Offering an authentic gelato experience with family roots from Calabria, Italy

Transcript

Full transcript page · Interactive episode

============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================

[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:06] SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm Mario Tonoguzi with Calgary's podcast on Canada's podcast network joining me today is Dino Falvo,
[00:12] SPEAKER_00: who is vice president of business development Alberta East for Mario's Gelati,
[00:18] SPEAKER_00: and also director of brand and strategic development owner operator of Amato Gelato Cafe in Galgrey.
[00:26] SPEAKER_00: Thanks Dino for joining us today.
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
[00:30] SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: You got lots going on there with the two businesses.
[00:35] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about each.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: Let's start with Mario's Gelati.
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about what you guys do.
[00:43] SPEAKER_01: Mario's a, that's our manufacturing arm of the two businesses.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: Mario's Gelati, we started in the early 70s in Vancouver.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling a, I kind of a niche void at that time.
[01:00] SPEAKER_01: There wasn't really gelato in Vancouver back in the early 70s and Mario was making some gelato in the restaurant.
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: We had a restaurant business before I was a dinner dinner dancing kind of restaurant,
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: a separate club kind of place and who's making gelato and a lot of chefs were coming in there and then.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: It kind of started to fall in from there opened up a gelato cart in Yale town,
[01:29] SPEAKER_01: going gas town story in the early 70s and then started opening up in Grand the L island when Grand the L island for started opening up.
[01:38] SPEAKER_01: So we've been at that game now for manufacturing for now almost close to 49 years,
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: going to be 50 years come here in the next year.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: So of manufacturing for restaurant hospitality, grocery, airline and business, all that kind of stuff.
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: So I, I take care of the distribution in the Alberta going east right now.
[02:00] SPEAKER_01: So that's a big part of our business is manufacturing for our old grand marios gelati.
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: We do a lot of private label for grocery stores and restaurants as well that chain restaurants we've been dealing with major chain restaurants across the country for probably now 32 years.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: One of the biggest ones we've been handling for 32 years I'm under an MBA with those restaurants not just those who they are as those those kind of big chains don't like to let the Canada the bag their suppliers are and whatnot.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: Some of them like to claim that they make the product in house so I don't want to get anybody in trouble at that.
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: So I'm just okay to ask it doesn't matter.
[02:42] SPEAKER_01: So I just curious so who was Mario Mario's my own goal Mario came from being who came to Canada from my motto.
[02:50] SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of where we get the amount of gelato cafes that's the name of our town in in Calabria where we're from.
[02:55] SPEAKER_01: So Mario came to Winnipeg.
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: Mario actually started in the late 60s he actually started Bongo La Pista in Winnipeg back back when I got Bongo lecture he sold it to a Jewish fellow that turned it into a major Canadian national franchise.
[03:11] SPEAKER_01: And that that point when Mario got his money from the restaurant there he went to Vancouver and he started a couple pizza places then he developed an allergy to flower and then why he got back into the restaurant business and then started with the gelato in there and here we are today.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: All right let's switch over to a motto gelato cafe based here in Calgary tell me a little bit about the history behind that.
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah a motto so a motto goes back all the way to 1929 where Mario's grandfather and father were making gelato and some sort of better more so better at that time due to you know how's having a route on our property and land you know in Calabria we grow everything from.
[03:53] SPEAKER_01: I think of the India I don't know if people know what that is the critical pairs I would say two peaches and plums and carries and all this kind of all this kind of stuff so they they were making a little bit on there and they sell a little bit in the gelato cart and around the town and village and stuff like that our town is very small it's like 300 people that live there so this is not like some distance.
[04:15] SPEAKER_01: This is the middle of mountain in Calabria or the top of the mountain I should say and started from there and then Mario when he went left on the went in Milano to go for pastry study for pastry.
[04:28] SPEAKER_01: Every tool in Milano when he was 17 and then he went to work on cruise ships and out of Sicily and then after that years in his early 20s and then when he migrated to Winnipeg which was of our most of our town probably say 95% of our town migrated to Winnipeg due to CM and CP being the central hub in Canada and that's where a lot of immigrants went to Winnipeg at that time so Winnipeg is still very heavily immigrant influence and has a lot of people who are over there so Mario got it.
[05:12] SPEAKER_01: So Mario started out there and then when Mario started doing the gelato in Vancouver for the restaurants and when you always had this idea of creating a really nice authentic gelataria.
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: He was selling to a bunch of little small places that were buying some gelato from him doing something and whatnot but he wanted to really expand on it and really give a really open experience so when we developed the when they have developed the start the plans for the new factory in Vancouver and the mid 90s the idea was just to make the bottom portion of the property or the factory or retail outlet and of course for our namesake of the town.
