Written by Caroline Deisley, USC blog contributor
Name: Brad Otton
Resume: Owner, Settebello Pizza
Sport at USC: Football
Caroline Deisley (CD): My first question is what was harder to learn: How to make pizza or your playbook?
Brad Otton (BO): Well, easily pizza because the football playbook I had done my whole life. The first day I ever worked in a restaurant was the first day we opened. So, I knew nothing about the restaurant industry. So, definitely learning how to make pizza and how to run a restaurant was harder for me.Â
CD: Where did you get the idea to start a pizza restaurant from? I saw that it originated from your two-year mission in Italy, specifically Naples, but why pizza?
BO: It was just kind of a staple of the diet there. You ate it literally three, four times a week. A lot of people eat it once a day either for lunch or dinner. There's such a distinct way they make pizza down in Napoli where pizza was created that I just craved it when I got home, but no one made anything close to it. Every time we moved to a different city I would go to all the different pizzerias owned by Italians in hopes that they were making something similar to the way they did in Italy, but they all catered their pizzas to what they thought the American pallet was so you just couldn't find anything like it. I was actually coaching football and was on a recruiting trip to Seattle and stumbled upon a place that was doing real pizza from Napoli so I talked to the owner, and I decided if I ever lost my job in football I would quit coaching and open a restaurant. I was coaching with John Robinson at the time, and he retired at the end of that year so I just decided to give it a go. I went over to Italy and learned how to make it and hired someone from Italy to come over and work for me and went from there.
CD: So when you're 17, 18, 19-years old like some of these athletes how do you try and plan for life after football? Because, you never know when it's going to end...
BO: I think the problem with most kids myself included is that you don't think it's going to end. It's hard to think when you're 20 what life is going to be like when if you're lucky you'll play football until your early thirties. It's hard to even think that far ahead let alone your forties and fifties what you're going to be doing. I just always had a desire when I was growing up to own my own business someday, so when I got to SC, I got involved with the business school. There's just so much entrepreneurial spirit there at the business school that I kind of caught that fever and got really involved in it. It was a little easier for me because I had something in mind that I always wanted to do after football, but a lot of these guys are going to school to play football, going to school to continue playing football after they're there. They miss out on a chance to find something at the school that they love and can get involved in and find something they are passionate about that they get involved in after football.Â
CD: How hard is it to refocus once you kind of realize the point, 'Okay I'm not playing anymore.' What was that decision-making process like for you?
BO: It was really hard, and I'm sure it's different for everyone, but mine involved a lot of injuries which I was going through and surgeries I was going through. I was just tired of constantly being hurt and trying to get better to play. So for me I think the hard part was thinking I was going to play for the next 10-12 years then all of a sudden be faced with the decision of not playing anymore. I think it would be easier if you played and got to do what you always dreamed of doing for 10 years or whatever in the NFL, then try to think of an exit strategy for when you wanted to retire. I think it's easier for those people in some ways, but it's harder for the kids that always dreamed of playing in the NFL and they get done with college and that opportunity doesn't present itself. Then, all of a sudden boom you're faced with 'I've got to find a job. I didn't expect to be looking for a job at this age,' and things like that. I don't know how you prepare for it except try to find something while you're playing that you're passionate about and gear up for that while you're playing.
CD: Do you have any experiences from USC that you carry with you and implement in your business strategy?
BO: Just the whole fever and family atmosphere around being a Trojan is easy to carry through in a business. When we started in Las Vegas, there was a huge alumni group and Trojan presence so when we first started and people would write articles about us they would always mention that I played at USC and the USC alumni were always the first ones to support us and jump in. That's how it was right when I got to SC and it started before I was playing. Everyone knew who you were and everyone wanted to make you feel part of the family. It's just been great to be a part of the Trojan Family that's carried through to owning your own business and being in the LA area.Â
CD: You've been back a little bit. Have you noticed anything that's different about what it's like to be a student athlete?
