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A crowded marketplace creates the need for operators to develop strategies that can set them apart. One small family business found a way to do this – and increase check totals – by offering specialty drinks. Frankie and Heather Peluso of Collingswood, New Jersey, opened their Brianna’s Italian Café (named for their daughter) 10 years ago. As trends changed, Heather says the couple adapted, and only recently decided to further break from the pack and offer Italian sodas.
“They’ve been a big hit,” she says, “and we’ve found people order them with food, before and after. It’s been a pleasant surprise.”
The drinks consist of an Italian syrup (she uses Torani) blended with soda water over ice. To add to the atmosphere, the Pelusos installed a bar in their store even though Collingswood is dry.
“That’s right, our town is dry,” Heather says. “But our bar is very popular, even though we don’t serve alcohol. We offer all Italian sodas. The fun part is you can get very creative with it. You can do one flavor or you can mix different flavors. We have mocktails, a version of a cosmopolitan, screwdrivers, fuzzy navels, and margaritas. We sell them from two to three dollars.”
Sweet numbers
Italian sodas are a profitable item because a little syrup goes a long way. Heather says she pays about $5.50 for a 25 fluid ounce bottle and gets approximately 25 drinks out of it. All totaled with ice, milk and syrup she has about 20 cents in each serving for which she charges up to three dollars.
“I’m spending about $5 and making $50,” she says with a chuckle.
Her biggest seller is the “Dreamsicle,” which is an orange and vanilla concoction mixed with Cremosa and blended with milk and ice and topped with whipped cream. Indeed, when Heather says “you can get creative with it,” she’s right. The Italian syrup segment is a wide open field with 60 flavors available now and more in development. Current favorites include cotton candy soda, a bubble gum soda, and a whole line of sugar free sodas. There’s even a watermelon soda.
Continuing the bar as a unique marketing tool, Heather taps into the pop culture of film and television to heighten drink sales.
“We have another specialty that’s taken off,” she says. “The Cosmo is a mix of lime and raspberry. We serve it in a martini glass and it’s garnished with a lime. That’s very ‘Sex in the City-like.’ The girls order that. We have an outside deck and in the summer these drinks do very well.”
Heather says that even though her town is dry, Brianna’s has a brown bag license and many of her patrons bring a bottle of wine or liquor.
“Yes people can bring their own bottle,” she confirms. “We serve the mocktails but sometimes when our customers leave they’re a lot happier than just from a mocktail,” she says with a laugh.
Heather says the whole idea behind offering the drinks was to expand their business and offer something unique. She says the sodas worked on both counts.
“We go by our customers and see what they like,” she says. “We come up with our own mixes, make up specials ourselves. The kids really like it. They get Shirley Temples and Bubble Gum soda. We have about 20 different drinks. We’re all trained in it. The back people, the hostesses, we all make them.”
Brianna’s has eight fulltime employees and offers free delivery, which includes the Italian sodas.
Sweet Low
The Italian syrup industry, like any, is always vigilant about market change and thus, manufacturers have responded to demand for sugar-free products – even in Italian syrups. In fact, sugar-free has quickly become the fastest growing segment in the flavored syrup category and consumer demand continues to rise. The increase in obesity and diabetes rates, along with substantial interest in low-carbohydrate diets, has helped spur this trend. Many sugar-free syrups are now available made with Splenda.
The gourmet coffee and iced drink sector is becoming more demanding of unique taste, so product differentiation has become more challenging. Heather said she recently unveiled Frusia, a fruit puree-based, shelf stable smoothie mix blended with milk and ice.
“It has that fresh taste like a smoothie, but we don’t have the storage problems,” she says. She notes that fresh fruit storage is fraught with problems from spoilage, to portion control, service bottlenecks and the potential for food borne illness. Currently Frusia is available in seven flavors including Raspberry, Strawberry, Mixed Berry, Mango, Kiwi Fruit, Piña Colada, and New Peach.
Sandwich specials
While Brianna’s doesn’t serve pizza, they do offer authentic Italian specialty sandwiches. The sandwiches are another result of the Pelouso’s veering from the norm.
“My husband and I are from south Philly and grew up with Italian specialty sandwiches,” Heather explains. “When we came to Jersey, people wondered how we were going to make hoagies when people were used to convenient store food like WaWas and 7-11. We wanted to be different and it really took off. We have crusty seeded rolls that people really enjoy.”
Standard fare like ham and cheese, turkey and roast beef are available but the specialty sandwiches are just that.
“The Brianna is made of marinated mozzarella, roasted pepper and olive oil on the crusty seeded roll,” Heather says. “We have an Old-Fashioned that is dry cured capicola, sharp provolone and prosciutto. And then we have a sandwich that’s too spicy for me but people love it, the Inferno. This is spicy pepperoni, dry cured, hot super sopressata, sharp provolone and a fried long, hot Italian pepper topped with red pepper flakes.”
No wonder they sell so many Dreamsicles.