[05:57] SPEAKER_01: We named it a Montluccio Latta Cafe which at that time had 72 flavors and nobody ever seen that many flavors before in a shop before it was mind boggling to a lot of people.
[06:07] SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of our retail arm where because dealing with the restaurants dealing with the restaurants the general public always was curious where can I go buy this where can I go get this where can I go sing and we send them to you know grocery stores and then let them know but it was never really a public form for our product to say kind of come.
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: So then when we did that we had all our vertical stuff you know retail pies and half liters and one liters and for two bowls and fashos and castata and all these kind of fun stuff and gelato and bars and calypops and drumsticks so it gave a given an outlet for the general public to come as I say and then in 2000 when I am left back to over to come here for the distribution I was stuck with the same problem or the same challenge I should say is it safe.
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: So I think that we were selling to lean as in 1993 here 1994 when she was in the strip all across the street there and there's very few places to go for gelato like really very can place I think lenos was like really the only place in in Calgary that you can go for the gelato and then I was struggling with the wholesale in terms of public education and knowledge especially with the restaurants they didn't know what this was and the first year was a little bit of form and education process so I thought what would better be.
[07:23] SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to do something to copy what Mario wanted to do was to give this kind of public space where people can kind of learn about gelato and panini and coffee and serve those more than that's when I opened up the motto for in Calgary here the Kensington location which is still to this day is just going bananas here is just a stop and it's just very very very extremely busy even during COVID it was extremely busy and then I was like,
[07:53] SPEAKER_01: I always had this idea was to take it a step further and really create not just a gelato shop but I really wanted to create a all encompassing Italian bar cafe and then that was my idea and my concept which we which we love which talked about on the last interview that we did in podcast which was the new location on 17th Avenue which has just been very well received then it just gone off the plan is gone.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: So I was going to go off without a hitch to try to educate the Calgary consumers on what is really Italian gelato what is really Italian coffee because there's very few part part between places in Calgary where you can go get real authentic Italian espresso which I import directly from Italy and Italian pastries and cakes and paninis and so forth and there was really never a dessert place to go for Italian stuff like it decides to grocery store.
[08:53] SPEAKER_01: Alina's or Spinelli or you know Italian supermarket or these kind of places and I just really wanted to expand further with the with the cafe concept and not just be pigeonholed with gelato so so far so good.
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: So tell me just a little bit about you know you mentioned from the Mario's gelati standpoint your reaches across Canada you know in terms of getting the product out.
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: So what are the plans for a motto gelato do you do see a possibility of future growth and others centers in cross Canada.
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: Yeah so our ideas always been when might be open up the first location in Vancouver we have gotten a lot of response because it was a very unique concept in Vancouver with wanting to franchise and doing this in plus it was beneficial for our wholesale because the more stores we can open up.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: Or wholesale benefits as well because we're fully integrated with the supply chain so it comes to pastries and the gelato and the coffee and the supplies it all comes from one supplier and it's and it was a good it was a good model.
[10:03] SPEAKER_01: And when I started opening up in Calgary here it was a concern in the beginning was is that does this business is this business available in winter time being so highly independent on gelato.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: And we were getting calls Toronto and calls for a bag calls for Saskatchewan and wanting to do this and it was always a it was a major concern for a lot of people which is warranted because you know we're dealing in Canada we got eight months of winter here ball and winter we got four months of summers this is not going to remain to was a little bit more forgiving in terms of being a coastal city and dealing with the with the weather over there.
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: So that was one of the reasons why I wanted to kind of over the years is I got really tied up with how busy the store was and my wholesale was exploding and I couldn't really focus in a lot on this on this franchising kind of concept where I wanted to kind of go.
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: So what happened was is that I had this idea like I mentioned of turning it more into full on 365 day around half a instead of people can't even start about in the winter time is it is viable is in the whole time where you just selling gelato is a coffee.
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: So right now with with opening up 17th Avenue and people are already calling us already I got offers to buy the location already from from me within the last six months I've got four offers to buy that location I get 17th Avenue because there are people people lined up around the block and it's really just buzzing and booming and and now now that the interest is come back again to say oh is this is something are you willing to want to franchise is this something you guys are willing to ready to do or you guys ready to franchise.
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: We are ready to franchise we have developed that package many years ago and it just we just sat on it in shelf different now because we just weren't in the positions want to do it because I don't think that the brand or the concept was something that somebody in the middle of the cash one benefit from when November took around and all the way until March April I think it was a people don't get me wrong people come we service five 600 people a day still in the winter at Kensington.
