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Kim Tucci admitted it was a risk, but one he felt very confident about.
We are referring, of course, to the departure from his tried and true The Pasta House Co. concept to wade in the waters of higher-end Italian cuisine. Tucci & Fresta's Trattoria and Bar (located in the former Portabella space on Central Ave in Clayton) opened last September to SRO crowds. Then last Friday, the St. Louis Business Journal reported that after a one-year run, owners Kim Tucci and Joe Fresta had decided to convert the restaurant into another unit (the 20th local store, if our math is correct) of the near 40-year-old Pasta House Co. chain.
Why the switcheroo? Why the reversion to the comfort of the bosom of the mother ship? The partners gave us several reasons and Relish has a few of its own.
A year ago, In a comprehensive SLM Q&A with Tucci, conducted just before the opening of Tucci & Fresta's, Tucci answered the big question, the one we all were asking: "So, how will it be different than The Pasta House?" Here is a part of his answer:
"There will be no item crossover from the Pasta House, 10 pastas instead of 40, including one with a derivation of my Diavolo sauce—the sauce from hell that tastes like heaven." And more proteins: "Three veal dishes, several seafood and chicken items, lamb chops, and four steaks, including a 22-ounce, bone-in rib eye, all priced like Gitto’s and Napoli."
And it was that last clause that may have done him in.
Tucci admitted yesterday that he underestimated the severity of the drought that fine dining restaurants were experiencing, and that even though his immediate competition was Cafe Napoli, Dominic's Trattoria, and to a lesser extent Chez Leon (and look what happened to them), Tucci was confident he could grab a piece of that upper-middle-class pie. Draped in a classy black awning and with a reference to "the art of Italy" (see right), T&F's appeared poised to do just that.
Several months in, though, possibly in reaction to a "too fancy" stigma, the restaurant relaxed some prices as well as the servers' uniforms. But the damage may have already been done. In out opinion, T&F's was still perceived to be a pricier restaurant, even though it now was not. And we fear that Tucci's statement that "My specials there were cheaper than at the Pasta House" may have fallen on a now-disinterested clirentele. Partner Joe Fresta laid out the timeline: "For three months it was gangbusters, then we noticed a falloff in winter when folks headed to Florida, then another when baseball season started, and still another during summer. We knew we had to make a change."
The lunch shift--normally a given in population-dense downtown Clayton--ended up being particularly troublesome. "We'd see people coming from the courthouse, give us a look, and walk right by," Tucci admitted. "It got so bad we ended up closing for lunch completely." (Apparently, that evil specter called perception haunted during the daylight hours as well.) Closing for lunch has never been part of a Tucci or Fresta business plan--all those "JUROR" badges worn around Clayton needed to be part of the equation.
So a Pasta House it will be, with a few minor variations on the theme: the Clayton PH will retain some of the specials that became popular during T&F's brief run: a larger char-broiler can accommodate more meat (like three kinds of rib-eyes) and burger offerings, with 6 options available, including "a super double-double cheeseburger" (which translates to 2- 6 oz. patties). Big screen TV's will be part of the new decor, with many of them tuned to futbol.
A year ago, I remember thinking that, given the economic climate, whether a lower-brow concept--like a Pasta House or a Sugo's--might not be a better fit for Clayton. Now, we'll see. Tucci seemed to agree when he capped our discussion by saying, "Hey, we brought the Pasta House to Clayton due to popular demand."
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(Bonus: And just for the heck of it, plucked from p. 189 of the August 2012 SLM, from within "The Best Italian Restaurants in St. Louis" article, ten factoids we betcha didn't know about the Pasta House Co.:
By the Numbers: The Pasta House Company
- Year founded: 1974
- 199,000 pounds of grated parmesan per year
- 200,000 orders of pasta con broccoli sold per year
- 2 million orders of Pasta House salad sold annually (that's six tractor-trailer loads per week)
- 25 current locations
- $150,000 charitable donations per year
- 400,000 orders of spaghetti bolognese sold per year
- 1,000 off-site catering jobs per year on average
- 250 tons of pasta used per year
- Most popular promotion: Reading, wRiting, and Ravioli, which involves 4,000 teachers at 400 schools. Students read and then write book reports for free meals at Pasta House; teachers receive discounts, too. Now in its 24th year, the promotion has generated 7 million book reports.
