Pop’s Franchisees Honor Family Tradition, Just in Different Industry

(By Tim Carroll | January 11, 2017)

Twenty-two years ago, Mike Motto and his two brothers, Matt and Mark — all educated at Providence Catholic — had the chance to keep up the family tradition.

Their version of the family tradition was not exactly the same — the Mottos’ parents and grandfather had been in the grocery store business — but it was close enough.

They bought a Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage restaurant.

“We thought we were going into the grocery store business, [but my parents sold] right before I’m getting ready to be college age, so I went off to Illinois state, followed by my two brothers,” Mike Motto said.

In the beginning, there was one

After his parents sold independently-owned Motto’s Foods, which had locations in both Midlothian and Tinley Park, and it became clear that a grocery career was not in store for him, Mike Motto took a position out of college at Frank’s Nursery & Crafts, a store that is no longer around the south suburbs but that Motto described as “kind of a smaller version of Home Depot.”

But he immediately began researching different franchising opportunities, including McDonald’s, Hardee’s and Blockbuster video stores. None of them was the perfect fit, though. One brother was finished with school, and the other was getting ready to graduate, but they did not yet know which chain to join until the chance to get in on the Pop’s expansion arose.

“Pop’s was just starting to expand a little bit,” Mike Motto said. “...We got to know the product a little bit, and we knew the owner, so I talked to him and explained to him how I was looking to go into business. The restaurant wasn’t for sale at the time, but we got to know the product and really liked the sandwiches and the food.”

After Matt, the youngest of the Motto boys, graduated, the Motto family was in the market for a new car. That was when they heard Pop’s owner Frank Radochonski had opened a Bourbonnais location and was having some trouble running between the original Palos Heights Pop’s and the Bourbonnais store.

When they went down to Bourbonnais, the Mottos decided to get involved with the business. The brothers came up with half of the money necessary to buy the Bourbonnais spot and borrowed the other half from their father in 1994, keeping the Motto business owner tradition alive.

Growth is their Motto

In 1998, something eerily similar happened. Motto himself was in the market for a new car this time, and he heard that the Orland Park location was for sale.

The brothers jumped at the chance. At that time, the three were living together in Bourbonnais in a two-bedroom condo. “Not only were we working massive hours every week, we were also living together at night, too,” Mike Motto said.

Mark and Matt Motto moved back to the Tinley Park area and began working at the Orland Park location while Mike Motto remained in Bourbonnais. Shortly thereafter, the Mottos sold the Bourbonnais location back to Radochonski to focus on the growing Orland Park store, and Mike Motto moved back to the Tinley Park area, as well. In the mid-2000s, the Mottos and Pop’s both experienced an expansion boom.

“We were like, ‘You know what? It’s time to expand. We all don’t need to be staying in the same store,’” Mike Motto said.

In 2004, the Mottos licensed another location in Mokena, where Mike Motto now lives. In 2006, the brothers opened a Lockport location. In 2007, they opened up in Tinley Park. In 2009, they opened up in Romeoville. And finally, in 2013, they opened another location in Orland Park.

When they went through the large expansion, the Mottos needed more people they could trust to help out with the new stores, so Mike Motto brought a business school friend of his, Burke Matyas, aboard. Eventually, Matyas bought the Tinley Park location from the Mottos.

While they have taken a few years off from further expansion, Mike Motto said he is approached by commercial developers to open more locations in the south suburbs, and when the time and place are right, he and his brothers might just expand again.

Family business

One of the reasons Pop’s was the perfect restaurant for the Motto brothers to become involved with was their familiarity with the product.

“We were frequent visitors, because [the Orland Park location] was only a mile away,” he said. “We loved the recipe. Once we had the opportunity to buy into Bourbonnais, we already knew the product, we knew we wanted to go into retail, we were looking to go into business, [but] we knew we were taking a shot because we didn’t know the restaurant business that much.”

But the Mottos’ lack of experience in the restaurant business was helped by Radochonski training them on what Pop’s was all about, and he still visits the many stores once a week.

“Still, to this day, we cook and slice our beef fresh every single day,” Mike Motto said. “... We make all of our peppers homemade, everything is homemade. That was the big draw, [that the food is] homemade, cooked fresh on the premises every day.”

The Motto brothers are still hands-on owners, too. Each of them took responsibility for one location, with Mike Motto, a roughly eight-year resident of Mokena, spending his time at the Lockport store; Matt Motto, of Orland Park, runs the first Orland Park location; and Mark Motto, of Homer Glen, spends his days at the Mokena restaurant. While they are at different stores, they are able to stay on the same page.

“It’s easier to talk to them than it would be a stranger,” Mark Motto said. “I’m always the quiet one, so it would be harder to [be in the business] with a stranger.”

The Motto boys learned to love retail from their grocer father, who valued the relationships built while working in the industry. “We loved [going to the grocery store to help],” Mike Motto said.

“And that’s how the retail kind of got into it. You’re not only interacting with the customer, you’re interacting with your team every day. We got to see dad or grandpa do it, and we fell in love with it.”

Their father also helped build their work ethic.

“He always instilled hard work in us,” Mark Motto said. “The harder we work, the more we’ll be rewarded in the end.”

It was not always easy for the brothers, especially when they were cramped together in Bourbonnais, but they always made it work.

“There were three of us, but it was a two-bedroom condo,” Mark Motto said. “But we always got along.”

Mike Motto said he is most proud of his family’s cohesion.

“The proudest thing is that me and my brothers have stuck together through it all,” he said.