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: Location here in St. Louis Vancouver this is not a business that is not just a summer business but it's hard to sell that to somebody that's in another province or start to sell that somebody in medicine had her left for just doesn't come to the source see how quite how busy they quite are so now with 17th Avenue the exposure we being getting there the social media and just the reach that that source already got it and that's kind of the new flagship kind of bottle of what we're trying to go with here and and I think we're.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: We're entertaining we're entertaining quite a few people here right now in the city of Calgary i'm planning to open up a few more corporate locations and my RID is not to franchise the Calgary right now we are are requested to be coming from out of the city into other other provinces and other other small towns and other you know bigger towns like we're dying in Saskatoon so that's that's kind of where we're planning to take the next steps with the brand.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: So what do you think the the peel is for people for the concept that you have.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: I think I think what it is is that when you look at what's out there for franchising right now in terms of like coffee or cafe business they're really they're really all the same they sell a few little for for for socks they sell a couple little lemon squares and they have your coffee and regular coffee and espresso and maybe the interiors of different than the branding is different.
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: Pretty much 95% of the stores the exact same in terms of the offering there is not a concept in the in the franchising world right now in Canada even out east is that even if we found that is all encompassing something really authentic Italian number one one of these cafes they're not Italian which is fine they're just you know they're they're own roasters and third party roasters and and running on the third third.
[14:02] SPEAKER_01: The third wave coffee trend right now or what we're trying to do is trying to and we've created it and we bet you did on it quite well is that even that truly Italian authentic experience with real Italian products all in one location so if you coming for gelato you coming for gelato if you're coming for espresso you coming for espresso if you want to come for a caseries and for nanti and he remissue and cocktails and a petitive you can all come into one.
[14:30] SPEAKER_01: And I think that we've executed on that quite well is that we see the diversity in terms of what customers are ordering when they're coming to the cafes now you get a group of four or five people coming they're not all getting gelato two of them are getting gelato two of them are getting pizza with paninis and then they're getting desserts and then they're getting to miss you and then the other the other ones getting an overall spritz granita so it's a little bit.
[14:55] SPEAKER_01: And all in one place that a group in common set of a group and no I feel like pasta or I feel like pizza and I feel like gelato and I feel like a coffee well you have to go to three different places to go get that with our place what we have found is is that it's an all one stop shop over here very reasonably very reasonably price menu when we're offering espresso for $1.50 coffee is probably the least expensive in the whole city that we're offering.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: Gelato is just the same market prices ice cream is now ice cream is you know up to five five fifty for a scoop of gelato and ice cream in the city so I think that we've created is something very unique in the market places doesn't exist fully integrated distribution but we're not relying on other suppliers all of all of the products are coming from our own warehouses and our distributions system and trucks and a profitable business and a lot of these franchises that you're getting into your business.
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: You're really just buying a job and that's that's great because you can maybe sell the franchise after if you're going to be a single unit operator or multi unit operator but I think with our model is that you're buying a job you're getting a very busy location and you're making profits on the end of the day and that's really at the end of the day depending all that time and energy and effort into something you want to see profit.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: So what's the appeal of gelato.
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: I think where gelato is is that where it is in the market right now you know if you talk for 20 years ago is something very niche and very kind of not even trendy at that time because not a lot of people even knew what gelato was unless you went to Italy or what in Europe and did your travels like that and you pass 15 gelato stocks and I trust them in a role or something like that or
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: you would even know about gelato until I even opened up this store and you know everybody thought I was selling gelo so go figure up to 20 years ago that nobody even knew what gelato was hearing Calgary.
[16:55] SPEAKER_01: So now I think what the appeal is is that since we've opened people have traveled a lot more over the last you know 20 years seeing what it is.
[17:03] SPEAKER_01: I think that the quality the quality in terms of the ingredients that we're using in the gelato is a lot more playful for full than ice cream.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: I think people are looking for something that is a little bit less fattening I would like to say because gelato is under 10% butter fat in order to be called gelato and they in order to be called ice can be up to 10% butter fat.
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's just a little bit of a healthier option I think it's a little bit more refreshing I think what we offer in terms of flavors is that we offer in a cansative we offer over 72 flavors in many facts over 140 flavors I think the diverse kind of flavors that we're coming with appeal to a lot of different ethnic markets that are out there Asian markets South American markets or a city I should say European city and those are flavors that are hitting home with a lot of people.
[17:54] SPEAKER_01: And again it just comes down to the quality is just not something that we're opening up like gelato is kind of kicking off now with more exposure in terms of other manufacturers getting into gelato and all that but one thing that we thrive on and what we've always stood for is is that we make everything from scratch we're not buying we've done paste terms from Italy that you just crack it can open and poured into a batch research that here we got gelato because you can do that but that's really not our game our game is really easy to do.
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: We have a high quality ingredients that we work from all over the world.
