest. For example, the LMCB circle competition. One of the store managers was instrumental in leading the staff to raise money for cancer research (Chris Panzarella is a cancer survivor).
• Last year a team member passed away and the team rallied together to raise money and support her family by doing a Malnati Match.
• What happens behind the scenes impacts the FOH resulting in high hospitality.
• The management team is committed to growing their people so they can take on more responsibilities, learn new skills, make more money and be part of something bigger. The team believes that investing in each other’s growth helps make their team even stronger.

This award speaks to the quality of the team as a whole, but we would like to recognize the management team at Park Ridge who helped lead the charge. Thank you to the following individuals! –

• RD: Matt Stern
• DM: Eloy Garcia
• GM: Enrique Renteria
• Gloria Smith 
• Bryan Duran (Not Pictured)
• Chris Panzarella (Former Manager, Not Pictured)

Keep up the great work in 2024!