restaurant manager

catering coordinator

back of house team member

front of house team member

prep cook

PIADA Italian Street Food

In the early days it was a fun place to work, but the higher-ups make the job unworkable for the employees. Menu changes multiple times a season, usually just when you're starting to get used to the last thing you learned, but none of it's practical skills, more like learning how to take cylindrical nuggets of sausage and flatten them down with a pan so they look handmade. The equipment was all barely functional and dirty, night crew's cleaning job was consistently abysmal but the shift lead "chefs" and GM were all too lazy to make meaningful changes. Shortly before I left, I was getting into some petty squabbles with one of them, getting filthy gangsta rap endlessly pumped into my face before opening time despite none of the listeners even being present, preferring to huddle in their broom closet office while the underlings slave away for the first few hours of every day. All the while, hours and staff kept getting cut and my job kept getting harder and harder, and the chefs just kept coming in later and later, with one in particular conveniently forgetting her shift, every single Sunday like clockwork, sometimes in the dead of winter as I shivered in the freezing cold while waiting for the shift leads to come in sometimes HOURS late. Endless disrespect heaped on me every time I had a very VALID complaint about all of the issues I've described, but the only thing that changed was I started getting more dirty looks from them. I was treated like garbage when I turned down their management position because it looked like more stress than I could handle, and I was absolutely right. Looks fine from the outside, but keep an eye on that manager decal by the door: The name will be different every few months because no one can stand this job for long. Do I even need to go into the serious safety and hygiene concerns? Filth in the bathroom sometimes piled up for days before anyone did anything about it. At one point they brought in a manager from another location to fill in for some of the constant turnover in Florence, and he was an absolute riot, combining a good five or six toxic chemicals including explicitly labeled bathroom cleaner in which to soak the food contact surfaces of the grill. After that, free food stopped looking like so much of a perk. I didn't stick around to find out what new previously freshly-prepared item would start coming to us frozen in bags as corners kept getting cut like crunch time at the circle factory. I won't be back, as an employee or a customer. Expect no thanks for any standards and sacrifice you may bring to the table with Piada. The best part about this place was getting a free ServSafe certification so I could go take a job in literally any other kitchen on earth besides this one.



I worked at this place for just over a year and went through three different general managers, which made things pretty unstable. The first one was often unprofessional, taking long breaks seating outside or in the office and not really helping at all. The second one didn’t really know much about food safety and would give away free food without thinking twice. He also spent more time watching soccer than actually supervising the team and let the team do anything without accountability. The last manager created a toxic environment, really negative vibe and firing long-term employees with the excuse that “everyone is replaceable.” He also made sure his shifts were always fully staffed while leaving others short-handed.

Even though the company said they liked to promote from within, all the managers were hired from outside and needed help from the current staff to learn the basics. The workplace got more stressful over time, with favoritism and inconsistent standards , plus management encouraged conflicts among employees. New hires were constantly quitting, often within days or weeks.

Management didn’t seem to care about how long you’d been there or how well you performed; it was all about being loyal to their agenda. The work environment was really stressful and unfair. I did learn a lot, but the management problems and toxic culture really affected my job satisfaction. Anyone thinking about working here should keep these issues in mind.

I had worked there for 2 months and it was absolutely awful. The managers do not know what they are doing, people do not show up to work, people do not care about there jobs here.  They have had 3 different general manager in the past 3 months therefore, you do not receive a thorough training, instead they are like go work and have other team members try to show you what to do. You are not guaranteed a break during your shift which is illegal. They also do not give you end times for your shifts. Assistant managers pick favorites and let certain people leave before closing on their night shift leaving the building understaffed and the closing period twice as long as it should be. I addition to that they let employees smoke inside the building and half the cooking equipment is broken. Online orders ate never on time because of lack of management and lack of authoritative ruling by the general manager.

A typical day at work for me is normally opening as a grill cook. in doing so I had to prepare, cut, clean, dice or sautee' all of the meats and vegetables for the day as well as cooking cases of pasta to serve to our customers throughout the day all the while making sure my work area remains clean and I am not running out of any food needed to get through the shift, I also learned a lot about food safety procedures as well as food quality expectations. I have acquired very great knife handling skills and crew leadership skills. my management team was great and they were all very friendly and dedicated a lot of their time to their employees. My coworkers were very diverse, and also very nice and created a great work environment. The hardest part of my job was running behind on time and making sure that you have a set pattern for your workday, the most enjoyable part of my day was the fast paced environment because it became more like a game or challenge and it was quite fun.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The food is fantastic! The atmosphere is cool.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They expect you to hit food costs but don't give you the tools to do so.  It's basically all you can fit in a piada or bowl with no extra charge for pancetta, cheese,  toppings and other expensive items.  The companies leadership is questionable with the choices that they make with the menu. Switching the menu often and adding stuff constantly.  Instead of focusing on the business the uppermost leadership of the company focuses on social causes, Instead of it's people. They are extremely left wing so steer clear if you are a conservative. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is great with the correct team.  Culture of the company is very liberal. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
8am till 10pm.  Lot's of prep and counting inventory every night. Lot's of food and produce.

