We recently connected with Mike Pichetto and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start on the operational side – do you spend more of your time/focus/energy on growing revenue or cutting costs?

While both of these are important parts of running a successful small business, I believe that growing revenue is the more important of the two. I monitor costs daily to ensure that we are staying within or below our budgeted margins. I spend much more of my focus, energy and resources on growing revenue through increased volume. It is possible for a business, restaurants in my case, to cut costs too much. Many times restaurants with poorer quality product, smaller portions or less staff than needed fail. Often times these issues are the result of an owner or manager cutting costs too much.
It is impossible, if managed properly, to increase revenue too much. The only pitfalls there are; if the operator is trying to accomplish this solely by raising prices and prices themselves out of the market ultimately leading to a decrease in volume. Or if as the volume increases the operator does not order properly or make the necessary staffing changes to accommodate.
By increasing revenue properly one can more easily cut costs properly with volume incentives and more cross utilization.

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 started in the restaurant industry when I was high school at a local high volume Italian restaurant as a busboy and a dishwasher. After a few weeks and some pestering they let me come in early and prep for the cooks before my shift, without any pay of course. One Friday the owner fired one of the cooks, Dave who worked “the wheel”. The wheel was the station at the front of the line responsible for taking in all the hand written tickets from the servers, calling out dishes to each station, working the broiler and plating most of the dishes. The owner asked me “hey do you still want to work in the kitchen?” I of course said yes and stepped onto the line for the first time. It was a great feeling that did not last very long. I think the restaurant did around 450 covers that night and about 45 minutes into it all I found myself outside the back door sitting on the steps shaking with a cigarette in my hand. The Chef opened the door and asked if I was quitting or coming back in. I returned to the line and continued to fail and get yelled at. I came back the next day, and the next. I kept coming back and kept getting beat up until one day I worked a shift without anyone calling me an id*ot. I was actually a part of the team. The kitchen was the first place that I felt at home and I loved every minute of it. Regardless of how many hours or days in a row I had to work. Regardless of how hot it was in the kitchen when it was 100 degrees outside. Regardless of what egomaniac chef I had to work for that treated me like garbage. I was home and I was not going to leave ever. I worked in that kitchen for about 2 1/2ears or so and a friend got me an interview at a Marriott Hotel in the area. I worked in that hotel for the next 8 years. It was pretty much my college experience. I worked every station, on every shift in every department. I taught myself much of what I know there. I worked with a number of cooks who had graduated from either the Culinary Institute or Johnson and Wales culinary colleges. I picked their brains and they gave me titles of the books they used in various classes. I am by no means a reader but I read those text books cover to cover multiple times. I have always been a visual learner and in the kitchen I strived to be the best in the room always. I would watch what more experienced cooks and chefs did, replicate their actions and then improve on them.
My executive chef was promoted to another Marriott and took me with him as his banquet chef. After 18 months we both left to open a new property in Bridgewater. He was the executive chef and I was his executive sous chef.
This property opened just after 9/11. Marriott lost 2 “A” grade properties as a result of the attack. The top managers from both properties got together and requested to be relocated to Bridgewater. As a result this much smaller New Jersey property had a super star NYC opening management team. This property ran much differently than any other I had experienced. The focus was on the employees, or associates as they were referred to. They drilled a mission statement into our heads daily.
“Our mission is to exceed our guest’s expectations daily. To build absolut loyalty amongst our associates, guests and owners.”
Growing up both of my parents owned their own businesses. My father was a general contractor and my mother owned a small gift store in town. Bridgewater was where I learned how to run a business. I met my now wife, Rebecca at there and in 2003 we got a call from a developer in WIlliams Township PA , just outside of Easton, who was building a golf course and was looking for a caterer to own the food and beverage program. My upbringing and the fact that I had 14 years under my belt helped to make the decision to pull the trigger so my wife and I left Marriott to open our first restaurant / catering facility.
Vintage restaurant and bar was very well received and remained successful for the 10 years we owned it. I was the executive chef and responsible for the back of the house operations while my wife was incharge of everything front of the house. We took everything we learned at Marriott and funneled it down into our small business. I figured if Marriott was the leader in their industry how could it be a mistake to replicate it. We adopted Bridgewater’s mission statement and put our employees ahead of our guests.
To this day it is one of the things we do that truly separated us from a good percent of our peers in the industry. Our employees are our number one priority. We treat them like family, we help them when they need it, we treat them with respect all the time and celebrate their successes both in and out of the workplace. All this ensures that the guest is taken care of with very little effort. It creates an environment where all the people responsible for the guest experience are genuinely happy to make it happen. This all helps to ensure that the business owners interests, while third priority, are taken care of.
In 2008 we bought a 4 story building in Easton and in 2013 opened 3rd & Ferry Fish Market. We ran both restaurants for 2 years. The golf course was sold and the new owners had plans to provide their own food and beverage. We closed Vintage in 2015 and focused on Our new spot.
Ferry was an overnight hit. We were able to retain a good portion of the staff from Vintage and hired the rest. We continued with our mission statement and our business model. We celebrated 10 years in business this past November and I am proud to say that Danya Kinsman, my general manager, and I have been working together since 2005 at Vintage and 5 of our other 50 employees have been with us from day one. Easton’s downtown was different than being on the outskirts in Williams Township. The downtown community was vibrant and welcomed us with open arms and we were able to immerse ourselves into it. I took 90% of my marketing budget and diverted the funds towards feeding those in need and had 4 such events during our second year in business there each seeing 180 – 200+ people. We have continued these events over the years, currently we open the doors to those in need on a Monday in December for a Christmas dinner every year. The staff fills all the volunteer spots the first day the sign up sheet is posted. We get to serve 200+ people, we set up a photographer in our private room with Santa for anyone with kids. In our second year we organized, what has turned into the 3rd largest festival in town, Clam Jam started on one block next to the restaurant and now encompasses 7 blocks and sees over 6500 on the last Sunday of every August since. We participate or organize multiple charitable events per year intown. About 5 years ago we organized one for another restaurant in town who was looking at being shut down due to structural issues and raised over 20K to help keep them open.
I have always been passionate about food and its preparation. The beauty of a new ingredient, the joy on the face of someone who enjoys something you have created is what got me into this business 30+ years ago and it will always a passion of mine and bring me fulfillment. Over the years however where my passion lies professionally has grown to include much more. I have truly become passionate about being able to make people happy in every way not just with the food and service I can provide. Seeing my staff of employees happy and thriving and helping to create the same culture within the community is equally important to my professional fulfillment now.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Before seeking out the construction loan to build out our current restaurant I prepared: Projected budgets for the first 2 years
Staffing models for opening
Design / operational drawings
Opening food and bar meus
opening marketing campagne layout, design and budgeting

