Pizza Today - March 2016 - 16

conversation

MARK CAMPAGNOLO
CIAO! WOOD-FIRED PIZZA & PASTA
ITHACA, NEW YORK

No. 85 on Pizza Today's Hot 100 Independent
Pizzerias list, Ciao! features rustic wood-fired
pies and Tuscan pasta. The pizza oven and make
line take center stage in its dining room. Strong
word-of-mouth traffic is driven by a successful
youth outreach program and theme nights.

CIAO! IS A CASUAL
RESTAURANT. We specialize

in Italian food with a Tuscan
flair. Our pizzas are all handcrafted and cooked to order in
a wood oven in the middle of
our dining room. Everything we
serve is homemade, 99 percent.
The ambiance and décor have
a distinct personality that sets
the mood automatically for high
energy fun, which makes it viable
for a lot of different markets.
OPEN PIZZA KITCHEN - We
wanted to highlight the oven and
the whole pizza-making part of
our restaurant. Showcasing the
oven and the pizza making area,
we are sticklers on cleanliness.
That is the No. 1 focus we have
constantly. That is something
that our guys are good at
maintaining - the clean as
you go program. This is key for
people sitting at the pizza bar
and people in the dining room
watching, that (our pizza line
employees) are all moving with
purpose and direction. It is like
a well-oiled machine. Everyone
knows what they are doing.
1 6 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / M A R C H 2 0 1 6

It is not a really big space, so
we have to make sure guys are
positioned properly. When it
gets busy and we are doing 400
to 500 pizzas a day, we have to
keep things moving very, very
quickly and in order. That is
paramount for us.

THEME NIGHTS - I come from
a strong Italian background, so
Sunday was always pasta day in
our house. We felt like, 'Why not
carry that tradition through to the
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
general public and offer them an
- We generally deal with
opportunity to not have to spend a
youth-related programs, like
lot of money?' They can enjoy Ciao!
the family reading partnership.
and an old Italian tradition and
We do something called Camp
we can give them a bit of a break
Good Days, a camp for kids
financially. For $10, they can have
with cancer. Last year, all of our salad, they can pick their pasta,
gift sales we donated to the
they can pick a meat with it... all
camp for kids. We have a strong they can eat. Take Out Tuesday
relationship with our YMCA,
came along because people
which is right behind us. I could started asking for larger pans of
go on and on. The kids are the
food. Based on the demand, we
future of our country and we try decided to offer a specific night for
to help wherever we can. These specific food and customers could
things generate a lot of attention. grab dinner for four for $20. We
We don't look to make money on give them a great container that
these things. These are things
is easy to transport. We do movie
that are strictly community
nights on Mondays three-quarters
outreach. Ithaca is a very family of the year because we are in very
oriented town. A lot of things we close proximity to the mall and we
do stay right here in town, which thought we would capitalize on a
is a reason why we participate in slow Monday for us to give them a
these particular ones.
chance to get a half-priced movie

ticket. The movie theater was happy
to partner up with us because it
helps them as well.
MARKETING THEME NIGHTS

- It's generally word of mouth.
We do Facebook, our Web site and
an e-mail list. The word of mouth
travels really fast in our area. It's
extremely successful.
GLUTEN-FREE MENU - We

give them a little bit of a selection
of everything, whether it's an
appetizer or a salad combination,
pastas and pizzas. They appreciate
having a separate menu handed to
them. We were lucky enough to find
a bakery that's not far from here
and they specialize in producing all
gluten-free products. They make our
gluten-free pizza shells that come
in an aluminum tin so there's no
cross contamination. They make our
gluten-free gnocchi and meatballs.
We take our (regular) menu and
convert those into gluten-free
items, also.
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Pizza Today - March 2016

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