Business Talk
Welcome to Business Talk, where we dive deep into the stories behind the businesses that shape our communities. We bring you conversations with inspiring entrepreneurs who share their journeys, challenges, and the unique value they bring to their customers.
In this podcast, we explore the passion and vision behind successful businesses, uncovering the secrets to their success and learning about the innovative products and services they offer. Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur looking for insights or simply curious about the businesses in your area, this podcast is your go-to source for inspiration and practical advice.
So, sit back, relax, and join us as we explore the dynamic world of business, one story at a time."
Business Talk
Building a Culinary Empire: Damian Mandola's Sicilian Story
What if the secret to achieving business success lies in hard work, perseverance, and a bit of Sicilian heritage? Join us for a fascinating conversation with Damian Mandola, the Founder of Carrabba's Italian Grill and Mandola's Italian Kitchen, as he takes us on a journey from his roots in Houston, Texas, to owning a thriving chain of over 200 restaurants. Inspired by a simple chat with his friend Nash D'Amico, Damian embarked on his culinary adventure in 1975 with Damien's Fine Italian Food. His story is one of family support, ambitious expansions, and a game-changing visit to New York City's Mezzaluna, which shaped his vision and fueled his passion for authentic Italian dining.
As we chat with Damian, he reveals the critical ingredients for success in the restaurant industry—emphasizing the importance of paying employees and taxes first and nurturing strong relationships with suppliers and customers. Through his experiences, we uncover the power of hands-on involvement and mentorship in building a welcoming and thriving environment. Damian shares the secrets behind the authentic Italian experience at Mandola's Italian Kitchen, including their catering services and powerful word-of-mouth marketing strategies. Don't miss the chance to learn from Damian's inspiring journey and discover why his restaurants in Texas and Florida promise an unforgettable culinary experience.
Welcome to the First Media Consulting Podcast, the business chronicle.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everyone. I am excited and delighted to introduce to you Damian Mandola. He's the owner of Mandola's Italian Kitchen and in today's episode, we're going to dive into the minds, like we always do, of successful business owners, discover their aha moments, key decisions that really led them to their success. And, with that being said, we're going to jump right in because Damien's got a lot of information to provide to our listeners today. So, damien, how are you, sir?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, didier Doing well, thank you. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:You're very, very welcome, so we're going to dive right into it.
Speaker 3:Get to know a little bit about your background. Okay, our pleasure. I was born and raised in Houston, texas, grandson of Sicilian immigrants. I was the youngest of 14 grandchildren and was really happy that, now that I look back on it, that I got to know my grandparents a little bit, know a little bit about my heritage I visited Sicily many times and just really completes you as you Absolutely yeah. Anyway, I was going to a school in Huntsville, texas, which is about an hour and a half north of Houston on I-45. And old school named after the course one of the founding fathers of Texas, sam Houston, and about to graduate.
Speaker 3:I was in Houston, my hometown, for a wedding and a friend of mine went out to dinner afterwards. His name is Nash D'Amico, he's still around and Nash said man, what are you going to do when you get out of school, when you graduate? I had about 13 hours left, did you? And I said Nash, I have no idea. So my older brother, tony, who was also Nash's friend and actually Nash's age they were closer, a little bit closer had gotten into the business. And so Nash and I you know, nash, well, let's try the restaurant business. And he said, okay, we don't know anything about it, but you know, if Tony can do it, we can do it. So Nash said well, when you go back, let's find a place in Huntsville in case things don't go well in Houston. We're not embarrassed in front of our friends and family.
Speaker 3:So, as a matter of fact, I went back and there was this guy that was the maintenance man for our apartment complex who lived there, and I asked him about it and he said, yeah, mr Cruz, the owner of the apartment complex and other real estate in Huntsville has this old building that was a cafe. It was the old Sam Houston Hotel and there was a cafe in the bottom left quarter of it. And the old man retired and he just locked it up and left the equipment in there. So, uh, we he took me to see it and walked through it and had tables and chairs, had a stove, the old wolf range like a tank with a griddle on it, had a refrigerator, and so I called nash. He came up, we went to see it. We went to see Mr Cruz. We made a deal for $350 a month, our parents, let us borrow $2,500 each from each other and from them.