[18:27] SPEAKER_01: Mango's got from India dirty and from Southeast Asia hazelnuts from Kilmonte.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: This is what we do it's like open it's like having a Italian restaurant and the chef is opening up cans of ragu sauce for pizza pasta sauce which is fine but that's that's how it is with the ice cream and gelato is business right now is that you can buy
[18:52] SPEAKER_01: free done ice cream mix or you can buy free done flavor mixes from Italy for even on the ice cream thing you can call support or on big ice cream or a big dairy company and they can deliver you free done ice cream mix which is all good that's all fine but that just not I think where the at the end of the day the proof is in the pudding or I'd like to say the proof is that gelato is then it's based on the quality that bring people back and I think we I think our company on both brands the marios brand with restaurants delivery for restaurants and pasta and I think grocery stores are the best.
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: The truth is that our quality and consistency has always been bang on and when you don't have those two in in in sink that's when business starts to go downhill because you start skimping and you start compromising just right now the perfect examples raspberries I cannot buy IQF raspberries my life dependent on the bank raspberries or metal right now there's a world shortage on it and we have a lot of our major customers that are we're shorting on raspberries and we have a lot of different kinds of things like that which are not so bad for us.
[19:52] SPEAKER_01: So, a better right now is just we can't get our hands on raspberry and our customers just go buy other raspberry.
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: No, we well this is the one thing that we don't do is we don't compromise what our customers have come used to and that's where you start to kind of go sideways in terms of what is what is your brand representing our brand is representing quality and authentic Italian gelato for peto and when you start to kind of compromise on going to just fill a void because you can get your hands on something then you start to really get into a little bit of some problems in that sense from the end of the day.
[20:22] SPEAKER_01: From the general public, especially dealing with the amount of customers that we deal with on a daily basis in the cafes we service over a thousand people a day.
[20:29] SPEAKER_01: At either location and when you start when customers get used to a certain product or they use to certain flavor and then you switch it on them that's a recipe for Zaz.
[20:39] SPEAKER_00: All right, super one last question I have and it's going to be kind of a little bizarre and but I asked this question to another Italian business owner recently.
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: What do you think it is about being Italian the qualities you have of being Italian that have served you well as a as a nontrapiner in a business owner.
[21:02] SPEAKER_01: I think it's a good question.
[21:05] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I get asked this periodically why is it Italian always have like the best what and maybe a big prize.
[21:14] SPEAKER_01: But the public asked me why does it kind of have the best food clothes? Why do they have the best cars?
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: Why do they have the best food? Why do they have the best thing?
[21:21] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a sense of pride. I think it's a sense of pride in terms of being able to take what.
[21:32] SPEAKER_01: This world has to offer us in terms of food or materials from clothing or materials from cars and all this kind of thing.
[21:40] SPEAKER_01: And it's a sense of pride and wanting to make the best of the best.
[21:45] SPEAKER_01: And I think that by doing that and the only way to do that is a sense of relentless work, relentless trial and error and relentless pursuit of something better than just the status quo.
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where I think we are in a society and as I think is that especially with social media, this is done.
[22:10] SPEAKER_01: I mean, a lot of damage to qualifying what is good and what is bad because there's so much disinformation out there.
[22:20] SPEAKER_01: There's so much paid advertisement. There's so much paid thing.
[22:22] SPEAKER_01: People don't even know what good is anymore. I don't think it's so it's so.
[22:27] SPEAKER_01: Or if it's hot today because it's good and it's gone tomorrow and everybody's on the bandwagon today saying it's the best the best.
[22:34] SPEAKER_01: Why is it so bad tomorrow and it's gone tomorrow?
[22:37] SPEAKER_01: And this is the thing is what why we pursue why we get up in the morning every day and try to offer the best gelato experience.
[22:46] SPEAKER_01: Why we try to offer the best coffee experience and why I travel the world and why do I go to the ends of the world to bring coffee from Italy here.
[22:53] SPEAKER_01: Why do I bring this pastry from Italy over here is because the companies that I deal with have been doing this for over 6780 years and combined total with the 92 years or the 90 plus years of families been doing gelato.
[23:06] SPEAKER_01: So the 80 years that the pastry companies that doing it and the six years we have a combined over 250 years of manufacturing experience just the three companies and they're all family companies.
[23:18] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a sense of pride going back to your question. It's a sense of.
[23:25] SPEAKER_01: I want to be better than just the status quo and I think that's Italian mentality has always been I want to be better than what's the status quo and the work ethic.
[23:34] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[24:04] Speaker UNKNOWN: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[24:07] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[24:25] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[24:34] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[24:52] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[25:00] Speaker UNKNOWN: And I think that's a sense of pride going back to your question.
[25:00] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[25:00] Speaker UNKNOWN: