We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Pemoulie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kevin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Kevin’s Italian has been something I’ve been developing in my mind for over 10yrs. I was born and raised in New Jersey and spent 10yrs, post-college, working in New York City so my love affair with Italian food has been more or less programmed right into my DNA. I, myself, am not of Italian descent, but living in NJ I was alway Italian adjacent, with aunts & uncles, friends and neighbors all bringing me pieces of their Italian heritage, mainly through food. I also worked in a local pizzeria in high school and during my college years. Needless to say, I have become very familiar with Italian American cooking. Since moving to the west coast nearly 9yrs ago, I have missed the ubiquity of Italian-American restaurants, pizzerias and bakeries and have been trying to figure out a way to get those foods back in my life.

Originally, this concept was going to be a full blown, full service restaurant but after some deep thought and introspection, I decided that in order to keep my sanity and my family life in tact, I would need to change my approach. While I tried to rethink my concept, I spent the better part of two years learning about and developing bread recipes. Everything from traditional sourdough to Roman style pizzas to Italian rainbow cookies. I baked multiple times per week and constantly tinkered with recipes. I even spent a few months volunteering my time at a friend’s bakery in Seattle to learn as much as possible. Eventually, as I started learning more and getting comfortable managing dough and baking, a lightbulb went off in my head and the idea just clicked. I’ve known about “cottage food” businesses; I’ve seen people selling bread and homemade jams & pickles at the farmer’s market but I didn’t know too much about how they work. After looking into my local & state laws, I realized I could pretty easily adjust my business model to work in this capacity.

Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been cooking professionally since 2003 and have been in the restaurant industry since high school. Over the course of my career, I have cooked in some pretty high profile kitchens in NYC, owned and operated 2 successful restaurants of my own (in Jersey City, NJ & Seattle, WA), I’ve done product development for Amazon and have been the Culinary Director for large catering company in Seattle. During these years, I never really delved deeply into the cuisine I most enjoy. Sure, I cook chicken parm and baked ziti at home and for friends, but I have never cooked these things for customers.

For Kevin’s Italian, I have developed a collection of recipes that I am really happy with. I make focaccia, a few different traditional loaves, some non-traditional pizzas, and Italian cakes and cookies. I bake twice a week out of my home kitchen and offer customers both curbside pickup and a delivery option for their orders. I also designed my website and included a lot of custom merch, available for purchase. I love designing shirts, hoodies, hats, etc. so this was just an added bonus that provides me with another creative outlet in addition to the food.

So far, it’s going really well and most importantly, I’m happy and I really enjoy doing it.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Deciding against a brick & mortar restaurant was the best financial decision I have made regarding Kevin’s Italian. Having opened two restaurants prior, I knew what that would cost and it was daunting. I also REALLY didn’t want to take out more loans and worry about owing anyone anything. Changing course, conceptually, I knew I only really needed enough capital to cover licenses & permits, food inventory, and few new pans in the kitchen.

The idea I landed on was. to run a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign, where donations were rewarded with a “gift.” This way, the donations didn’t really have expectations attached and at the very least, someone’s money got them a physical item in return. My wife and I ran a Kickstarter campaign for our first restaurant and raised a good chunk of money but our reward system was a nightmare and I vowed never to repeat that mistake. After some deep internet searching, I came upon Custom Ink, an online printing company, where I could design tee shirts and offer them to my doners as a reward for making a donation. I sent it out to friends and family and managed to sell enough tee shirts to cover all my opening costs.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I’m all about social media here. I post constantly on Instagram, talk to my followers, listen to their feedback and I reward my repeat customers with additional little goodies here and there.

I try to get my brand out there through my merch as well. I have all sorts of fun stuff available with my logo on it, available for purchase on my website.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kevinsitalian.com
• Instagram: @kevinsitalian
• Facebook: na
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/kevin-pemoulié-a1b938154
• Twitter: na
• Youtube: na
• Yelp: na
• Soundcloud: na

Image Credits

all are my images