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“Yes, it was a quite the learning experience," Michael Del Pietro told Relish this morning, referring to the closure of his third Sugo’s Spagetteria, this one in The Shoppes at Deer Creek Woods in Overland Park, Kan. The closure last week was reported by the St. Louis Business Journal this morning, after a mention in the Kansas City Star yesterday.
With a verbal shrug of the shoulders, Del Pietro admitted, “It just didn’t work out...so after 19 months of doing all we could, we decided to pull the plug.”
Then he elaborated.
“Overland Park was much different than I originally thought,” he said. “More conservative and more frugal. Those folks love their barbeque, but Italian food is a different world for them. Lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs were fine, but that was it,” he added, before stating the obvious. “[It's] completely different than here.”
When Sugo’s took off like a runaway train here five-plus years ago, there were thoughts to take the concept out of town: Kansas City, Denver, and maybe Omaha—markets where Italian food wasn't so prevalent. This exercise put an end to that idea.
“We will now focus only on the markets we know,” Del Pietro said. “Unfortunately, I had to learn that lesson the hard way.”
On a brighter note, the Sugo’s at 243 Harvard Drive in Edwardsville, Ill., is very successful after its first year and a half, and another Sugo's location is scheduled to open in Shiloh, Ill. later this year. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet a ton of money that Overland Park would have way out-performed Edwardsville,” he said, before adding, “but that’s not how it played out.”
Shifting gears, Del Pietro’s newest restaurant concept, The Salted Pig, serving smokehouse fare and "healthier Southern comfort food," is slated to bow in the next 10 days at 731 S. Lindgergh (the former Frontenac Grill). A log wood wall, salvaged from mostly sycamore trees located on the property, is a focal part of The Salted Pig’s décor.
