05/01/2016
May 1, 2016 doesn’t mean much to a whole lot of people. To my family, May 1, 2016, is a milestone day, one of celebration. It’s kind of Ironic that it’s also International Worker’s Day, celebrated by devout socialists and communists around the world.
It is a 30-year milestone that we celebrate today. On May 1, 1986, my wife was pregnant with our first child. A few months prior we bought our first home. In the Spring of 1986 we were painting and fixing up, preparing for the arrival of our first child.
As new home owners and expecting parents, our income was derived from two sources: I delivered pizza, and my wife was a waitress. In the little amount of time when we weren’t working, we would talk about the kind of life we wanted for our children. It boiled down to three things: parents who were always there, a great education, and a clear understanding that whatever they dreamed their lives could be was possible with commitment and hard work.
Neither my wife or myself had graduated college and we lacked any real skills that would command the kind of salary necessary to pay for a private school education, which we both agreed would provide a solid foundation for our children. If we continued to work in the restaurant business—even having our own restaurant—it would take us away from our children and pure exhaustion would have its toll on our relationship, and the relationship with our children. No coaching sports teams, no weekend vacations, and limited time to spend together around the holidays. We had a vision of the kind of life we wanted, and that wasn’t it.
At the time, I was working 6 days-a-week, with Wednesday off. At our family restaurant we were buying our pasta products from a little place on 441 in Hollywood, across the street from where my wife and I operated the pizzeria we bought from her father, and then subsequently sold. Mimi’s Ravioli had best pasta products in Florida, period.
Having owned a bread route when I first moved to Florida, and then a little pizzeria, my only real experience, and success, was in operating a small business. I assured my wife that in the one day I had off, and then on the Saturday when I went in to the restaurant at 4 PM, I could build a route selling Mimi’s Ravioli. As usual, she said, “Go for it. See what happens.”
I walked into Mimi’s one day and met with Frank and Linda Billissi. They knew me from operating the pizzeria across the street from their store. I told them I would buy a refrigerated truck and build a route in south Florida. They said, “Sure. Just call us, tell us what you need, and we’ll get it ready for you.”
I invested a total of $1500 for a used F-150 with a refrigerated box, and $3000 for a Thermo King refrigeration unit. On May 1, 1986, 30 years ago today, I made my first sale: A jumbo cheese ravioli, a jumbo meat ravioli, a stuffed shell, and a manicotti. The total sale was about $65. The sale was to Marie’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, our family restaurant.
That first year, leading up to the birth of John Jr. in October of 1986, I worked around the clock, 7 days a week. Pregnant and waiting on tables, my wife would call customers in the short down time between lunch and dinner. I always felt that calling customers on a regular basis was the key to establishing long term relationships. When New Year’s Day 1987 rolled around, my total sales amounted to less than $9000.
It has been said that luck is the residual of hard work. It’s absolutely true. Linda and Frank, realizing my commitment to making it work, gave me several house accounts for customers who were picking up their orders, or getting deliveries. That helped cover the costs of operating the truck. A major pasta manufacturer had a national recall for salmonella poisoning, and my newly installed answering machine started lighting up—every Italian restaurant had my card and phone number. Another distributor thought they could get a better packaging deal from a new pasta manufacturer that just opened up. What they didn’t know was I had their customer list in my hands. I went to every one of those customers and told them that the product inside the private label box was no longer Mimi’s Ravioli. And then came the building boom in South Florida. That’s how it happens. Vision, hard work, a little luck, and a little help.
It took a full two years before I stopped working days at the restaurant and started filling out the week by branching out into Palm Beach County. I continued delivering pizza to supplement my income. When my daughter was born in 1990, my wife became a stay-at-home Mom, working just a couple of nights-a-week at her cousin’s restaurant, GG’s of New York. I would stay home and take care of the kids. In 1992, we enrolled John Jr. in Saint Andrew Catholic School in Coral Springs.
My wife and I have never made a lot of money, but we have done the best we can with what we have. And more than anything, we’ve taught our children by example; that vision, commitment, and hard work are the path to happiness. We achieved what we wanted to achieve and we are proud of it. When two people can look back on the past 30 years and feel really good about themselves, about their life together, and then see their children thriving in a very difficult world, it warms the heart in a special way.
If I were to thank everyone who had a part in this, you wouldn’t be able to finish reading this in one sitting. So I will say thank you to all of you, my partners in business, those of you who stepped in and helped when I couldn’t get it done, and my customers, who I have profound respect for—you are the salt of the Earth, the hardest working people I know. May God bless all of you, and Thank You from the bottom of our hearts. 'sRavioli