Speaker 3:Nash's wife Melba made the curtains, we got the pizza oven in the handyman friend. Friend, he fixed up the restroom which was just basically a toilet and sink. You could almost sit on the toilet and wash your hands and brush your teeth not that you would want to do that, right. And so we opened June 16th 1975. It was called Damien's Fine Italian Food and you know, we had a very small menu, like one little sheet. Spaghetti and meatballs was $3.50, if that tells you anything. Yes, absolutely $3.50, you can't beat that. Yeah, so we did.
Speaker 3:Well, we were there about two years and we decided, well, it's time to move back and try our hand in the big city, which used to be one that big of a city. Were there about two years and we decided, well, it's time, time to move back and see, you know, try our hand in the big city, you know, which used to win that big of a city back then. And, uh, found a location and we opened our second location and we called it D'Amico's after Nash. And then Nash and I went along a couple years and we split up amicably and I opened the first restaurant by myself, on Smith Street. It's which is Midtown, houston, and Smith Street is one way. It feeds on to Interstate 59. And so the evening traffic was quite heavy and so I knew people would see it and want to come back and try it out and started doing very well, built that up for a couple of years and then I was york, in manhattan, on uh sixth avenue.
Speaker 3:One night I was there by myself for some reason, did you, and I was walking down the street and I saw a line out the door of this establishment and it was all these pretty women, girls, young ladies, and I said what's going on here? So I kind of edged my way up and I looked in the picture window and it was a small restaurant and it had a wood burning pizza oven in it. It was very, very small and it had. It was called mezzaluna, which means half moon. Mezzaluna in Italian is, of course, half moon that you see up in the sky, and it's also a cutting tool. It's had two handles and it's shaped like a half moon where you kind of rock back and forth and chop whatever it is. You're chopping vegetables or what have you right. And they had those hanging from the ceiling and moons hanging from the ceiling, and the reason for all the good-looking girls was all the waiters were these handsome men, young men from Italy, good looking guys. And so the girls were sitting there, you know, checking them out. So I sat at the little pizza bar there and just fell in love with. I had seen with burning pizza ovens in Italy before, but just never knew I could get one in the United States.
Speaker 3:And so, on the way back home, I made a menu and, um, I added some things to it. You know, I had some pasta dishes that I love. And then I added, uh, some, uh, uh, pizza and course. And then I um added steaks. Because we're in Texas, I put in a wood burning grill. I didn't put it in, but I featured it. I was going to feature it. And then, uh, because you know, we're on the Gulf coast and we have some great seafood, some snapper and shrimp and, of course, texas steaks.
Speaker 3:And when I got back, uh, home, I, you know, was at work the next day and I was just thinking, well, if I've got to do this, I've got to find a partner. And, um, cause I had just opened Damien's about a year earlier, there's no way I could do both of them. So I thought about my nephew, johnny Carraba and said, you know, let me go talk to Johnny and see if he's interested. He was working for my brother at the time and so he said, well, let me think about it, let me talk to my mom and dad His mom is my sister and, uh, so the next day he calls and said, yeah, I want to do it. And I said, okay, well, let's go see if we can find some money.
Speaker 3:I found a location that I'd wanted for Damien's, but they were asking too much money for it, and this is back when Houston was suffering pretty badly because of the oil downturn. So we made a deal, johnny and I, and he asked if we could name it Carrabba's and I said, yeah, sure, why not? And we bought the property and found it, got a loan, which was hard to do, bought the property and, um, we gutted it ourselves and we had a guy that was a young contractor that was just starting out in business that my cousin knew, and he built it back for us and we put it in the wood burning pizza oven and, uh, it was history from there. Carrabba's went on. We did that one that was on Kirby Drive Still is the original, and Johnny has since torn down that building and built a whole new beautiful building. Then the second one was on Woodway and Balls in the River Oaks Memorial Area, which is still there doing well. My sister, rose, at 88 years old, still in her wheelchair, goes there every day at the front door and she's the mayor of Memorial Woodway. Everybody knows her and when I go in I go in to see her, of course, all the time.
