Operations

Squisito Pizza & Pasta: Please don't call it just a pizzeria

With 100-year-old family recipes from an Italian family and a commitment to being the local "gathering spot," Squisito Pizza & Pasta primes for growth in a tumultuous restaurant environment.

Photo: Provided

September 16, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

There are some ironies in the story of Maryland-based Squisito Pizza & Pasta. First, there's the fact that the brand's founder, Gennaro DiMeo, opted to specialize in New York-style pizza despite coming to the U.S. at age 15 from his birthplace of Naples, Italy.

Gennaro and Michele DiMeo. (Provided)

Secondly, Gennaro's wife and co-owner, Michele DiMeo, insists that the restaurant chain is not a pizzeria. As she put it, it's more than that — it's an Italian restaurant.

"We are not primarily a pizza concept," Michele DiMeo told Pizza Marketplace in an interview, explaining that the last person to make that misidentification was one of their landlords.

"They're like, 'Oh, you're primarily pizza,' but we're not. We truly are an Italian restaurant in a fast casual setting. … I mean we do have true, authentic New York pizza … but, we're very well known for our pasta and our salads and our subs.

I would say if you were to break it down, pizza is probably 40% of our business and 60% would be our pasta."

Since Michele's joining of the 23-year-old chain 12 years ago, the couple has added a carryout-focused spinoff — Squisito,Too — to the portfolio, which includes 8 Squisitos in Virginia and Maryland and one Squisito, Too in Jessup, Maryland. They will add three more Squisito, Too locations in Tennessee and Washington, D.C. by year's end. By the end of 2021, the DiMeos plan to double the size of the two concepts to 24 locations with openings slated for New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Connecticut.

"Everything's always changing and you got to stay on top of it. I don't think it's going to go back. Like everybody's saying the same thing now, that 'Oh, I can't wait 'til things return to normal!' Well, I think this is our new normal. I don't really think it's going to change. I think this is just kind of our wake-up call to say, 'Hey, we all needed to step up our game.'"
-Michele DiMeo, Squisito's

Michele DiMeo insists that regardless of how much the brands grow, they will always be all about the Italian family whose recipes fill the pages of its menu — many more than a century old.

And that's where Pizza Marketplace started its questions with Michele DiMeo.

Q: So tell us about the roots of the family behind all these menu recipes?
A: Where he grew up in Monte Di Procida (in the city of Naples, across from the island of Ischia) … they grow all of their own grapes and make their own wine and grow all the vegetables in their ingredients. When we were there for the first time, my mother — you know, being so American — was like, 'Wow - pinch me! I've never seen anything like this in my entire life!' …

But yeah they're all family recipes and they all date way back and everything that he does, he grew up with.

Q: Gennaro's hometown then, is part of Naples, where pizza was basically invented. So why did he opt to specialize in New York-style pizza?
A: Pizza in Naples and pizza in New York are very different. In Naples, they have the big open wood fire ovens … and they use different flour — double-zero flour — and the crust is different and you don't have those perfect, 14-, 16-, 18-inch round pizzas.

But when Gennaro came here, he started working with family and friends that brought him over when he was 15 and that (New York-style pizza) is what he was taught. … I mean that's what he fell in love with — that big New York-style crust and pizza and that's what he became an expert on. … So, even though we use family recipes (for other Squisito menu offerings), the pizza is true New York-style."

Q: What about the whole idea of family ownership? How does that work for you day-to-day, particularly as a married couple working together?
A: You know, we've been working together now for … over 12 years, and we work together, because we don't really work "together."

His expertise is totally different than my expertise and what I do, so we're really not in the same space all day long even though we do work together. He's really the concept guy — the restaurateur. He's the one that does the menus and the specials and validates locations, where I'm all operations. I read the leases … and vet and validate our locations … and I do all the operations.

So it works really well because we're not in the same space. … We go to bed together and we work together, but it's great because you have the flexibility to be able to travel together and it's made both our lives really easy.

Q: But this has certainly not been an easy year for any restaurateur or brand leader. So how has Squisito fared?
A: You know, in times when it gets tough, the pizza industry tends to do very well. It's the No. 1 type of comfort food that a lot of people turn to and it's the right price-point for people to still be able to dine out and feed their kids and not feel like they're spending $80 or $100 or $150 for fine dining. …

So in 2008 (the start of the Great Recession) when everybody was struggling and the economy dropped, Squisito was up. We're seeing the same thing this year. All of our Squisito, Too stores are up double-digits, even with only being open 50% because we've had the ability to drive the rest of our volume through third-party delivery. …

We also now sell homemade sauces to go that when you're getting your dinner on a Friday night, you don't have to run to the store. That was one thing that we added this year because so many people are having a hard time getting to the grocery store. … I think in the restaurant industry we've all had to get creative in order to stay open. …

Q: How does business break down now between takeout and delivery, versus dine-in?
A: I would say we're still getting 60% getting in terms of dining, and I would say 40% are now going toward online ordering and third-party delivery. We didn't really shift. We just added to it.

So we started DoorDash at the middle to back half of last year … then when COVID-19 hit, we looked to bring in a second third-party delivery partner with GrubHub. … Plus we have things like gelato to go and during COVID, we added bottles of wine (to go).

But I think also a lot had to do with DoorDash and Grubhub stepping up their games to make sure that they're delivering a quality product. … We're also doing a lot of curbside pickup now, which just started for us.

Q: Now with plans to double the system's footprint by the end of next year, is there any trepidation about losing some of that family feel and control, as you take on franchisees?
A: Everything's always changing and you got to stay on top of it. I don't think it's going to go back. Like everybody's saying the same thing now, that 'Oh, I can't wait 'til things return to normal!'

Well, I think this is our new normal. I don't really think it's going to change. I think this is just kind of our wake-up call to say, 'Hey, we all needed to step up our game.' The ones that really stay on top of it are the ones that are going to survive and grow and be successful and continue to grow.

But our focus is really to stay that neighborhood gathering place — that's kind of our brand … and we require our franchisees to also do that. I don't think we'll ever get away from that, whether we have 10 stores, 20 stores or 30 stores, that's kind of the heart and soul of the brand.

So, right now we're in Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and we're growing into Tennessee and getting ready to open in Delaware, then extending our footprint into New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. But we have to keep that same feel if we want to continue to be successful. … We're still going to keep the true values that made us successful.

All photos: Provided by Squisito

Operations

About S.A. Whitehead

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.