Staying authentic is a top priority for a family-run Brand

San Carlo is looking to WorkBuzz Dialogue to help maintain the same values that inspired them from the very beginning: family, and a love of great food. 

San Carlo was established in 1992 by Carlo Distefano and his father and has grown into one of the UK’s best-known independent restaurant groups, with 25 restaurants across the UK and recent international expansion, including Miami, the US’s foodie capital, all while staying true to their Sicilian roots and family traditions.​

Known for high-quality, authentic Italian dining, the family- run business operates in a fast-paced environment where customer experience, operational consistency and team engagement are critical to success.​

But across the hospitality sector, the risk of rapid growth and larger scale is the loss of real authenticity and connection with the customer and across the team - the magic ingredient that made the brand so popular in the first place. 

A New Listening Intervention

San Carlo turned to WorkBuzz Dialogue, a new operational listening ‘Loop’ designed to give leaders rapid, unfiltered feedback, direct from employees in their restaurant network. In a simple process:

For CEO Marcello Distefano, the priority was clear: He wanted a way to hear directly from the people closest to the work to get unfiltered feedback from across the restaurants, make faster course corrections when things needed to change and tap into the creativity and insights of their people on the ground.​

This aligns closely with the philosophy behind Dialogue — giving leaders a way to “walk the floor at scale” and bridge the gap between strategy and execution. 

Why San Carlo wanted to try Dialogue

San Carlo were looking for something different to complement traditional surveys.​ They wanted a way to:

• Capture honest, real-time feedback from operational teams​

• Hear the personality and stories behind the data  

• Test ideas quickly before rolling them out widely​

• Give leaders more visibility across multiple locations – and countries​

• Strengthen the connection between senior leadership and restaurants

Dialogue offered a simple format that felt natural to the business – leaders’ short video question, with employees responding in their own words using video, voice or text. This makes it possible to gather insight rapidly while keeping the human element that can be lost in surveys. 

Case Study: Leadership conference feedback - Their First ‘Loop’

The first loop was sent by Marcello following a leadership conference attended by around 120 senior leaders from across the business. The aim was to understand what worked well, could be improved and what people took away from the event.​

• ​Because the loop came directly from the CEO, response quality was high, and the feedback was rich and personal.​
  
  
• What stood out most was the storytelling. People didn’t just rate the event - they talked about their experiences, their pride in the business, and their passion for hospitality.​

This gave the leadership team a much deeper understanding of how the event landed as if they were listening to them face to face.

“Dialogue gives us a way to hear directly from our restaurants in a way we never could before. The feedback feels real, personal and immediate, and it helps us make better decisions faster.”

~ Marcello Distefano, CEO, San Carlo

Executive Takeaway

In a growing restaurant network, it’s virtually impossible to hear from front of house or kitchen crew in the moment leaders really need their input.

Through Dialogue, San Carlo is retaining that family feel.

• Feedback is richer and more human

• Leaders get insight faster

• People feel heard because they can speak in their own voice

• Stories and ideas come through that would not appear in traditional survey data