Speaker 3:So I just I moved, I was ready to get out of Houston, so Johnny and I Johnny bought the original two Carrabbas from me and we had some real estate. Not only that the original Carrabbas sat on, but we bought some other real estate around that Moved up to a little town called Driftwood Not even a town, didier, it's like a village called Driftwood, texas. It's about 30 minutes from downtown. It's near a town called Dripping Springs. You know Tito's vodka comes from Dripping Springs. He's a good customer at one of our restaurants and we built a home and we built a restaurant it's called Trattoria La Sina and we built a winery and a vineyard.
Speaker 3:And so did that. And then I always wanted to do this kind of, you know, go to New York quite a bit and Boston, the North end and all these little Italy's throughout the Upper East United States and go to the little Italian, you know. You know the grocery, the delis with the groceries and poured tomatoes and olive oils, and the deli with the cheeses and the meats, and so I always wanted to do that, but put it all under one roof, you know and so I did that.
Speaker 3:We opened mandolas, uh in, uh, austin, and we had the deli we. We had the coffee, desserts and pastries. After time went on, though, you know, I knew those elements weren't going to make money, so I just kind of started phasing that out and just doing restaurant. And we have four now in Austin doing very well. And we just opened number six yesterday here in Maitland. We have previous ones now, we have Riverview, we have Odessa, oldsmar, carolwood and Jacksonville, so I think that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Six, I don't know if I lost my count there? That is Davion. What a story man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've been doing it. It'll be 50 years this June 16th. I've been in the business.
Speaker 2:You know, what I love about having a conversation with you, man, is the fact that I can tell the passion. Oh, yeah, it's still there. Yeah, man, everything's about passion and you thrive on that, and it comes through on your personality, which I love. When I was looking at your website, something came across and it says Damien and Trina, bring you the food that they eat around their family table. That's right. That generations of mandalas ate before them, that's right. And then Italian Kitchen is truly a great place to gather with friends and family. You know how powerful that is, man bringing families together.
Speaker 3:Especially in this nowadays.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Fast food, and you know there's restaurants family-run restaurants are a dying breed, as you know, didier, there's not many of us left.
Speaker 2:No, and you know kudos for you for keeping it consistent and and you know what makes you successful, man is the fact is the fact that I feel like I've known you for a long time. That's why I'm talking like this. No problem, she's successful is that you're bringing quality ingredients, quality food, or you know food to your customers. Yeah, and that's why You've been successful. So I'm excited to be able to. You know, have you share your nation and you know your success as well. So I think, based on your story and I kind of want to share this, want you to share this what is something you can inspire other entrepreneurs that you've gone through, that you can give some advice to Maybe a couple of things and I think you've shared through. That you can give some advice to Maybe a couple things, and I think you've shared a couple things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, just find something you love. First off, you've got to be passionate about it. Does that mean it's going to be easy? No, it's not going to be easy. But find something you're passionate about. Try to find the way that you can get in and work into it, or if you can borrow money from your parents or what have you. And then, uh, for lack of a better word, you got to work your butt off. Man, you can't give up. I mean, there was times, dda, where, uh, I literally would cry, you know, and say, how am I going to do it? Um, I had a good friend, very, uh, a good customer, who was a brilliant man, saudi arabian guy, and I called him, you know, said so what am I going to do? He said well, man, first thing you know you got to do is you got to pay your employees. He said you got to pay your taxes. So what you do is you call your purveyors, you tell them listen, if you cut me off, I can't pay anybody, much less you.
