Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
In 1978, earning $50 to $100 per night in tips was respectable—especially at age 11. What started out as a New Year’s Eve stint for young Joe Sanfilippo became a lifelong profession after a chance encounter with Charles Drury, an intuitive local businessman who elected to back a 23-year-old kid who’d never owned a restaurant. Twenty years later, J.F. Sanfilippo’s has just opened its second restaurant, Filippo’s (120 Chesterfield Valley, 636-536-6833), in Chesterfield Valley. No. 1 on its VIP guest list? Charles Drury.
I won't ask where you went to high school, but will ask if you're a native.
I was born in Palermo, but moved here when I was a year old. My sister was the last one of the Manno sisters to move to the U.S.
When did you get your start in the business here?
I was recruited by my uncle Agostino to bus tables on New Year's Eve, as he was shorthanded. I was 11. He couldn't find busboy help then and it's still hard now. Nothing's changed, except that I'm 45.
Not too many 11 year old busboys out there, though.
My nieces and nephews help me out at Sanfilippo's downtown, and they're not a lot older. People love to see family members working, no matter what age.
And once they start...
Right, they're fair game. I had regular shifts before I turned 12.
Young kids often make better tips than the pros.
Mine were all side tips. People tipped because they said I was cute, $50 to $100 worth of cute per night. Wisely, my parents made sure I never saw much of it.
So you stayed in the business from that point?
No, when I was 13 I went to Italy with my 18-year-old brother. Miraculously my father allowed us to stay. We went to school six days a week and I went to culinary school 3 nights a week. Stayed there for two years.
And they were in the business as well?
There was an unwritten rule in Italian families that you never opened a place too near a family member, so my father went clear to Cahokia to open Franco's (in 1976), which he later relocated to Belleville.
When did you move back across the river?
One Saturday morning in 1990, my sister placed a random call to ask about billboard prices and by chance reached Charles Drury, owner of the company, who was in the office doing paperwork. It was that random phone call that ultimately produced J. F. Sanfilippo's. He admitted he wouldn't have been able to transfer the call even had someone been there, but instead came to see us personally the next day.
Sounds serendipitous.
He offered us a space in downtown St. Louis, but my father was not interested. So I called him back and told him I would love the opportunity, and he said, oh, really? But we hit it off, he built out the entire place, and I opened J. F. Sanfilippo's the next year, in February of 1991. I was 24.
Quite a leap of faith for him...
Mr. and Mrs. Drury are my second set of parents. Not sure where I'd have been without them. We operated for 20 years with a handshake and a lease with a few bullet points. (Smiling) Now the new lease was a bit more complicated.
How long did Franco's remain in Belleville?
I suspect it'd still be there but my father was diagnosed with cancer and died the year after we opened Sanfilippo's. In retrospect, though, the entire family focused only on the one place.
Who's the standout cook?
People love our food, but they always compliment the bread my mom bakes everyday.
Compare the city in 1991 versus 2011.
We made more money when the city looked like Escape from New York than we do now. So many things are different—Southwestern Bell, Edison Brothers, TWA, American Airlines, these were all my customers. A-B is still there but with a lot less money to spend. Add in the economy, more competition, and fewer workers in general, and it was the perfect storm.
And fewer conventions...
I remember lines of people forming at 10:45, waiting for us to open for lunch. That was a while ago...
How did you weather that storm?
The entire family pitched in. Family can sometimes not take a check to keep the doors open. There's my sister, my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, and a staff that's been with us for years--otherwise this all may have turned out differently.
Have you become thicker-skinned over the years?
I'd like to think so, but the answer's probably no. A single, unsatisfied customer is hard to shake off. It just takes one to wear on you. But it's hard to explain to a group of conventioneers that they can't all eat and be back out the door in 30 minutes.
Do you see anything changing to improve your situation downtown?
Our location is very convention-driven. Driving more quality convention business would help us immensely, but there's a lot of competition there as well. For my money, you can't beat a top-tier convention, folks who spend money. And more than one a month. We all like to eat more than once a month.
Speaking of competition, I've been told there are too many Italian restaurants in St. Louis...
We're lucky to have the entire gamut of Italian cuisine here--nouvelle to traditional--but if someone thinks we have too many, there's nothing preventing them from opening up a French bistro or another steakhouse. Really, though, how many steakhouses does downtown St. Louis need?
So how did you end up in Chesterfield?
My aunt and cousins at Agostino's had to leave their restaurant on Long Road so that 500-year levee could be built. Since family was no longer in business in the area, I felt fine moving in.
How does Chesterfield differ from downtown?
Over the years at Sanfilippo's, if I was fortunate enough to win over a visitor or conventioneer, I don't see him again for several years-- if I'm lucky. Every day, I started over. In Chesterfield, it's cumulative, so the customer I win over I'll hopefully see quite a bit.
Will you use this opportunity to change up the cuisine?
Yes and no. The cuisine will be what's worked, the highlights, the things our customers have come to expect, tweaked by specials, maybe doing a region of Italy on a weekly basis.
Will you delve into small plates?
It's never been our thing and personally, I'm not a fan. It's been my experience that entrees are a lot more economical, and you often have tomorrow's lunch as a bonus.
Will the cuisine will be like home, more Southern Italian and Sicilian?
One thing you better learn early is to give customers what they want. If they want cream sauces like you find up north--and they do--you make cream sauces. Our biggest seller, Rigatoni Giuseppe, has a spicy cream, fresh tomato sauce. It's named after me....my one indulgence from 20 years ago.
Will you do any fresh pasta?
I'm traditional, more of a dried pasta guy. There's a different mouth feel, it's delicate, it's less forgiving, inconsistent, and it's hard to do in volume.
Music is one overlooked aspect of ambience. What's on your playlist?
At dinner, Rat Pack music with videos of Italian landscapes; later, more modern music and live, but subdued, TV. It'll be comfortable place to hang out, but don't think sports bar.
Why Filippo's and not the more familiar J.F. Sanfilippo's?
Because it will be different. Granite tabletops, smaller with some soft seating--it's a Wash Avenue look in the Valley, but I wanted some connection. My nickname's Filippo.
What's the price point?
Many people use that as a barometer. The short answer is competitive, but price is sooo subjective. I had a woman complain that she had to pay $8 for a glass of wine--and we have a 7-ounce pour. I wanted to tell her the fair price would have been more like $10, but couldn't.
Customers don't grasp the cost of overhead.
This same woman said she could be drinking a bottle of wine at home for that same price, and I held up my arms and told her, "yes, but you wouldn't have all this."
Do you still get the same service from vendors that you did 20 years ago?
Back then, if you needed something your salesman made it happen--borrowed it, sent it over in a cab, delivered it on a Sunday, didn't matter. Few salespeople work that way today. But guess which ones I'm loyal to?
