italian is #1

i read a Nation's Restaurant News article over the weekend that quoted a Zagat survey that found that Italian food is still the most popular food in New York by a wide margin. 30% to French which came in second at 14%. i know that this is not totally reflective of the K.C. area but it does give you the sense that Italian food is widely popular and the Italian Gardens ToGo is the right concept. all we need now is to find the right location and were on our way to 1000.
happy holiday.
john david dicapo

black and blue

black friday has never been good for us. i guess people don't have eating on their mind. i don't see any of the other restaurant chains doing any advertising so i guess they just try and stay out of the way. one of these days i'll have to study it more to see how we can increase sales on that day. tues-wed were great. hope to have a good sat-sun.
ciao,
j.d.

i'm so busy i forget to blog

we are so busy right now that i forget to blog in the morning. i get to the factory at 5am and work until 7 am when my crew comes in and we start production. some days i have so much going on in those 2 hours i don't have time to blog.
we had a great day yesterday at igtogo barry rd. we did 30% more than we did last year and we expect today to be just as good. we sold more trays of family lasagna than we ever have and we are well stocked up for today.
we are on our way to getting funded for igtogo hemlock and can't wait until next year in op. can you imagine the number of trays of lasagna and buckets of pasta we'll sell out there. it will be a mind boggling thing.
happy thanksgiving
john david dicapo

the lawyers are working

met and spoke to my lawyers yesterday and they are preparing the documents necessary for me to start signing up members. this is when i know were getting close. i'm really getting excited. i know we are going to be wildly successful and things are going to start moving at a faster pace.
the barry road location is doing fine but the obstacles we have in entering and leaving are always going to persist. i wonder how much we could do on barry if customers had easy access?
life is good. work hard.
god bless you. have a great sunday.
john david dicapo

another has joined

we received another commitment on friday which brings our total to 4. that leaves just 11 more to go and we can get started. i'm really excited about heading to overland park with this concept. when chipolte first expanded out of denver the went straight to op. i think it's a good move for us and i can't wait to get started. c'mon you other 11. let's make it happen.
sincerely,
john david dicapo

closer to reaching our goal

we received a commitment from another yesterday to participate in the new overland park igtogo. that leaves only 12 out of the 15 left. we have some very serious inquiries being made and we hope to have all the money raised and the sba loan in place by the end of the year.
there's going to be some very disappointed investors when we open and they realize thay had a shot but couldn't pull the trigger. something they can tell their grandkids. i think it will be that big.
salute,
john d. dicapo

just average

we've had just a few average days lately. nothing spectacular. we have our crew in place and were just waiting for the rush.
we have some coupons going out this week.
ciao,
j.d.

good weekend

were have a very good weekend. were starting to do some late business which really helps and let's me know that people are getting used to the time and the weather.
i'm happy to announce that our second investor came on board yesterday and he was real happy to be a part of the new igtogo in overland park. for some reason i feel that investment is going to be worth alot of money one of these days.
i have to look back at the people that still talk about the opportunities they had to buy shares in marion labs or get in early with wal-mart. i have spoke to many about the igtogo and there are going to be many people who will one day say "man i had a chance to get in on the ground floor of the italian gardens and didn't".
well all i can say is i gave them a opportunity. they can't and won't hold me back.
full steam ahead.
god bless you
john david dicapo

we got our groove back

we had a wonderful day and night of business yesterday even doing a considerable business from 8-9pm. this tells me that our free drink promotion from 11-4pm is working and that our customers are adjusting to daylight savings time.
it's amazing that we can have a great sales day and still not be really busy. it tells me of the potential the igtogo has in the future. when we get an easily accessable location and a new building the world will take notice. great italian food, good value, great service and fast. that's us, igtogo.
salute,
john david dicapo

one day

one day does not success make but it does improve the bottom line. we increased our lunch business 50% yesterday by offering free drinks with the purchase of a sandwich or pasta. people were genuinely happy about getting that free drink and saving that $1.29. we might continue it the rest of the year. it was an awesome move and we hope that the business continues to increase in the daytime. like i said one day is not the tell all but we'll see how things go from here.
we had a few ex-wendy's guys in yesterday and they really like the operation and the place. they had a few suggestions that we'll take into consideration but they were generally really impressed with the igtogo and thought that it has a tremendous future. i agree.
ciao and have a great weekend.
john david dicapo

free drinks for all

we really need to boost the lunch business so we've decided to offer free drinks with the purchase of any sandwich or pasta from 11a-4p. today is the first day so we hope that it will drive people into the gardens that have never been there are haven't been here in a while.
we have a potential investor coming up today. an old wendy's franchisee. i hope he sees what i see and decides to participate in the expansion. it going to be big. we also have a meeting on monday with another fellow who called and has interest. things are heating up.
have a great day.
ciao,
john david

where does time go?

i can't believe that its been almost a week since i blogged. where does time go. i know i've been real busy meeting with my lawyers and potential investors in regard to new igtogo's in overland park.
i have a really good feeling that someone is going to step up in the next few weeks and fund the expansion. i can't believe all the people who i thought had money and were interested didn't have money and weren't really interested. people who actually contacted me. well that's life and i just learned another life lesson. if i live to be 85 i should be a real smart guy.
i've got alot of good positive things going on in my life and i thank god for all my fortunes.
ava, mom, dad, familia, my health, our business. what more can a guy ask for.
life is good.
work hard.
ciao,
john david dicapo

catering

we catered the local harley davidson dealership's fall party last night serving pasta, chicken, italian hoagies and italian cookies and they couldn't have been more pleased. we also had a good time at the event. i brought my daughter ava (and gave her $5 for helping) and also erin who is the manager of the igtogo to do customer relations. it was great. i can see the opportunity to make many more customers at these events. several people told me they were planning on coming to the gardens today for another meal. that's what we like to hear.
get paid to make customers.
our traffic count picked up yesterday at the restaurant and we hope today for a continuance.
ciao,
john david

business has slowed

it seems like halloween took some of the wind out our sales but we expect to regain it with a new advertisement going up this week promoting our authentic italian pizza by the slice and italian sandwiches.
we also have had 3 catering parties this week which will show in the bottom line. we expect catering to increase throughout the holidays. we also have our new menu coming out this week with the catering menu on the back side which should also spark increased catering business.
i really don't think i realized how much catering we will do and by owning our own commissary and producing and delivering from that facility it makes it simple and easy.
we expect business to pick up as the weekend draws closer and people get back into a normal routine.
ciao for now,
john david

halloween was scary!

Halloween was scary!
it was amazing that after two record days thursday-friday that saturday was so bad. i guess having Halloween fall on a saturday night many people had parties to attend and going out for dinner was not part of their agenda. anyway we did rebound on sunday and with the cool weather this week we expect to get our sales back on track. we have a catering function at the local harley davidson dealership on wednesday and a pizza party at the toyota dealership on saturday.
we should have a good week.
ciao,
john david dicapo