2023 Jean Malnati Miller Restaurant Award Recipient: South Loop

Congratulations to South Loop on earning the 2023 Jean Malnati Miller Award for our full-service 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 South Loop 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 South Loop such a deserving winner:

• When asked about South Loop, former DM Laurynas Brucas said, “The GM’s leadership is awesome! Nick cares for people but also has a business aspect. He makes good decisions while cultivating the family culture in the store. He believes and knows the culture is the pillar in our company and what makes us successful. Nick holds the store as if it is his name on the front door.”
• The team is committed to and provides exceptional hospitality. Their sense of hospitality is unmatched. Especially customer recovery. They take mistakes to heart and coach mistakes to learn from them and ensure they do not happen again. They are patient with guests and go overboard to make our guests happy and satisfied. They go above and beyond for our guests.
• The team is committed to growing their people. They cross train. All departments mesh well together; BOH and FOH are all one team.
• They have not hired a server since 2019! Instead, team members learn and grow and are promoted to be a server. The managers cast vision for growth and PHC and kitchen team members move up to become servers.
• The culture in the store is described as care for one another. They celebrate wins and acknowledge hard times. Everybody knows what’s going on and gets involved to care for others and celebrate them.
• This team does a “Get to Know Me” interview and posts the answers to the interview questions and photo of the team member on their Shout-Out Board. They post and celebrate positive Tattle reviews. Celebrate positive reviews in pre-shift meetings.
• Nick and Chris are the main culture drivers. Joanne and George are industry talent who have embraced our culture and help cultivate it. SL has two amazing HSMs – Yameka Holmes and Max Campbell. Yameka has worked for Lou’s for over 23 years. Max was a driver in OB who transferred to SL and now is an HSM. The team goes above and beyond to care for one another. THE GIFT is very much alive in this store. Sense of family and tradition.
• The team embraces the new technology in terms of how our company is evolving. 
• New District Manager, Matt Stamm said it is a joy to be in SL. The team members are genuinely happy to be there. They take ownership in the store.

This is South Loop’s SECOND TIME winning this award, also doing so in 2021. A dynasty in the making?

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

• RD: Dennis D’Angelo
• DM (Current): Matt Stamm
• DM (Former): Laurynas Brucas
• GM: Nick Potamites
• Chris Vijitchatnon
• George Cocalis
• Joann Morales
• Yameka Holmes (HSM – Not Pictured)
• Max Campbell (HSM – Not Pictured)

Keep up the great work in 2024!