We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Glen Weinzimer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Glen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.
We started our Give Back Monday program at our Bona Italian restaurant right after purchasing it about 7 years ago. We are heavily involved in the LGBTQ+ community and felt as a new business we wanted to help the community, and worked to reintroduce the restaurant to those that had stopped frequenting the restaurant for many reasons. The causes we choose are LGBTQ+ and ally organizations that our community supports. Some of the organizations we have chosen to assist are:
The Pet Project-works to keep animals and their sick patients together when financially or physically they aren’t able to support them.
The Gay Men’s Chorus-works to spread joy, music and partnerships while raising money to help others.
Broward House-An AIDS Service Organization that works to help those who have food insecurities, housing insecurities, mental health, care, testing for HIV AIDS.
Sunshine Cathedral-an all inclusive LGBTQ+ non denominational church, welcoming all into faith.
JFOY-Julians Fountain of Youth-works to help young adults and high school aged kids feel wanted, valued and appreciated for their authentic selves.
SunServe-works with elderly LGBTQ+ individuals with social programs and meetings, also a safe haven and leadership in the Trans Community, providing services including medical and mental health care.
Gilda’s Club-named after Comedian Gilda Radner who died of cancer, they work to provide social services, safe haven and help for women and men who are in care and provides the mental health, group work needed to fight on and give hope.
BEARS of South Florida-a social group of gay men in the bear community and those who love bears, raising money through their social programs, pool parties, gatherings, bowling outings and more to provide funding to other non profits.
Imperial Sun Court of All Florida-A chapter of the national Imperial Courts, through their advocacy they provide funding for many social programs like SMART Ride, JFOY and others through their ongoing community fundraising.
Humanity Program-Now more than ever needed in the state of Florida, they work with youth to provide mental health, work to prevent suicide for those questioning their status in the general population as well as an effort in the LGBTQ+ community.
Equality Florida-working to find balance, advocacy in a state under attack by the current administration in control of the state capital as well as work on the more local level to provide advocacy.
Front Runners-A social networking group of runners and walkers providing healthy activity in the primarily LGBTQ+ communities, through their work they also provide funding to other groups and work in the community on projects like SMART Ride.
In the past 6 years Bona Italian Restaurant has raised and returned over $60,000 to the above organizations as well as many more like the Pride Wind Ensemble, the World AIDS Museum, Stonewall Museum, Island City Theater, The Foundry theater, Equine Assisted Therapies for those with brain injuries etc.
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.
Bona Italian Restaurant is obviously a restaurant located in Wilton Manors, FL. We provide a variety of Northern Italian Cuisine, comfort food. We are most proud of our partnerships with the local community. Our advocacy work in helping organizations raise money, also helps build brand awareness. During COVID it was these organizations that we have been supporting through our Monday Give Backs that came to our rescue and did take-pit when indoor dining was shut, they continued to support us and encouraged their colleagues to support us so we could get through the pandemic, Throughout the pandemic we continued to do Give Back Mondays, even after we re-opened with limited seating. We introduced a weekly raffle to help raise even more money when there were less patrons.
Sometimes our business has had hard times, but giving back has never been pushed aside as we know the value in giving. back. We started an event called The SMART Ride 20 years ago and separate from the restaurant the SMART Ride, a 2-day, 165 mile fully supported bicycle ride from Miami to Key West, has raised and given back $14.9+ million dollars. Every penny the SMART Ride raises is guaranteed to be returned to AIDS Service Organizations around Florida from AH of Monroe, Pridelines in Miami, Broward House in Fort Lauderdale, Compass GLCC in Palm Beach, Miracle of Love in Orlando and Epic in Tampa/St Pete.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I am a firm believer that customer service rules #1, we all want to be recognized, we all want to be “seen”. It has been our philosophy since day one of owning Bona Italian Restaurant to make the guest feel welcome.
It is our service level that stands us apart from our immediate local restaurants. A few examples of this are the constant reminders to our team that recognizing customers, thanking customers, apologizing if something is correct is so important. We had a server who came to us one day and said “I don’t want to serve table…., they are not very nice.”, we reminded our team that we are in show business, we are here to provide not just a great meal, but an atmosphere that is welcoming and caring. We shared this story:
Server (we will leave names out of this), we promise you, this morning when that customer got up they did no know who you are, they probably still don’t know who you are, but their goal was not in any way to ruin your day. Maybe they broke up with a partner, maybe they had a bad day at work, or worse lost their job, maybe a family member is sick or maybe their pet isn’t well or worse, maybe someone died that day. It is NOT personal to you, your job is to be the BEST part of their worse day. If you can’t do that, separate the difference, that it is NOT about you, then you probably are in the wrong business. Within a month the server was gone. The customer continues to come back.
