Stay Connected!
Sign up today and get inspiration straight to your inbox.
Frank Scibelli's Path to Restaurant Success
From a Mom-and-Pop to Multiple Concepts
In 1992, when Frank Scibelli opened his first restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, he knew he was taking a big risk. While he grew up in an Italian-American family, Scibelli had no professional experience running a restaurant. What the Springfield, Massachusetts, native had in spades, though, was a love of the magic and joy that can happen when folks are sitting around a table together eating simple, delicious food.
Armed with that, and some recipes from his mother, Scibelli opened Mama Ricotta's with a menu of traditional Italian dishes. Some 33 years later, his FS Food Group has seven hospitality concepts and 15 restaurants, with two more in the works. Those include a fast-casual Middle Eastern street food spot (YAFO Kitchen), a Latin café and cevicheria (Calle Sol), a neighborhood smokehouse (Midwood Smokehouse), a Tex-Mex spot (Paco's Tacos & Tequila), a New England-style Italian restaurant (Little Mama's) and a catering company (Plate Perfect Catering). Meanwhile, Mama Ricotta's has expanded to five times its original size.
By embracing old-school hospitality, providing a supportive environment for its nearly 1,000 employees and sourcing the freshest ingredients (when Mama Ricotta's opened, fresh mozzarella wasn’t available, so they made it), FS Food Group has become a Carolina foodservice group to be reckoned with.
Scibelli opens up about his early restaurateur days, the steps to open a new concept and lessons he's learned along the way.
Q. Why restaurants for you?
A. I thought I was going to be a lawyer and pursued law and MBA degrees. I ended up just doing an MBA and worked in consulting. I always felt I wanted to be an entrepreneur but didn't really know what I wanted to do. I came to work in Charlotte and saw a big business opportunity, as at that time, there weren't really any casual Italian restaurants. I felt like it would be a great opportunity to do one. I was 27 years old and
figured if it didn't do well, I could do something else. I love food and I love people. To me, it boiled down to a "do what you love, and the money will follow" sort of thing.
Q. Any fears that went through your head?
A. I had a pretty good job as a consultant, and I had achieved some level of status with that. And then, lo and behold, I start from scratch, and I can't cash a paycheck right away. I remember laying in the middle of my living room floor at three in the morning and I'm like, what the hell did I do? Thankfully, eight weeks in, we got a really good review and that started the ball rolling. We've had plenty of ups and downs, but generally it's been a good ride.
Q. How long after opening your first restaurant did you open the second?
A. We opened in 1992, and in 1994, we opened our second restaurant. That was really my biggest failure, and I lost money. But that's really where I learned how to manage my pennies and how to do a budget. It's one thing to have an MBA, but it's a different thing in the real world. We figured out how to run our restaurants. We developed a structured team. It got me into my catering business, and then I opened other concepts.
I started a concept called Bad Daddy's Burger Bar and grew it to 13 units before I sold it to a public company in 2015.
Q. What would you say are the threads that tie all your different concepts together?
A. I think the biggest thing is they're comfort food. I'm not a fine dining guy as a personality. I'm a casual dining kind of guy. I like grandmother food. I like food that's a little bit rustic, and food people are going to put on their dinner tables more so than foams, and so nothing that's super fancy. To me, it's the feel of eating with friends and family, and the hospitality component that comes with that.
Q. What criteria go into creating a new concept?
A. There's a couple of hurdles. The first would be if there's a market for it. Then it's whether we can execute it. We're going to stick to things we know how to do well. We wouldn't do a sushi concept, for example. We're blessed with some common sense. It's also about finding the right ingredients.
For the research, it's about getting exposed to that food. Many times, we're going to the source. Last year, we went to Lima and did food tours and worked with chefs there to understand the food better. Most of our team view it the same way. We've got to be continually trying to hone our craft.
Q. What makes for a successful FS Food Group restaurant?
A. Making people happy, introducing customers to different food and getting a team to gel is really a great feeling. Then, making it financially successful. You can have a great chef and great food, but there's all this other stuff that has to work. Great food is probably the easy part.
Q. What lessons have you learned from your 30-plus years in the hospitality industry?
A. As a culture here, we like being direct. Not
everybody likes that, but we talk about it as a team. When you look back on your life and say these people had a big influence and made me get better, usually it's those who pushed and challenged you. The directness of developing people is something that's important to us. The people who like that love it, and thrive here, and stay for years and years. The business must be seen as a whole. If you're only worried about accounting or making food or service, you're not going to be successful. They all have to go hand in hand.
Q. What have been some of your biggest challenges?
A. Clearly, COVID was a challenge, and figuring out how to pivot. We did a great job, and we're one of a minority who thrived during it. We got a phone call from Bank of America, and they wanted to sponsor us to feed first responders. We're also involved with the Jewish community here in Charlotte, and we ended up feeding Jewish seniors. These are people who couldn't leave their homes. So, hopefully we gave them something to smile about by giving them a good meal. It was really rewarding.
Q. Why do you think you've been so successful?
A. It goes back to creating a team. You can't accomplish the other things unless you have the right people to help you accomplish them.
Q. What advice would you offer new restaurateurs?
A. I try to talk people out of it because there's an element of luck to it. No one goes in the restaurant business thinking their food isn’t good. But the market doesn't always like your food. You've got to listen to what the customer has to say. People think it's taking a little concept and putting some money behind it, but then they don't do all the homework to understand what people want. It's also about making changes along the way, because what people wanted in 1992 isn't necessarily what they want now. It's finding that "happy medium of change, but not too much" kind of situation.
Q. What brings you the most joy in your career?
A. We really love developing our teams and taking care of our customers. Both those things are important to us. We’ve had people who've been with us for 30 years, and they've grown and changed their financial positions in the world. That stuff has really been wonderful.