By Tracy Morin
On the heels of celebrating 35 years in business, second-generation pizzeria owner Giuseppe Carollo, who oversees Frank’s Ristorante & Pizzeria in Richmond, Virginia, sat down with PMQ to discuss the secrets of its success.
In Part One of this three-part series, Carollo discussed some of his most popular innovations, including a Secret Pizza Menu, Thursday Detroit-Style Pizza Nights and a recently unveiled scratch-made bread program. In Part Two, Carollo reviewed the history of Frank’s, what practices he needed to change when taking over the family business in 2013, and what values will always stay the same.
Here, in the third and final installment, Carollo shares how he creates a sense of community at Frank’s, from give-back efforts to generous employee perks.
PMQ: Through 35 years of business, do you prioritize giving back to the community?
Carollo: Absolutely. During COVID, I was a mess. I was trying to figure out, do we stay open? Do we close? I’d call my dad, and I was like, “You should have the answer, right?” He was like, “Well, I don’t know—I’ve never been through something like this!”
One day, I was talking to my friend, who was a nurse, and I was like, “Hey, are you working today? How many people do you have? I’m gonna drop off some pizzas.”
So we did that, and it kind of distracted me a little bit, and from there, it just spiraled. I think by the end of COVID we had donated, like, 1,000 pizzas to people. We went to all the hospitals. Then I was like, “Where can we give them to now?” We went to the police stations and the courthouses. We would make our rounds.
Then, on a regular basis, at Christmastime, we like to give back. This past year, for the second year in a row, we cooked food for 100 homeless people, and we worked with this organization that distributes food. We serve two firehouses nearby, for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, so that they don’t have to cook on the days they have to work.
We also work with an organization that helps boys who don’t have father figures in their lives. So we’ll do pizzas for them in the summer when they have their camp. We’ll also do a car show once a year, where the boys can come out and sit in these Ferraris and Lamborghinis. After everybody’s looked at the cars, we invite the owners of the cars and the kids to come have pizza, and then obviously try to get those people involved in the organization, too. So we definitely try to give back to the community as much as possible.
I feel like, if you’re in a position where you can give back, you’ve definitely got to help out. I’m always willing to help out.
PMQ: What was it like when Frank’s celebrated 35 years last March? Did you see a lot of people who have been coming in to the pizzeria for decades?
Carollo: Oh, yeah, lots of that. When we did our 35 years, we had a big party. We had about 110 people, and when you have everybody in one room, you realize how many customers you still have from day one. That was wild.
We had name tags for everybody, and everybody was sitting together, because everybody knew each other in one way or another. It was like the three degrees of Kevin Bacon.
PMQ: And have a lot of your employees been there a long time, too?
Carollo: Yeah, we have a lot of longtime employees. You try to treat them well, and they’ll be loyal to you. I’ll go to Starbucks for them, or we’ll go out to dinner after work—or if I don’t go, I’ll give them my credit card and say, “Go get some food,” because they deserve it. They work hard for you, and you gotta keep them happy so that they stay.
PMQ: Does Frank’s do any marketing to try and get new customers in the door? Do you use social media or any other methods?
Carollo: We do a lot of social media. We do work with a woman who does some marketing for us, but we don’t do a ton of marketing, and we don’t spend a lot of money on advertising. We have some videos that we make and post.
PMQ: In a longstanding family businesses, it seems like the pizzeria can become your whole life, and that’s part of your outreach, too.
Carollo: I tell people all the time: If you want to do this, you’d better love it, because if you don’t, it’ll beat you up. But I love the restaurant on Friday night, when we start getting busy and the printer starts going, and you see a customer pop his head in the back just to say hi. I absolutely love going up front and talking to customers at the bar. And friends who I grew up with, they’re bringing their kids in now, and I watch them sit at a table with my son—it’s really crazy to me, but it’s really awesome.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
