By JACKSON WANG
Executive Editor
You wouldn’t normally think playing in a band and opening a restaurant would go hand in hand. But for 29-year-old Nick Warchol, it does.
Warchol, who’s currently a singer and a bass player in two separate bands, will be one of the new owners of the D.P. Dough that will be reopening on Western Avenue. And he’s not stranger to the calzone business at all. Warchol has been working at D.P. Dough for six years, before it closed down last month.
“I just worked there for a while and I like it,” said Warchol, who currently lives in Albany. “I just said, ‘You know what, I’m going to do it.’”
What started as a joke, turned into a reality for Warchol.
“I started to think about it and started to joke with one of my friends about buying it and then we were like, ‘Yeah, let’s actually do it,’” Warchol said.
After agreeing with his two friends, who would become his business partners, on reopening D.P. Dough, Warchol then contacted the franchise to inform them that he wanted to keep it going. He believes the 212 Western Ave. location is a good area for D.P. Dough, especially with college students living there.
“There’s no reason why that business model wouldn’t be successful,” Warchol said.
On the day D.P. Dough closed in early January, Warchol was actually scheduled to work then.
“I went in that morning and I couldn’t get in,” Warchol said. “The locks had been changed.”
No one had told them that it was closing. One of his managers had known about the possibility of closing, but didn’t know that it would happen so soon. So it was as completely a surprise to him as well when Warchol called.
And as D.P. Dough Albany closed that day, so did the store in Troy and Amherst, Mass., which were all owned by John Keyes of Johnny Dean LLC. Warchol believes it was the fact that Keyes owned three D.P. Dough stores that caused him to close all of them down because he didn’t have time to focus on them all.
“Because it was so neglected, I think customer service suffered,” Warchol said. “He just didn’t have time between the three restaurants.”
That’s why Warchol said he will be opening just the Albany store, so he can put all his time and energy into one store. During his six years as a D.P. Dough employee, Warchol did everything from delivering food to cook, and even being a manager sometimes.
“As I worked there, I would kind of look at so many things like, ‘I could probably do this better, do this this way, or I can do it that way,’” said Warchol. “And these would be really simple, easy ways to improve the restaurant.”
Two things that Warchol would like to improve on right away is customer experience and reducing delivery time. And to do that, he said he’s going to hire a whole new group of employees and train them properly.
“We want to make sure it can be as good as it can be,” Warchol said.
Mark Dasco, the owner of the 212 Western Ave. building, said everything is lining up as the negotiations on the lease come to an end.
“We’re 98 percent sure we’re all set,” Dasco said. “Everyone’s on the same page here.”
Warchol said after all the paperwork is done, renovations inside will begin.
He wants to make the floors nicer, paint the walls, change the seating arrangement, get arcade games, add televisions, and install a sound system. Warchol said he would like to create a vibe for people and make them feel comfortable.
“We want people to be able to come in there and hangout and have it be a cool place,” Warchol said.
Warchol and his business partners will be flying out to Columbus, Ohio this week for a 10-day training session at the D.P. Dough headquarters to make sure they’ll be ready to run the calzone store. Once they return to Albany, he hopes they can start working on the building.
The target date for D.P. Dough reopening is March 15.
As for the menu, it will remain relatively similar, according to Warchol. He said wraps may be getting cut from the menu, but wings, chicken tenders, and salads will still be there. He wants to mainly focus on the calzones.
“We want to make sure the menu is something you’re proud to serve and that you think is good,” Warchol said.
Warchol, who’s originally from Hudson, N.Y., graduated from Saint Rose in 2006 with a degree in communications. After college, he started a band and began to book shows. After being signed by an agent, Warchol continued to tour.
He compares running a restaurant to playing in a band.
“It’s the same thing,” Warchol said. “It’s a small business with four or five employees. It’s the same marketing ideas.”
Warchol remembers the good old days at D.P. Dough when it was super busy with people running around. He believes the store can return to those days.
“Right now I have all these ideas in my head and I just can’t wait to get in and implement them and see how they work,” Warchol said. “I just have a passion for getting things right, whether it’s calzones or a band.”