Speaker 3:So you have to ride with me and I'm gonna pay you, I'm gonna get there and uh. So I just worked, worked, worked, man. I worked from seven in the morning till one in the morning. Closed the place down closed on sundays. There was a at domico's. I had a little uh, the bar was like a two-step up bar and there was a little love seat in there, and so we'd lock the door at two o'clock after lunch and we closed from 2 to 5, 30 or so, and I'd get an apron and I'd get a you know a stack of roll of uh towels, uh from the linen company, and I'd put it under my neck and I'd get an apron and throw it over me and I'd lay on that little love seat.
Speaker 3:Well, your love seat's not very wide, so my neck was up bit and my legs were hanging over the other arm and I take a little hour power nap, you know, and then wake back up and uh, get back to work. You know, work to 18 hours a day and uh, but it paid off. I, you know, carabas came around, I was, I had a great product, grew it to over 200 restaurants and um now, I'm still doing it. You know, it's something I love and I it's I'm.
Speaker 1:I don't know I just love it.
Speaker 3:I love getting up and I love going in the morning and you know, seeing your people and seeing people and trying to help them thrive. And they ask me the same questions. You're asking me how do you do it? I want to own my own business. How do I start? And you know I just love them through it. You know they're good guys. I jumped behind the line yesterday this one guy was and we just opened and he's trying to twirl the pasta in the saute pan and make it stack up real nice and pretty and twisting it. I said listen, chris, we don't have time for that. You got to get the food up. There's going to be a line of tickets over here. It's going to be 20, 20 deep.
Speaker 3:You got to get the food in the plate. So I walked back there and I cooked the pasta, spaghetti and meatballs with him and you know, I tossed it to sauce and I got it out of the skillet, put it on the plate and piled it up a little bit, put two meatballs on it, sauce on top and boom it was out. Yeah, it would have taken him 30 minutes, it took me three. So this is this, is this is so powerful man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's so powerful to hear you know your background and how you've taken all these concepts and these ideas and brought it into something that's very traditional. You're very welcome, so what's the best way our listeners can get ahold of you? Can you provide information?
Speaker 3:Yes. So if you go online, you go to Mandela's Italian Kitchen, mandola's Italian Kitchen, and it'll show all of our locations in Texas and in Florida. You can email me at dmandola, at mandolas, with an s dot com, and but go online, check it out. If you're going to the Texas area, the Austin area, there's a link to our full service restaurant that I was telling you about. That's in Driftwoods, about 30 minutes from downtown Austin, and it's called Trattoria T-R-A-T-T-O-R-I-A, which means a family run restaurant in Italy, which means a family-run restaurant in Italy Licina L-I-S-I-N-A. Trattoria Licina. Beautiful Start of the Hill Country. Full service bar. Great wine list Osso Buco veal roasted chicken.
Speaker 2:Wow, you're making me hungry, man, oh it's incredible Homemade pasta.
Speaker 3:It's just everything is cooked to order. You feel like you're in Italy. You feel like you're in the hill country of Tuscany.
Speaker 2:You really do, Wow that's awesome, and you also offer catering as well.
Speaker 3:We do a big catering. We do great catering. We do great in Texas and we're working on it here in Florida and starting to pick up. You know it's something that you build. Just word of mouth that's been my whole career. Dj is word of mouth. That's, that's what gets you there. You know you can have all the. I've always said you can have all the billboards and television that you want to blow your money on, but if you walk into the place and it's nasty food and it's dirty and the restroom is dirty and the people are snarly, that's not going to do you any good. Your best advertising I've always said this is in those four walls, absolutely In those four walls, taking care of your customers and providing a great product hot food, hot, cold food, cold. Great people, neat people, clean people, clean restrooms and a smile. That's it.
Speaker 2:That's what gets you there it seems like all those ingredients there you go, man, it's a recipe it's a recipe for success. Alright, buddy. Well, thank you so much. Thank you today. Hopefully we can have you again back on the show in the future love to be there, man.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. You're very welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today To nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsultingcom or call.