Meet Kerry Steed

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kerry Steed.

Hi Kerry, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
It all started because my grandmother wanted a couch. If we traveled back in time to 1960, you’d meet Dick and Millie Waag, an unassuming middle-class family living in Kettering, Ohio raising their 5 kids and going on about life. Millie (my grandmother) was a stay-at-home mom, and Dick (my grandfather) worked for the US Postal Service. One summer, my grandmother said she’d like a new couch, and being a frugal (cheap is another way to put it) man of the house told her that if she wanted a couch, she could get a job and buy it herself. He must have forgotten how strong-willed my grandmother was because she called his bluff and walked down the street and got a job working in the neighborhood pizzeria telling him she would only work until the new couch was paid for. She was true to her word and quit when the comfy new sofa arrived at the Waag home. Next year came, and it was a family vacation that motivated her to work again. She applied her skills and perfected her trade in the early days of the pizza world by tossing doughs, mixing sauce, and building relationships with her customers. This pattern evolved over the next few years until an opportunity to own and operate their very own pizzeria, and on October 31, 1962, my grandparents signed the lease to a small, hole-in-the-wall storefront in Wilmington, Ohio. 

This postman and a stay-at-home mom were now business owners and on their way to fulfilling the American dream. 

Wilmington, Ohio, was, at that time, a very small town with a college and the Air Force Glider base located at the edge of town as their only claim to fame. A new pizzeria-style Italian restaurant wasn’t what you would put on the top of your list for businesses to start in Southwest Ohio, but they soldiered on even though that first Saturday night, they sold only 10 pizzas. Through hard work, mandating the five kids’ help, and always putting the customer first, sales began to grow. Within a few months, Dick and Millie applied for and received a license to sell beer and wine. Now, with the whole family pitching in, the option to have a frosty mug of beer along with a heart-baked pizza made all the difference, and the line for their great-tasting pizza and subs were out the door. 

The Waags became the first family of pizza in Wilmington, Ohio, hosting everyone in town, including every little league baseball team, church groups, and anyone else that wanted pizza. 

Then tragedy struck in 1976 when Dick, my grandfather, unexpectedly passed away. The community rallied around the business, but it was just too much for my grandmother to handle, and that’s where the second generation stepped in. 

My mother, Gayle Steed, the oldest of the five, bought the business and continued to carry on and build the business. 

Putting the customer first was not lost on my mother as she had grown up in the business and was as smart as any CEO. Implementing menu updates and renovating the restaurant were top priorities. Being the middle child of three and the only boy, I yearned for my mom to watch me grow and play baseball, but I knew those missed games were because she recognized that with the title of owner of a business comes big responsibility. The three of us all worked in the restaurant just my mom and her siblings did years before. Mixing sauce, slicing the cheese, getting to know our customers not by name but by what type of pizza they preferred. Every weekend, it was, “Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Pepperoni and Sausage, how are you, Ms. Veggie Delite?”. That became our routine as a family. 

The business continued to grow; however, my mother had different goals in life. She saw owning the business as a way to raise and support her family. However, her true love was nature and the great outdoors, so being cooped up in front of four 500-degree pizza ovens wasn’t her ideal life. That’s where I come in. 

While attending Wright State University I got a call one evening from my mother. Nothing out of the usual, some pleasantries and updates until she posed THE question. “What are you doing for the rest of your life?” 

Being a 23-year-old young man that could barely keep his refrigerator full and the lights on in his apartment I didn’t know what to think and wasn’t quite prepared. She went on to tell me that it was now or never for her to chase her dreams and that she needed me to buy the business and set her free from the weight of owning a restaurant. I think it took me all of two seconds to say, “HECK YEAH, I’LL DO IT!” I left school that quarter and eased back into the business by working weekends and becoming the third generation of Generations Pizzer on October 31, 1993. 

That was 30 years ago when I became the pizza man of Wilmington. Carrying on the tradition of serving frosty mugs of beer, fresh baked pizzas, and the biggest wings you’ll ever find, I’ve found my niche in life, and it’s with my customers. 

To this day we employ the same beliefs my grandparents and mother used to build a successful business, the customer is first in everything, when you take care of what’s around you, you’re really taking care of yourself, and always remember to include your family in everything. 

So, when I’m asked how I’ve been so successful or what advice I would give to some young entrepreneur that wants to start a business, I just tell them, go buy a couch. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
1976 Grandfather Dick Waag dies unexpectedly, leaving my grandmother to run the business on her own. 

1982, The recession, all the farmers in our rural county were losing their farms due to sky-high interest rates 

2009 DHL, our largest employer (9500), leaves town and vacates the airpark 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Being a very observant person and one that likes to read, I studied other operators. Early on, I knew that studying engineering wasn’t going to help me grow a pizza business, so lots of clandestine visits to other restaurants, watching how the restaurant workflow and staff patterns affected service counting the ceiling tiles to better understand how much space was dedicated to each task, and paying close attention to how the staff interacted with their customers to see how well leadership and management motivated their staff. 

What sets Generations Pizzeria apart from everyone else is that we take the best of everything in the pizza and restaurant industry and put it work in an environment where the customer comes first. We aren’t the cheapest, and we don’t sell the most, but we do make effort to be the best. 

I’m most proud that, as a third-generation owner of a family business, I haven’t bankrupted it yet. The old adage says, the first generation takes the risk and creates a business, the second generation grows it and makes it successful, and the third generation, not understanding or appreciating the risk involved or the hard work needed, sucks the business dry and bankrupts it. I will forever be in debt to my family for instilling in me an honest work ethic, sound fiscal fundamentals, and constantly reminding me the customer comes first. 

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Wilmington, Ohio, was a town I couldn’t wait to get away from. I wanted to become an engineer, build things, have a tangible result from my work, but now, you couldn’t get me to move. I don’t know if it’s because I know all my neighbors, the small-town Midwest vibes, or the fact that if I want anything, I can get it from a 30-minute drive down the interstate while I enjoy the safety and security only Wilmington can bring. 

Contact Info:

• Website: Generationspizzeria.com