By Charlie Pogacar
Salvatore Reina, owner and operator of two-store Francesca Pizza and Pasta in Northern New Jersey, wouldn’t recommend his path to anybody. At age 26, with no business experience to speak of, he went $300,000 into debt to take over a pizzeria.
“It’s not really funny, but it is,” said Salvatore Reina, owner and operator of Francesca Pizza and Pasta in Northern New Jersey. “You should not do what I did. I mean, there was no business plan, there was no formal training—it’s embarrassing, but kind of funny.”
Reina didn’t even know how to make a pizza on day one of operating Francesca Pizza and Pasta. “So if my pizza maker called out and decided he didn’t want to work for me?” Reina said on the latest episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast. “I wouldn’t have even known how to [make a pizza].”
Related: How a pizzeria added over $250,000 in revenue via school lunch programs
Reina’s scrappy story began in 2008, just months before the Great Recession shook up the business world. This was another area where Reina’s “ignorance is bliss” approach to business probably helped him rather than hurt him: He said he knew what was going on, but wasn’t too worried about how it would affect his business, as he was consumed by the process of getting better each day. And indeed, Reina really does believe that if he’d had more sense at age 26, he probably wouldn’t have started the business at all.
“If I would have thought logically,” Reina said, “if I would have sat down and been like, well, what happens if this doesn’t work?… All that, no job, a gap in my resume, and I still owe that money… I guess, you know, maybe I’m one of the fortunate and lucky ones. And I’ve never taken that for granted.”
Reina probably doesn’t give himself enough credit. Instead, he credits his brother, Gino, who has been his business partner since day one. He credits his team of employees and the dedication they’ve shown to Francesca Pizza and Pasta over the past 16 years, two of whom are now business partners of his. And if you ask him, that’s the thing he’s most proud of: His ability to retain most of his original team members.
“I’ve never been a guy who says, ‘I have the best pizza or food,’” Reina said. “But something I am really proud of is the fact that five of my original six employees are still with me today. I call them my ‘day ones’, and they’ve been a huge part of our success.”
To hear more of Reina’s story, check out the latest episode of the podcast. The podcast can be found at the following links:
