DIANA HUYNH

Though Diana grew up around pizza, she never thought she’d end up in the industry. “I always thought I’d end up in the corporate world, which I did. My parents had the business as their retirement project, but after a few years, they grew tired and when they had a buyer in mind, I figured it was my last opportunity to give it a go, so I said to them, ‘you should let me give it a try.’ Originally, my parents had built a business in hopes that my brother would take over, but he ultimately didn’t want to because he was into cars and that type of industry. I thought, ‘if he’s not into it, I can try it and see how it goes.’ This September, I’ll have officially been with the business for 7 years.”

Diana’s experience in the corporate world resulted in skills that would help her run a successful business. “I worked for a green energy company in Toronto and looked after the HR and accounting. I think the basics of running a business is HR and accounting, especially the bookkeeping, which I do myself now.” However, the transition from the corporate world to the food industry still had its challenges. “I took on a role at the counter first. My parents would try to teach me how to make pizza, but it wasn’t easy. My immigrant parents were really bad at giving me constructive criticism, so it took me a very long time to learn. Although my parents said they would retire, they continued to work in the business for 5 years, which meant that every decision I wanted to make, I had to convince them too.” One of those decisions was to turn away from being a cash only business. “I always had to convince them, ‘this is a good idea because…’”

When the pandemic began, Diana encouraged her parents to retire from Cici’s. “I said, ‘you should stay home because there’s a lot of risk,’ so they tried for the first few months but came back for the summer and said, ‘never do that to us again. That was a miserable time.’ As of last year, they stopped coming by. Last July, my mom said, ‘we’re leaving and we’re not coming here anymore.’ It turns out it was because her cancer had returned, but she never told any of us. She ultimately passed in November.”

Running a business is challenging, and Diana is honest and open to those she faces. “Learning how to maintain quality has been a challenge. The business went from me and my parents doing everything ourselves to having to trust and teach people to do it. How do we keep the recipe consistent? For the ingredients, I just prepare all the dry ingredients, so all my employees have to do is add water.

Maintaining delivery drivers is another major obstacle. It’s topsy turvy here with the economics. When Canada was paying out emergency relief benefits, we went from 100 applicants to 5.” Diana insists on hiring her own drivers because she hasn’t had the greatest experiences with third party services. “They drop too many pizzas and have too many problems. I’m kind of done with them. The first time I canceled uber eats, it was because they kept dropping pizzas. One time, someone came in with a bike and it was a large party sized order, so I said, ‘I don’t recommend you take this,’ and they left disgruntled and left Cici’s a 1-star review on Google. People have said Uber Eats is the best of all of them, so my experience has not been encouraging for adding others.”

Over the years, Diana’s focus has evolved from trying to know everything and being a part of the daily operations to the future. “Now, I’m focused on, ‘how do we move this forward?’ and ‘what do we need to do to be more efficient?’”

At Cici’s, Diana serves pizza and wings. “I keep the wings going because it’s tradition. Back in the day, they had pizza and wing joints, but a lot of pizzerias are moving away from wings now. I don’t try to push it.”

The pizza industry in Canada is very different from the industry in America. “There’s no camaraderie. I have no friends in the pizza business. And the other thing is, it’s all guys. It’s a chef or someone that used to work in the pizza section of a restaurant and then they open their own place and blow up. Most people blow up because of exclusiveness. A lot do unique pizzas each week. Last week there were so many ramps on dishes in Toronto. People are doing all sorts of crazy different pizzas. I sometimes wonder, if I’m not following a trend, should I be? At the base of it, I’ve always said, ‘this is our pizza.’ It was always established that we do a bread recipe for our dough and usually a marinara sauce. In the Canadian scene, the bread is crust is very common, but in the US, I find that it’s different. They have a completely different recipe.”

Diana’s pizza is consistent and she’s careful about what flavors and ingredients she experiments with. “Our best pizzas are the basics. Pepperoni is our best seller. Last night I took 5 orders in a row that all had pepperoni. Every now and then we add a new topping, so we’re adding zucchini soon.”

