We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Pirolo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

We opened Macchialina to in 2012 because the city was screaming for a restaurant that catered to locals and we created a real sense of community around that. Its funny, my wife/partner in the restaurant would be locking up the restaurant in the first few years and we would look at each other and say “wow, thank god we have friends or we would not have had any guests tonight”. if it wasn’t for our friends and peers in the restaurant industry in Miami we would not be standing today about to celebrate 10 years. I go out of my way to support my friends businesses and pay that kindness that was shown to us forward.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into the restaurant Industry, by moving to Italy when I was 21 and living there for three years. I bounced from restaurant to restaurant, I was obsessed with learning about the principles of Italian food and its culture. in 2012 we opened Macchialina a family owned Italian trattoria specializing in house made fresh pasta and small estate Italian wines.

I Think what sets Macchialina apart is our devotion to making sure our guests have a good time, good food and wine is a given, but we really try to curate everyones experience when they walk into our doors. Macchialina is an extension of our home and we try and treat all our guests as such. I’m very proud of the fact that my wife Jen, and my sister Jackie who handles our wine program are my partners. You don’t see very many family owned restaurants in Miami Beach make it to ten years and we just signed an 10 year extension. We have a few surprises coming so stay tuned.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

We opened Macchialina on a shoe string budget. in retrospect it was probably NOT the way to do it, but it worked out so I can’t really complain about it too much. We actually almost didn’t open at all. we were delayed and were out of money, completely out and not just the money allocated to the business but our personal finances as well, as we put our life savings into Macchialina. I remember we were waiting on our final permits for months and would sit at the restaurant cooking whatever samples were dropped off by the vendors that day for not only my wife and I but also whatever personnel had quit their jobs to come work for us. it sounds stressful, but honestly we were too naive and excited to feel that.

Luckily we were busy our first week or we would not have been able to cover that weeks payroll.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is honestly what my Family and I talk about more than anything and I feel is one of the most important things in running a business. Is the team Happy??? because if they aren’t it is only a matter of time before it crumbles.

in my opinion the best way to make sure Team Morale stays high and people enjoy working for you, is to treat everyone with respect ad really care about them as individuals.

Contact Info:

• Website: Macchialina.com
• Instagram: @mikepirolo @macchialina

Image Credits
@delgiudicephoto