We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luca Marcato a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Luca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
During the Covid quarantine time (and shoulder surgery recovery) I struggled with remaining positive, while some days I was all into research and development and finding ways to hone my skills, other days I was facing depression and loneliness, so around April 2021 I was offered to check out a location with a pizza oven with gas connected and partial equipment already in place, the choice appeared very clear to me; going back to the daily struggle or jump into a new adventure…….and then it clicked in my mind, pizza-man!?! I didn’t hesitate and said: “Yes I’ll do it!”. Bringing a Classicly trained chef to the pizza business was the logical thing for me, would that give me an edge over the competition? Possibly, would it be the solution? Time will tell,
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
In a galaxy far far away, sorry that’s someone else story……but in a land far away, Italy to be exact, I spent my childhood Sundays in my aunt’s restaurant in the outskirt of Milan, an authentic family-run trattoria (a few steps above a diner), where the cacophony of my cousin’s voices (overwhelmed with tasks) and my aunt screaming to get them finished was a daily routine. I was caught in the middle helping the various family members, from “Emilia” (the cousin bartender) in stocking the bar and retrieving the booze and beers from the impossible low ceiling “liquor room” under the bar itself (which for sure was illegally built) or “Tino” ( the cousin Pizza man) constantly screaming “piu legna piu legna” (more wood, more wood) for the oven. That experience for sure left an impression and later on influenced me into going to culinary school.
Going forward a few years 1987 to be exact I arrived in New York City, and that was the moment I realized I was in culinary heaven, surrounded by the best Chef and restaurants, and many pizza places. Those professional formative years definitely shaped me into who I am today, the “never stop learning” philosophy that keeps me going to the day like Youtube, Google, etc. (I wish I had this back then and a cellphone) WOW! Spanning the 32 years I spent in NYC I collected a “New York Times” review for the restaurant (Luca Restaurant) and multiple reviews/mentions (again New York Times and other publications) for the Wine Bars (Cavatappo wine Bars), a Michelin guide mention for my restaurant ( Luca Restaurant) and an invitation to host a luncheon at the “James Beard House” for up and coming young Chefs. I even have done extra curriculum work in the field of music and opened a Jazz Club (crazy idea) but I was blessed, for whatever reasons (Karma!?!) by the most incredible Jazz artists who choose to perform at my place, you can see it for yourself on youtube channel “Luca’s Jazz Corner”, anyway I believe that if you give the best you also will receive back the best, and that’s what drives and motivate me till today.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
Jason my partner still owns a pizza place in the Village and the Hamptons “Brunetti” (NYS) and so I use to go to the Village location and truly enjoy the Brunetti Pizza, especially for his garden settings, really relaxing but mainly because he was serving Neapolitan-style pizza, one of my favorite (always searching for “The” Neapolitan style pizza). When I moved to Tampa, I was brought to Forbici Restaurant in Hyde Park Village, and here I meet: “Hi I’m Jason Brunetti” and so we started talking……what struck me about Jason was his deep approach to Pizza making, the attention to detail, the discipline in has about his work and off (he’s a bodybuilder), the pure love for pizza making…..I knew I found my match, an inspiration!
Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?
In 2005 I opened on the Upper East Side (NYC) “Cavatappo Wine Bar”, a 250-square-foot, hole-in-wall, wine bar., one of the first in the city back then, I was blessed by Eric Azimov and the New York Times for multiple reviews and mentioned for 5 years, but when iI felt that the business was no longer profitable in the way I was operating, I put it for sale. As an owner operator, I would have more profit than an owner investor, so in 2010 I sold it to a gentleman who decided to change the course of direction for the worse and really upset me, it was my baby, so the lesson I learned was, that no matter how successful you are (or not) once is sold is no longer in your control and be prepared for disappointment
Image Credits
Luca Marcato