I decided to try and obtain the loan through the Small Business Administration. I learned of a free resource at Lehigh University, the Center for Small Business Development. I met with them and relayed my vision and everything I had put together. They told me that they could absolutely help me secure a loan through the SBA but I had to change a few things. They had me scrap everything that I had worked on for the past 3 months. They gave me budget templates and forecasting parameters, different models to present any design concepts and marketing campagnes. Basically handed me another 2 months of planning work. Needless to say I was not the happiest camper in the world but they explained to me that while what I had presented wasn’t necessarily wrong it wasn’t what the SBA wanted to see. Ultimately they were able to, with the help of a Doylestown PA based bank, secure me an SBA loan for 1.2 Million to get the project underway.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I am in the restaurant business which is at the heart of the service industry. I believe that any entrepreneur in the service industry is first and foremost selling themselves, their personality and the culture that they cultivate. I have build my reputation in my market by being unwaveringly honest, kind and charitable. I work very hard to be ahead of as many curves as possible. I network where I have to and try to listen more than I speak so that when I do speak it is heard more.
There is an abundance of people who can run a restaurant with good food, drinks and service. I believe that my reputation is built on strength of character.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thirdandferry.com
• Instagram: @3rdandferryfishmarket
• Facebook: 3rd & Ferry Fish Market
• Yelp: 3rd & Ferry Fish Market