Business

December 19, 2009

W-B success means restaurant in Dallas

Owners of Caf� Toscana opening Fresco Grill in the Dallas Shopping Center.

By Ron Bartizek rbartizek@timesleader.com
Business & Consumer / City Editor

DALLAS – Don’t be surprised if the new Fresco Grill and Martini Bar reminds you of a downtown Wilkes-Barre restaurant.

The walls are a soothing pastel peach, and white trim matches the tablecloths. The staff wears blue shirts and dark pants, and some of them will be familiar to patrons of Caf� Toscana, whose owners have taken over the space formerly occupied by Cuven�e and before that Black Duck Grill in the Dallas Shopping Center.

At a time when dining out is one casualty of the tepid economy, Marcello and Bruno Ameti are bucking the trend of closings and consolidation.

While acknowledging that Toscana hasn’t been immune to the effect of tighter pocketbooks, Marcello Ameti said an expansion – just two years after opening Caf� Toscana – makes sense for the family owned business.

“We felt it a little,” he said of the downturn, “but we can manage it.”

He takes a pragmatic view of the new venture: “If you can make it now, you’ll always make it.”

Each restaurant seats nearly 100 and menus are “still Italian dishes,” Ameti said, but Fresco Grill will have more small plates and a larger selection of wines by the glass. Aside from the color scheme, the layout has been changed by replacing 30-year-old booths with tables.

Ameti sees staffing as a key to success.

“You have to have enough people to work. We did some shifting and we hired,” he said. The restaurants rely heavily on experienced full-time workers, and as few as a half-dozen will at times run Fresco Grill, which Bruno Ameti manages.

With the restaurants only 10 miles apart, staff can be shifted back-and-forth as demand requires. That could come in handy because Fresco Grill has a glass-walled room that the Ametis hope will attract parties and groups.

Some of the new hires worked for the Ametis at a restaurant in New Jersey that they sold before making the move to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Like Caf� Toscana, Fresco Grill opened last week without a permanent sign, but one is on order. It takes at least six weeks to make, Marcello Ameti explained.

Fresco Grill will be open weekdays for lunch and seven days for dinner, but that could change depending on demand.

“We’re liking it here,” he said in explaining the commitment to a new location.

And they aren’t done yet; they’ve committed to opening a New York-style pizza shop in the new Wilkes-Barre transportation center.

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