Father and son duo, Jimmy and Dante Alario invited Marcus Lemonis to their Italian restaurant, Dante’s Italian Cuisine, to help them rebuild their failing business from the bottom up. After an initially profitable first year, Dante’s is continuing to lose money year over year as neither Dante or Jimmy have food service management experience and know how to properly manage their business. In order to be successful moving forward, they must learn how to analyze and manage their financial decisions (including what is cost-effective to keep on their menu), completely renovate their space and learn to repair their strained relationship with each.
The success of Dante’s is very personal for the Alario family. The money to start their restaurant came from Dante’s late mother’s life insurance and settlement following her death in one of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. Jimmy felt the best way to secure Dante’s future and to keep his wife’s memory alive, was to invest a portion of her money into this business. Jimmy feels a tremendous amount of pressure to set his son up for future success to ensure that he is always cared for. As it is becoming clear to them hat the restaurant is struggling financially, the Alario family desperately need Marcus Lemonis to help them rebuild and improve their business model for a stronger and more successful future.
Among some of the immediate problems that Marcus notes upon touring Dante’s Italian Cuisine, is that this New Jersey-based family-owned restaurant is susceptible to the weight of Jimmy and Dante’s strained relationship. Aside from the lack of managerial decisions and consistency, the kitchen space is too small, overcrowded and the equipment is outdated. The physical building and outdoor space have also been severely neglected and need significant work to make them more appealing to customers.
Upon reviewing the financial data and health of the company, Marcus quickly understands that Dante and Jimmy do not know how to properly track financial information or analyze it to be sure that they are making sound business decisions. None of the financial information is calculated or organized. They do not have a point of sale (POS) system, know their margins, or have official financial statements. Because there is so much work to do to bring the Alarios up-to-speed on being businessmen, Marcus does not want to invest in the company because he doesn’t feel good about taking equity out of it. He wants to help them because he is feeling emotionally invested in their story and journey, not because of a formal business partnership.
The first thing that Marcus wants to uncover is Dante’s motivation behind his business. He wants Dante to be proud of the business that he has created in his mother’s memory. If customers and staff understand the story behind the business it will help them to feel more emotionally tied and vested in the success of the business. In order to tell the full story of the company, Marcus needs Dante and Jimmy to repair their relationship and learn to trust and respect each other again. Through many discussions with them individually and collectively, Marcus feels that they are on the right path to being true partners in the business.
Marcus helps Dante and his team to do a cost analysis on all of the items on their menu and determine if they are profitable or cost-prohibitive. This will help to pair down their menu making it leaner and revenue-generating. In order to determine if the pricing is appropriate, they need to understand their gross profit, profit margins, and expenses. Dante and his head chef go through each ingredient, line by line, and determine the price for each serving. Once they uncovered the total expense, they compared that to the selling price. If the product is sold for three times the cost of the ingredients, it is properly priced. If it is too low, they evaluated if it was a good enough seller to warrant raising the price. If it was not, it was cut from the menu.
In order to make the restaurant more appealing, they completely renovated the space by reconfiguring the space to add seating for 8 at the bar. This will generate additional revenue that may not have been coming in before. Dante also invested in new kitchen equipment, a dessert cooler and an outdoor landscaping refresh. The end result is a much brighter and lighter restaurant.
As Marcus observes the tremendous growth in Dante, in his ability to understand the finances of the company and to repair his relationship with his father, Marcus decides to give Dante’s Italian Cusine a loan to help with the renovation expenses. Marcus gives a loan for $30,000 which is the budgeted amount for the inside renovations; Marcus is clear that Dante can pay him back whenever he can. He doesn’t care how long it takes. By increasing the focus on being responsible and the value of money, Marcus hopes to inspire Dante to be more accountable for the business. He shares with Dante that this is an important and intangible piece of his life because it’s his last earthly tie to his mother. He explains the importance of keeping it polished and protecting it.
To truly honor Dante’s mother, Peggy, Marcus donates $25,000 to Stars of Hope in Peggy’s honor. This nonprofit allows family members who have tragically lost a loved one to memorialize them by purchasing a star to decorate in their honor. Marcus purchased 5,000 stars for patrons of Dante’s Italian Cuisine to decorate. This will also help the Alario family to tell their story to their patrons and employees. This moving and special touch ensures that Peggy’s memory will continue to live on through Dante’s business.
Marcus is very impressed with the improvements that were made through his time with Dante and Jimmy. He feels that Dante is now acting like a true leader and looks forward to watching their success.
We hope you all enjoyed tonight’s season premiere episode! Here is what @marcuslemonis had to say about his experience with Dante’s Italian Cuisine. #TheProfit pic.twitter.com/WCTDT9nEEr
— CNBC's The Profit (@TheProfitCNBC) November 6, 2019
Do you feel that the changes that Dante and Jimmy instituted will be enough to turn their business around? Which of these changes do you feel will have the most impact on their future success? Start the conversation in the comments below!
“The Profit” airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on CNBC.
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