Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Fabrizio Cali. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Fabrizio, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I born and raised in Italy and I relocated to US at an older age than usual. In fact I relocated at 43, therefore I really lived most of my life in Italy. When I came to US, I was surprised how popular is Italy in US especially for life style and food. But the misconceptions about food in Italy were enormous. It is pretty common that a food from a nation when you try it in another nation would be different but the Italian food in US is like another category of food. So I decided that I wanted to spread the concept of authentic and traditional Italian food (more as culture than simply food) in US and especially in an area like Arizona that traditionally has been very close to foreign culture introduction (except Hispanic ones). It is not only a question of food but more a concept of experience and culture. Not only what you eat but more importantly how you eat, when you eat, why you eat. That is my mission.

Fabrizio, 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 had food experiences when I was in Italy but then I had and have another passion which are online videogames. So for 20 years I worked corporate as Executive Producers of online videogames and that was actually the reason why I came to US. I was satisfied but I needed new experiences so I decided to go back to the food industry. But my goal was to provide a different experience than mostly of the Italian places I have been around. There is a gray area in the food industry between the casual restaurant market and the fine dining which in Italy we called “Trattoria”, a place where you eat casual but with high quality dishes that usually belong to the classic culinary tradition. That makes us very different from others. There is not a proper translation for Trattoria in English so we decided to call ourselves Eatery. We are trying also to change some paradigms about eat outside. In Italy and other many countries is more considered a social time where food is the common element but it is not a feeding experience. You need to enjoy your time at the restaurant especially with the other people you coming with. Therefore we changed some of our service procedures that sometime surprise even our customers. For instance we don’t bring the check until they ask. Sometime even happens that customers complain that we are slow and at the moment I become very proud to say that Slow is a way to enjoy your free time.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Definitely that happened during the pandemic. It was a hard time for everyone including us. And we were trying to figure out how to make customers more comfortable for coming in. There was a debate internally in our company about masks. There were already stories around about customers issues with masks mandate or without masks mandate. And the industry was divided about this matter. I thought there was only one way to survive and that was to be safe, feel safe, appear safe. At that point I decided to impose a strict mask mandate for employees and customers. It was hard at beginning because some customers began to complaint, we received some bad reviews that were connected to our mask mandate. But I decided to move further accepting the risk. After a short time I saw an increase of business. Customers (the silent majority) were appreciating our focus on safety and they were feeling safe to visit us, they were appreciating our strict mandate and also if we had some other episodes about customers not agreeing with us, at the end business improved. And staff was happy too. We did not have a case of COVID in our staff the entire period.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

The business I own now has been bought. It is very different that the previous owner but has not been founded by me. When I met the business and the previous owner I was working in corporate and I was their customer, going there every week. We became friends after a while and then they became one of my customers, helping them for marketing and business consultancy. One day they told me they wanted to retire and they engage me to find a buyer. One year and we did not find anyone that they wanted to sell to (they wanted a buyer that would be able not to change the concept too much), so one evening during a dinner discussing what to do next, the previous owner told me “Why don’t you buy it?”. It was a kind of shock, but not because it was weird asking me that but that proposal made completely sense to me. I knew the business very well after 4 years of being customers, I have the same Italian culture of the previous owner and I wanted to go back to food industry. Therefore I said yes!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://dolcevitagroupaz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dolcevitamesa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gelatoandgrocerydolcevita/