Calfornia-based Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! has a type of storied histories relationship again to the 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 nicely).
Dig beneath the floor of the company entity, although, and also you’ll discover that Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! with three shops underneath it’s umbrella, is greater than a slick package deal. It’s an quaint Italian dinner home, the type the brothers most probably grew up in as children. From the purple 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 house owners 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 positive eating institution as nicely.) “The idea is so similar, 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 buying facilities. Their menus are similar (and) the operations are similar. We at all times speak as in the event that they had been one.”
Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! provides dine-in and “an amazing” carryout enterprise, however doesn’t supply supply, D’Ambrosio says. “We didn’t need the trouble or the legal responsibility. Additionally, I’d quite have folks choose up meals after which they see the opposite meals. I believe it’s nearly 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 at all times 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 enlargement plans).
“Some guys don’t care about management. They simply care about progress and having an exit technique,” D’Ambrosio says. “I believe that is the important thing: my brother Frank and I and my different brothers, too I believe have a real sense of hospitality and that’s why we couldn’t do the self-service factor. It goes again to after we had been children and also you’d invite anyone in with ‘Are available in, sit down and I’ll get you a cup of espresso.’ I believe 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 lots slower. You delegate perhaps rather less and whenever you attempt to hold your requirements excessive, you don’t develop too quick.”
Like many operators, D’Ambrosio says employees coaching “is way more troublesome at this time than it was 20 years in the past. It takes lots longer to coach employees … it’s a must to educate them on the meals, promote it and serve it. It’s very troublesome to seek out individuals who view it as a occupation.”
Previously, D’Ambrosio has tried gross sales incentives as a retention instrument, however finally “you simply rent the very best angle we are able to, we attempt to practice them the very best we are able to, we attempt to observe via with that coaching … after which we monitor the very best we are able to.”
The crown jewel of Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too! is its menu. That is no easy pizza and pasta set-up. As a substitute, 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, purple 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 Immediately readers, make no mistake: pizza is king right here too, with specialty gourmand pizzas like Johnnie’s Favourite (pesto, roasted rooster, roasted purple bell pepper, artichoke hearts, black olives, bruschetta tomato, ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese at $24.95 for a 16-inch giant) sitting alongside aspect staples like barbecue rooster ($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 may lose a celebration since you don’t serve cocktails,” D’Ambrosio provides. Nonetheless, he says that onerous 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 underneath their belts, is enlargement within the firm’s future? “We had been going to increase within the Central Valley on a 5-year plan to do about 15 shops, however as the whole lot began turning to hell in 2001, 2002, I pulled the reins again in questioning if it was the precise time or not and it was a very good factor I did,” D’Ambrosio says. “Now’s the time to re-implement that plan of enlargement.
“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 obtained to maintain it inexperienced. We’ve obtained so many tenured folks in our system that we’ve obtained 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 may 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 business, and John says there are a number of components to that success. First, “it’s a balancing act of placing away cash within the good occasions, as a result of you already know there are going to be dangerous occasions,” he says. “One other huge problem is maintaining on retailer upkeep … they put on out. It’s a must to hold them recent and hold them alive.”
Keep meals high quality and protecting the menu recent to keep away from recipe erosion are additionally vital parts to longevity. “In case you have good meals and good service at a average worth in a clear, pleasant environment, they are going to come,” D’Ambrosio says, “and that has not modified for the reason that first restaurant in Ithica 6,000 years in the past.”?
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Immediately.642-432
