Calfornia-based Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! has a type of storied histories courting again to the Nineteen Fifties when a Connecticut native moved West and opened a pizza parlor.642-427
He was later joined by Frank D’Ambrosio Sr. Fifty years later, D’Ambrosio’s sons, Don, Nick, John and Frank, now man the helm of Success Programs Inc., the holding firm that owns and operates six eating places all through California and a sausage firm their father based (taking it from 600 kilos a day to 30-40 tons a day. That very same sausage is used of their eating places as effectively).
Dig under the floor of the company entity, although, and also you’ll discover that Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! with three shops beneath it’s umbrella, is greater than a slick bundle. It’s an quaint Italian dinner home, the sort the brothers most certainly grew up in as children. From the pink checkered tablecloths to basic dishes like Veal Scaloppini Marsala and Rigatoni e Spinaci, Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! is Italian via and thru, precisely what its homeowners need. And given its gross sales of $15 million a yr a far cry from its preliminary $22 first-day gross sales they appear to be doing it efficiently. (Success Programs additionally owns two models know as Giorgio’s and a fantastic eating institution as effectively.) “The idea is so equivalent, says John D’Ambrosio, who serves as the corporate’s CEO. “The one distinction is that Frankie & Johnnie’s are in freestanding buildings and Giorgio’s are in in-line procuring facilities. Their menus are equivalent (and) the operations are equivalent. We all the time discuss as in the event that they have been one.”
Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! gives dine-in and “an incredible” carryout enterprise, however doesn’t supply supply, D’Ambrosio says. “We didn’t need the trouble or the legal responsibility. Additionally, I’d somewhat have individuals choose up meals after which they see the opposite meals. I feel it’s virtually a greater advertising instrument to get them within the shops and see what else we provide.”
D’Ambrosio cites a serious level of distinction that units Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! apart from its rivals not like many different pizzerias, Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! is a full-service idea. That features desk service and a full bar at every of the shops.
Why full service over a much less laborintensive counter service idea? “It simply wasn’t our mentality,” D’Ambrosio says. “I simply all the time hated it. It was chilly, it was impersonal it simply wasn’t us.” D’Ambrosio and his brother, Frank, hold a fi rm hand on high quality and management, and that has saved the idea initially small (learn on to study extra about upcoming growth plans).
“Some guys don’t care about management. They simply care about progress and having an exit technique,” D’Ambrosio says. “I feel that is the important thing: my brother Frank and I and my different brothers, too I feel have a real sense of hospitality and that’s why we couldn’t do the self-service factor. It goes again to after we have been children and also you’d invite any person in with ‘Are available, sit down and I’ll get you a cup of espresso.’ I feel with a real sense of hospitality and a real sense of urgency of getting the job accomplished and ensuring issues are accomplished proper, you progress loads slower. You delegate possibly rather less and whenever you attempt to hold your requirements excessive, you don’t develop too quick.”
Like many operators, D’Ambrosio says workers coaching “is rather more tough immediately than it was 20 years in the past. It takes loads longer to coach workers … it’s important to educate them on the meals, learn how to promote it and learn how to serve it. It’s very tough to seek out individuals who view it as a occupation.”
Previously, D’Ambrosio has tried gross sales incentives as a retention instrument, however in the end “you simply rent one of the best perspective we will, we attempt to practice them one of the best we will, we attempt to observe via with that coaching … after which we monitor one of the best we will.”
The crown jewel of Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! is its menu. That is no easy pizza and pasta set-up. As an alternative, diners can get pleasure from a meal of Calamari Fritti (Semolina herb-crusted squid served with cocktail and tartar sauce at $9.50), Baked Salmon Risotto (oven baked salmon served over risotto with onions, artichoke hearts, pink bell peppers, mushrooms, inexperienced onions and sun-dried tomatoes at $11.95), oven-baked manicotti (full of herbed ricotta and topped with creamy pesto, béchamel and marinara sauces and served with spinach aglio olio at $9.50) and topped off with tiramisu or cheesecake.
And whereas these dishes may appear high-brow to many Pizza Right this moment readers, make no mistake: pizza is king right here too, with specialty gourmand pizzas like Johnnie’s Favourite (pesto, roasted hen, roasted pink bell pepper, artichoke hearts, black olives, bruschetta tomato, ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese at $24.95 for a 16-inch giant) sitting alongside facet staples like barbecue hen ($19.95 for a big) and pepperoni ($18.50). Pizzas are baked in a rotary oven which affords extra room within the kitchen.
Being a full-service restaurant extends to the total bar, which D’Ambrosio says is an lodging to his visitors, with laborious liquor changing into a bigger a part of the restaurant starting about 10 years in the past.
“Typically you would possibly lose a celebration since you don’t serve cocktails,” D’Ambrosio provides. Nonetheless, he says that tough liquor gross sales are low in comparison with beer and wine in his institutions. (Alcohol accounts for about 10 % of gross sales).
With six shops in all beneath their belts, is growth within the firm’s future? “We have been going to develop within the Central Valley on a 5-year plan to do about 15 shops, however as every little thing began turning to hell in 2001, 2002, I pulled the reins again in questioning if it was the correct time or not and it was factor I did,” D’Ambrosio says. “Now could be the time to re-implement that plan of growth.
“Enterprise is sort of a tomato. You may’t let it ripen as a result of then it rots and falls off the vine. You’ve bought to maintain it inexperienced. We’ve bought so many tenured individuals in our system that we’ve bought to maintain it transferring for them to maneuver up, or we’ll lose them.”
D’Ambrosio says he hopes to open three extra shops and is growing a quick meals idea that can pair the corporate’s signature pizza with choices utilizing the corporate’s sausage.
Backside line, the D’Ambrosio household has weathered a lot of their 50 years within the restaurant trade, and John says there are a number of elements to that success. First, “it’s a balancing act of placing away cash within the good instances, as a result of you understand there are going to be unhealthy instances,” he says. “One other huge problem is maintaining on retailer upkeep … they put on out. It’s important to hold them contemporary and hold them alive.”
Keep meals high quality and preserving the menu contemporary to keep away from recipe erosion are additionally crucial parts to longevity. “In case you have good meals and good service at a reasonable worth in a clear, pleasant ambiance, they may come,” D’Ambrosio says, “and that has not modified because the first restaurant in Ithica 6,000 years in the past.”?
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Right this moment.642-432
