Atlanta's Paisano's concept: no friend to big-time rivals

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 16, 1991 by Jack Hayes

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Three-unit Paisano's Italian Restaurant is making significant inroads against such larger dinner-house competitors as The Olive Garden and Conglomerated Host Inc., which runs seven Provino's and Scalini's locations in the Atlanta area.

That's because Joseph Cipolla -- a chain foodservice veteran who ran 260 franchised Dairy Queen units in 1980 and in 1987 was executive vice president at Tandem Food Corp.'s California Smoothie and Philadelphia Steak & Sub Co.--is throwing all of his management skill and operational tenacity into the ring to make his tiny business a restaurant force to be reckoned with here.

Cipolla bought Paisano's in January 1990 when it was a two-unit concept--and immediately began raising product quality while slashing food cost. He applied analytical savvy to improve purchasing and portioning and then puts his human side to work with upgraded staff training and motivating.

Now, however, Cipolla is concentrating on the marketing side of the business. While The Olive Garden--which has six restaurants in metro Atlanta -- hammered hard with strong promotions like its seven-week Carnival of Venice this spring, Cipolla countered with a month-long Feast of San Gennaro in September.

"Between June and August my Hammond Square location was off by $35,000," Cipolla recalled but added that September surged ahead $10,000 and October gained another $2,000 in the wake of his San Gennaro event.

Cipolla showcased a grand prize sweepstakes trip for two to Italy, valued at $7,000 for the airfare and hotel. He also featured a dinner party for 20, a dinner for two once a month for a year and eight other dinner-for-two prize tokens in the sweepstakes.

During the San Gennaro month, Paisano's served free ice cream to children ordering a regular menu kid's entree, complimentary cappuccino with cheesecake, free Italian cookies instead of mints with dinner checks, Italian wine tasting and free samples of San Pelligrino. At two stores Cipolla gave complimentary hors d'oeuvres to patrons between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. He also packaged couples' dinners for two at $29.50 and provided strolling entertainers in the units.

Cipolla pumped the sweepstakes with $16,600 in radio and direct mail. He bought two weeks of time on three main stations and two weeks fo traffic spots on 12 stations total. Then he ran a 120,000-piece direct-mail coupon package.

In the first 25 days of the direct mail promotion Paisano's took in 1,207 coupons. Of those, 14 percent bought dessert, and 7 percent ate an appetizer.

"Even if they only take water with their entrees, once they buy dessert then they have to order coffee," noted Cipolla, who told his service staff to romance the profitable extras to boost check size during the promotion.

"I told them, 'Show your dessert tray to every table,'" he said.

But it took enormous repetition and flattery to convince his servers to treat the coupon-holders the same as they would treat other customers.

"I would see the looks on their faces when the coupons hit the table," he said. "The server's natural instinct is to push out the coupon-bearers and get close to the cash customers."

That aside, Cipolla has conducted elaborate analysis on the advertising event. His strategy was to find the best reach and frequency at the lowest price.

"Radio stations aren't all created equal. Their involvement is the key," he maintained, elaborating on the way one radio celebrity host dressed in an apron, walked the dining room and thoroughly entertained his customers -- while other hosts merely sat for a free meal.

Continuing his all-you-can-eat pizza lunches and pasta dinners, he claimed the "refill" cost is running only 3 percent.

"But it's perceived value, and that's what the customer is looking for."

Cipolla has a reputation for pencil sharpening, but suppliers say that he backs up his demands with bigger purchases, more frequent purchases and cash.

"I'd much rather take a man on with quality and service than with price" is how Cipolla justifies his operating style. "But you do what you have to."