Getting started is relatively simple. Starting pay is reasonable especially if you're working Line or Cash. A typical day looks like making food almost the whole time between online and in person orders. Definitely more enjoyable with good coworkers. As with any restaurant job, there are hectic days where you're out of an ingredient and understaffed and those are incredibly tough. But most days are bearable and the food is really good.
Tips:
- advocate for your schedule early because they will schedule you whenever they can
- if you are confused, just. ask. It is worse to guess and screw up an order or the setup than just to ask. Management has much more tolerance for questions than dumb mistakes.
- make friends with your coworkers... food service sometimes feels like an us v. them so have their back and they will have yours if a hard customer comes in, or you need them to cover a shift, etc.

I had a great introduction training at the start of August 2025 to the fast-paced working conditions of fast food/ restaurant. I fit in so well for the first couple of months. But when it came to the work after several months, I began to notice the issues with the leadership of the store and the behavior changes in the environment I worked in. A toxic atmosphere occurred when we got a high turnover and faced unexpected blame towards me and other positions, which caused me to decide to leave the job. Thankfully, as a college student, I've managed to keep my composure every shift. It began very toxic, I landed my internship soon after, leaving with a good intention of moving on to the next path this May. I am grateful for the experience to learn the ways of being a Cashier, but what I can most definitely remember is how not to lead a restaurant in the leadership role. The Partner Chef was a narcissist, and the other chefs were rude. Don't take this role if you have a sensitive personality, as it demoralizes you. 

Not What They Promise
Started at Piada excited after watching their culture videos, but the reality is completely different. The workplace is toxic with management actively participating in gossip and creating drama.
Workload: Extremely demanding - you’ll be physically and mentally drained. They pile on work without regard for employee wellbeing.
Management: Partner frequently absent, spending time vaping or on phone in office. Constantly calls out “sick” (him or his wife) and avoids closing shifts and Sundays during football season.
Advancement: Promotions and raises aren’t based on performance - only if you’re a “yes person” who never challenges anything. They discourage talking to HR and apply accountability selectively to push out employees they don’t like.
The company culture they advertise is fake. Unless you enjoy toxic environments and being overworked while management slacks off, look elsewhere. There are better opportunities with employers who actually value their staff.

I was hired as an experiment to see if the chef partner(GM) could train and lead a store correctly. I wasn’t taken seriously even though I have more years as a manger than the two chefs who trained me. Didn’t let me use my PTO, they talk about people and other employees behind their backs and yet smile and laugh in their face. They don’t like when other managers perform better. So they minimize their potential by not letting them actually lead and work. They always want you to bend over backwards to please them but will never help you succeed. I was thrown into different positions and was not trained at all i basically had to learn on my own. And I barely received any help if I needed any. This place gave me mental and emotional trauma. I never want to step foot in ANY OF THE LOCATIONS BECAUSE, it reminds of a dark period in my life. And it’s never going to change until they will change. Personally this company and management can go straight to h3ll for all I care. Worst group of management ever!!!!!!!!

I was hired on as a supervisor and was told I’d be going through a 6+ week long training course… This did not happen. Entire positions were skipped over or glanced at. Couldn’t even tell you how much online learning I didn’t go through because of how streamlined my training was. Then I got to see how much I truly I missed later on because I was facilitating the training of new employees without any knowledge of what that actually entails. This along with the often beyond strenuous workload that me and the rest of the team were put through makes it so I could never in good faith recommend anyone work for this company. Yet I stayed for years to be around the people I worked with. The great team has always been my reason for staying but that was always  juxtaposed to the lack of respect and appreciation we all felt breaking our backs for this company. They do not reward hard work or high volume but they will pretend like they do through and through.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant manager 3 salaries reported	$62,500 per year
Catering coordinator 11 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Back of house team member 1 salary reported	$13.00 per hour
Front of house team member 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Prep cook 250 salaries reported	$13.01 per hour

Working at PIADA Italian Street Food: Company Overview and Reviews

PIADA Italian Street Food

PIADA Italian Street Food Ratings

Popular jobs at PIADA Italian Street Food

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected