Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 46) Riccardo Ullio uses his Tech skills to build a restaurant empire. “Sotto Sotto and Fritti are plugging along,” Ullio says. “They can just keep chugging along like they are and we’ll be happy with that.” When it was time to try something new, Ullio first opted for a healthy lounge concept, opening Beleza at 905 Juniper St. in Midtown a little more than a year ago. It’s become known for its Brazilian drinks and menu, as well as its top DJs and live music. Then, in January, Ullio opened Cuerno next door, giving him an outlet for his love of Spanish food and culture. “Spanish food is really hot; it’s one of the hottest food trends in the nation,” he says. “I love Spain. Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in the world.” Before opening Cuerno, Ullio spent time in Spain picking up new recipes, just as he’d traveled through his native Italy before opening Sotto Sotto. However, he doesn’t spend much time in the Cuerno kitchen. “There’s a lot of Spanish food I like, but I don’t necessarily like to make any of it,” he says. “I like making Italian food, but I like to eat Spanish food.” As Ullio’s business, U Restaurants, has grown, he’s shifted his focus from the kitchen to managing, planning and even designing the restaurants. “I built a lot of my own restaurants — I was a civil engineer — so I know about air flow,” he says. “When the air conditioning isn’t working, I can figure it out. Engineering teaches you to solve problems. They’re always going to arise, and they’re always going to have to be solved.” In the food industry, there are “a million problems,” he says, because it combines production, sales and marketing, and it deals with a tricky product and a fickle consumer. But, as Ullio likes to say, “if we can put a man on the moon, we can solve anything.” One can only wonder what’s next for Ullio. What type of food will he bring to his next restaurant? “I don’t know, I can’t answer that question right now,” he says with a laugh. “I’d like to go on a vacation.” ly Smokes’ Moniker Matches Mission By Kimberly Link-Wills Ho T WO CO-WORKERS, EACH THE OWNERS OF A BIG Green Egg, had a big idea. Why not put out the word to their friends and colleagues and sell a few smoked turkeys for Thanksgiving? Mat Hathaway, EE 01, then a broadcast engineer with In Touch Ministries, and Kenny Garren had 28 takers — and those two Big Green Eggs. The pair stayed up all night, smoking four turkeys at a time and transferring them to an oven to finish cooking. Thanks to an unexpected blessing of blustery weather that chilled the air to 26 degrees, they were able to cool the birds on an 8-foot-long table set up outside Hathaway’s house. “In the middle of the night, we were sitting in chairs back to back,” Garren says of that cold night a few years back. “I’m leaning against him, and he’s leaning against me. He says, ‘Don’t you ever get me into anything like this again.’ Now we own a restaurant.” Even though they were bone tired while delivering the turkeys, the wheels were already turning. A friend, when told they had fulfilled orders for 28 turkeys, exclaimed, “Holy smokes!” “We just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s going to be the name of the business if we ever have one,’” Hathaway says. 46 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Fall 2008
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