We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mario & Kelly Crobu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mario & Kelly below.

Hi Mario & Kelly, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Our surname, CROBU (“crow-boo”), means “CROW” in Sardegnan. Mario (and his brother Gianfranco who is a part of our team as well!) is a native Italian from the region of Sardegna, the second largest island in the Mediterranean. While still a part of Italy, Sardegna has its own super distinct culture and even its own language. We feel confident putting our name at the forefront of our company because everything we do has a personal touch and also because it represents both the classic elements of Italian cooking and hospitality as well as the uniqueness we have to offer from Sardegna!

Mario & Kelly, 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?

Mario and I met in NYC while working together in the hospitality industry. Collectively we have over 30 years of experience in almost every role in a variety of restaurants all over the world. We quickly found a shared love and passion for good food, wine, travel and hospitality. It has been a dream of ours for some time to have a business of our own, and we are so grateful that it is now a reality! Mario’s brother, Gianfranco joined our team a little over a year ago, so, even as we continue to grow, we are staying true to our identity as an authentic Italian family business!
By far the the thing that makes us most proud is when our customers take the time to write, call, or message us to let us know how much they love our food. It truly feels like we have a network of extended family that we are able to share with!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth is still the very best source of connections for us! Whether that be from customers sharing us with friends and family, or personal interactions we are able to have at Farmer’s Markets, face to face has the biggest impact!

How did you build your audience on social media?

While we don’t have a huge following on social media compared to others out there, we do have very loyal and devoted fans! It’s a never ending process keeping up with content and trying to grow our audience, but I think its worth it striving for quality over quantity and being able to keep things personal. We got our first boost on social media early on when a fellow food business owner with a huge following (we didn’t even realize at the time!) posted about us. We are forever grateful for this, and I think it shows how important it is for people to support each other, because it can really still make a difference!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.casacrobu.com
• Instagram: @casacrobu
• Facebook: @casacrobu
• Yelp: @casacrobu

Image Credits
Kelly Crobu