Cici’s has been around for decades, but where the name comes from remains a mystery. “The name Cici’s was always there. A family sold it to a family who sold it to a family who sold it a family who sold it to my parents. And it’s crazy because it’s always been Vietnamese families. We have a big Vietnamese diaspora out here. I’ve seen pho pizza and it’s not done well, but I can see a bahn mi pizza being done well, though I think you lose the essence of both when you combine them. I wanted to do this fusion pizza challenge on Instagram, and I thought of doing this Vietnamese dish that is sausage stewed in tomato soup which I thought that could be amazing on a pizza, but I never got around to making it because there were things that kept coming up at work.”

Diana’s favorite part of the business? “The people. I really like the community we’re in. I’ve watched the kids in these families grow up. I’ve seen them come in on strollers and now they’re going to University. It’s so mind blowing every time. Some families throughout Covid ordered the same orders, and now their kids are out of the house and their orders are smaller. When I had to move our business, I had to make sure that I moved within the same neighborhood, because I have to find a way to serve these people forever. Our new location is only 50 meters away from the original.”

Moving a business can be daunting, and for Diana, the hardest part was dealing with the contractors. “My biggest pain points were working with contractors. I finally found a group of guys or individual contractors that I like to work with. For a long time, I didn’t have that.

While Diana has faced bias, she’s managed to create an inclusive and empowering environment for her employees at Cici’s. “The other thing is that I have to repeat myself all the time. Yes, the owner is me and I identify as she. It’s so interesting because a lot of the inside staff are women or trans, and two men. The delivery drivers are always dudes. There’s only one guy who does prep and one who does pizza and everyone else identifies as she or a they. It’s really cool! It’s the best environment. Everyone has everybody’s back and it’s really clean. Not to be ageist or otherist, but I feel like in my case, I just have not worked well with older men, and they just don’t really respect me. I think women are on the rise in the industry. Why not work with women? We can do the same thing! I have 2 girls that I’ve hired that I’ve known since they were kids! They had asked me for jobs, and I’d tell them to wait until they reached an appropriate age. Younger people have no impression of what it was like to work in a pizza shop and were open to everything. One is 15 and she’s a baker and that used to be the most senior position in a pizzeria. They’re all so adaptable. You teach them and within the shift they’ve almost mastered a task.”

For Diana, management comes naturally. “I really thrive managing people. It’s difficult and tricky when you have different personalities, but once you know what this person is like you can manage them better. You have to find a way to provide that give and take relationship.”

However, promoting herself has not always come easily to Diana. “I used to never want anyone to know that I am the owner. ‘I was always afraid, or nervous of people coming to shit on me.’ ‘It doesn’t help that I’m a woman either.’ But one day it switched for me, and I decided I needed to get my words out there. I knew that my core customers knew who I was. Now, I think it’s part of the brand. It was so important for me to get into the neighborhood events. I wanted to be more than just someone who sells pizza. I want to be someone who hosts events, fosters growth, and provides space. It’s more important to me than clout. I never really talked about it until the recent Toronto Star article.”

Back in March, Diana got to share her passion with a young generation of girls. “I recently got asked to talk about my career at career day for little girls in March. It was really cool that they would even ask me to do that. We’re in a neighborhood where everyone knows who I am. When the girls saw it was me, they were so excited! I want to keep helping. We donate to the local foodbank every week. I’m also going to host a market with the goal of promoting local artisans and highlight the food bank’s initiatives in September to celebrate 7 years.”

For other women out there, Diana’s advice is to lean on your resources and make friends. “I have a friend who has a donut shop, and she gave me a lot of advice on what to do. I don’t come from a restaurant background, but she has a fine dining one. She showed me the ropes. I think it’s also important to find other women in the restaurant world and stick around and learn from them. They are the ones who guided me and shared contacts with me.”

When it comes to the future, Diana is unsure of what she wants. “I recently started therapy and really work on discovering who I am as a person. I had a really tough two years and I’m finally arriving at a point of peace in my life, so I’m not sure what direction I’d like to go yet.”

Diana is honest, compassionate, and tenacious. “I work all the time, but I don’t want it to stop because I love it.” She took a chance by switching careers and she’s proof that it’s worth the risk. An integral part of her community, Diana is continuing her mom and dad’s legacy while also adding her own identity to the business. Next time you’re in Toronto, make sure you stop by Cici’s for a slice and to talk all things pizza with Diana!