Sandro Romagnoli’s business plan might drive a business school professor crazy.
Basically, Romagnoli says the plan for Figo Pasta, his moderately priced Italian restaurant, is to: “Be in the business of making people happy.”
It must be working. Since June 2002 Romagnoli has opened eight restaurants, four in the past year despite the recession.
At a time when notices of restaurant closings barely raise an eyebrow, Figo Pasta is forging its own path, drawing customers and growing. Unlike other restaurants that are downsizing menus or offering price deals to attract diners, Figo is not.
“Of course we must make money,” Romagnoli says. “We are not a charity. But I do not go from step to step. I don’t have a grand plan. Everything I have done is from the heart and almost by circumstance. It’s never been about the money. I didn’t have a business model. I didn’t go after investors.
“If I had a business plan, would I have realized half an hour before opening that I didn’t have plates? It is what it is.”
Still, whether by design or not, Figo incorporates several of the latest restaurant trends.
Everything is made fresh — pastas, breads, sauces, salads, desserts, herb-infused olive oils — and there is a decidedly neighborhood feel.
The price point is low. For $9 patrons can select from nine homemade raviolis or 23 pastas and choose from 17 homemade sauces. Mathematically, that means Figo offers about 500 pasta/sauce combinations, Romagnoli says. Wines range from $4.75 to $7 a glass.
“It’s a great concept that offers fresh ingredients, great food and a good value,” says Harold V. Shumacher, president and managing broker for the Shumacher Group Inc., which assisted Romagnoli in finding his last four locations.
“There are not a lot of places where you can take your wife and kid and have a great meal, dessert and a glass of wine and have the bill come in at around $35.”
Restaurateur George McKerrow, president and CEO of Ted’s Montana Grill, believes Romagnoli has found a “very good niche. It’s pretty spectacular what he’s doing. ... It’s just what people want in these economic times. He’s serving a good value.”
As befitting his plan — or lack thereof — Romagnoli had no intent of opening restaurants. Growing up on a farm near Florence, Italy, he went to England to perfect his English. He worked in a restaurant slicing meats, serving tea, waiting tables. It was menial work but it changed his life.
“There I was in my broken English but I could see that what I was doing was putting a smile on people’s faces. I was learning things but what I remembered were the faces. It was a pivotal moment for me.”
He returned to Italy and became the international sales manager for an Italian company that sold woodworking machinery. The company sent him to Atlanta.
“I came in 1995 and I was successful, but I knew it wasn’t for me. I didn’t feel the happiness I wanted. I went back in my mind as to when I was the happiest. It was in England putting smiles on faces. I was 40 in Atlanta and thought I better get on with my life.”
He wrote down his mantra. “We are in the business of making people happy.”
Through a “chain of events” he met a chef and they started playing around with recipes, many from Romagnoli’s memory. The two eventually had a falling out and went to court over compensation, he says. The original chef has not been involved since April 2007.
Romagnoli rented a small space on Collier Road from his dry cleaner and planned on selling homemade pasta and sauces to restaurants. He figured he might do a little take out business so he set up six bar stools and three small tables.
“We only had 750 square feet of space. We had two sauces and people would just stop by and get a plate of pasta to go.”
Sales averaged around $50 a day — $150 was a great day. Word of mouth started to generate more traffic. People came with their own coffee tables and a bottle of wine and sat outside the store. Then came a favorable review in a newspaper.
“We didn’t know about it and suddenly one Saturday at 9 a.m we started getting calls for reservations. We had six bar stools and three tables outside. Reservations? That was it. Suddenly we were doing $500 a day in business. I remember thinking this was going to work.”
It also changed his thinking. Instead of selling to restaurants, he would create a restaurant that would live up to his mantra.
His mother came from Italy for a brief visit but she had a heart attack and stayed six months. Romagnoli is convinced the heart attack occurred after she saw him in the kitchen wearing an apron. While his mother stayed he got many of her recipes. Shortly afterward he opened a much larger restaurant on Howell Mill Road.
The growth that led to eight restaurants was internally funded. “No bank would lend us money,” he says. He is now dealing with the challenges of multiple locations.
“With more restaurants it’s almost easier to see all sides of the situation. With one, it’s black and white. With more you get more of an understanding of what’s taking place — what works and doesn’t.”
He is determined that every employee be dedicated to making people happy.
“I tell everyone at orientation, whether you are a cook, a waiter, whatever, to treat our guests as they would want someone to treat their momma or their wife or someone special to them. Are we always successful? No. But we try to create that atmosphere.”
Romagnoli says he has no immediate plans to open more restaurants. He has fielded requests to franchise but isn’t ready.
“In a way, I feel like the business model I had — of making people happy — has served me well. If you look at other restaurants they have to change because of the economy. They used to serve people $25 meals and now they’re serving two people for $20. That’s changing who you are. That is not creating an extraordinary experience. We’ve created something so we don’t have to do that. And that is what we do.”
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