BO: My niece is getting recruited to play volleyball so we went, and she did a tour of the campus so that was the first time I saw the McKay Center and all the stuff going on on campus. It's really hard for me to show her like where I went to class or where we did things when I was playing football because it's so incredibly different. The facilities they have I can't even imagine. I mean the training room now in the McKay Center is bigger than the training room, locker room and weight room combined that we had when I was there. And I thought what we had when I was there was great and we didn't want for anything but man! I guess that's how it is now in college football across the country. I can't even imagine how cushy it is to practice and train every day in those facilities.Â
CD: What makes Settebello pizza different than any of the other places that you've been?
BO: It's really something you're going to love and crave or you're not going to get. All we are trying to do is recreate the pizza as it was made in Napoli when it was created in the 1700s. We're not trying to do anything new or inventive we're just trying to get the best products from Italy that they use in their pizza, and we're trying to make it the exact same way. People come in here and they take a bite and they just don't get it - to them it's wet or they think it's soggy or whatever and they want to go back to their American style pizza. And that's great, we're just looking for our niche group of people that are into it and know what true Neapolitan style pizza is and the historic significance of it. That's kind of what's carried us through the recession and all that stuff is just that core group of niche people who crave what we offer. It's a small group but it's all we need.
CD: You said you went and trained over in Italy and you hired someone over there that you brought back. Who has your mentor been as you've entered into the business realm?
BO: I went to Napoli and trained under a pizza maker there who is a third generation pizza maker in Napoli so originally, it was a lot of those guys. Their great-grandfathers had opened a pizzeria on some alley in Napoli and their grandfather had continued after he died and their father and now they're the pizza makers so those are the guys I looked to early on because that was kind of the cool part for me just learning how to master that craft. After that, I look at a lot of these guys that run big restaurants and restaurant groups and how they manage and operate because when we started out I was making pizzas every day. I would mop floors, clean bathrooms, whatever had to be done. Now, we have eight locations so your job totally changes to how to run eight locations. My mentors and the kinds of people I look up to have changed as my job has changed.
CD: What does it mean to not only have played for SC but to graduate with that SC logo on your degree?
BO: You know what's embarrassing? I still don't have my diploma. Apparently, I had a number of parking tickets that I didn't get taken care of and I think they're taken care of now but I've never gotten my diploma. I've been thinking about that a lot the last few months. Now that I have my house I have a little office and someone gave me a poster of me playing football so I'd like to have my diploma up now. But I'm proud of graduating and doing everything I need to do. I didn't do as well as I could've done. I think I would have liked to spend a little bit more time and put a little more effort in to my classes and getting involved in them.
CD: What do you miss the most about college life, football, everything?
BO: You know, just the carefreeness. You don't realize how carefree you are. There's a lot of pressure when you're there playing football but when you get into your thirties and forties and look back on it you realize the real pressure is going to come later with family, jobs and the stresses of everyday life. I think I just miss being carefree going to class, going to practice, going home and not having to worry about too many bills or kids or anything else. Then, I also miss the camaraderie of being around the same guys day after day. Once you break, I mean I see a couple of them here and there but it will never be like that when you're spending so much time with them day after day.
CD: Do your old football buddies come eat your pizza?
BO: Quite a few. We just opened down in Newport Beach and Keyshawn [Johnson] came down. My managers will text me and say 'so-and-so is here. They said they played football with you.' So I always like getting those texts. Just like the rest of the Trojan Family, the former players have been really supportive and it's great running into them every now and then.Â
CD: So, what's next?
BO: We doubled in size this last year. We went from four locations to eight. It was huge. It was really, really stupid of us to do it that way. I think we're just going to take this next year and relax a little bit. I haven't had a vacation in awhile so I want to take my family on a vacation and just enjoy life a little bit as we get these new locations up and running. Then, when I get bored we'll see about opening other locations.