Another significant moment and a lighting bolt for our team, and that includes the kitchen as well as the server staff. We had two French Canadian gentlemen come in as COVID was allowing us to re-0pen. They arrived at 8:30 (our hours shortened because of COVID) as we were about to close, our staff immediately said “the kitchen just closed”, they said they were hungry had been traveling all day etc. I jumped in and said, we are happy to take care of you, the server rolled her eyes and said “I’ve been here all night business has been slow, I don’t want to get stuck here for another hour and they only want a pizza.” We sent the server home as she wished and my business partner and I served the gentlemen. They ordered two pizzas a carafe of wine, and tipped nicely as they were so appreciative. They thanked us the best they could, in very broken English; and proceeded to return every week with at least two friends, they did not share a pizza, they each every week ordered their own pizza and always ordered at least two carafes of wine or a bottle. They told us, because we stayed open, because we took the time when they couldn’t find service anywhere that we had become their favorite weekly restaurant.
Did we lose money on their first visit? Absolutely. We kept the pizza maker on, the chef on, the server assistant and the dishwasher on. Was it worth doing the right thing? Absolutely, we built loyal customers that shared our restaurant with their friends and always were welcome with a smile.
It is this type of thought pattern that keeps our clientele happy, that makes them as loyal to us as we are to them. I talked earlier about the Give Back Monday’s, caring for the things our clients care about, providing a welcoming environment and teaching our team the importance and how it overall makes them more money and better tips. Our customers trust our servers and their recommendations, they know they will get great service and amazing food.
Have you ever had to pivot?
This is an easy question to answer, in 2003 I was diagnosed with full blown AIDS, the prognosis was very bad and the outlook certain to be death. No one gave me hope, they were very matter of fact about what was going to happen. The caregivers had built up a wall from seeing so much death that they did not allow their patients in. They truly as I learned couldn’t take much more, but also knew the importance of what they were doing and learned to do it without emotions to apply, it became a very practical way of surviving.
It was at that moment, being diagnosed, being hospitalized, being given a death sentence that everything changed and I had to pivot. Things that were important, like the job, the bonus, the car, the clothes, the status no longer were of any concern, staying alive and then finding ways to have purpose to hold. It took several years to figure out how to find a way, t0 be relevant, to fight, but also to give back. To be grateful and appreciative when so many others had not had that same chance. I started to volunteer. It was my doctor, who told me on the first visit after being hospitalized, that if I need warm and fuzzy; she would not be the right doctor for me, but she clinically also knew I was a type A personality and had to do something. I started to volunteer for a HIV non profit who was working on AIDS trials, experiments to see what might help extend the life of millions around the globe infected. From their I was volun-forced to help on a AIDS related bicycle ride called Florida AIDS Ride or FAR, I became a full time volunteer and I watched as so many people were working so hard to raise money to help their friends live with dignity, in the short time they had on the earth and money not making it back because of the cost of producing the event. In 2001, the event had shrunk for 1000 participants to under 200 and no money made it back to any of the agencies. That year the organizers of the event confided in me they would not continue to do this event, they couldn’t do it well and they were going to stop. I was also asked to be the key note speaker to the under 200 ppl that made the journey (clearly there was not money to pay a professional). I spoke and pushed everyone beyond their comfort zone and exited the stage, feeling relieved that I said from my heart what I thought of the benefiting agencies, the producers and the sponsors that all failed to keep the mission in mind, but were rather wrapped up in their own crippling politics and finger pointing.
About a month or two later I got a phone call, I remember exactly. where I was standing in my home when I took the call. It went something like this…Glen, you know we aren’t going to continue on with this project, but if you wild what you said from the stage, we will give you the tools we have, the equipment we have to produce this ride. Without skipping a beat I said YES, hung up the phone and used some expletives like what the F was I thinking? Why did I say YES? I don’t want to do this, I don’t have the skill set to do this. After I thought about it enough and with consultation with friends who had gotten paid todo this job, I agreed to produce what would become The SMART Ride, but only if we guaranteed that 100% of the money raised by the particpants would go back to AIDS Service Organizations around the state of Florida adn ONLY if individuals had a degree of control over how their money was distributed amongst the chosen agencies.
The end result has been a 20 year journey that gave me hope in humanity, changed lives in significant ways, allowed people to grieve for their loss, allowed people to prove HIV/AIDS would not take them, gave people a personal and significant challenge to ride 165 miles from Miami to KeyWest and in the end raise almost $15 Million and return every penny as promised.
The bottom line to the question pivoting in my life and my career proved to be my lifesaver as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesmartride.org www.BonaItalian.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesmartride. https://www.facebook.com/Bonaitalian
Image Credits
Stephen Lang SRL Media