Meeting the Managers

Sept 5, 2009

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and discuss Salinas own Martinellis Little Italy with the owner, Tony Dong, and their marketing director, Natalie Ray. Martinellis is the iconic downtown restaurant, filled with great food and the energy of downtown on a Friday night. The following interview takes place in their back room reception area.

[Jason] : Who are you?

[Tony] : Tony Dong

[Natalie] : Natalie Ray

[Jason] : What do you do here?

[Tony] : Owner, general manager, whatever needs done...

[Natalie] : dishwasher

[Jason] : Tony actually gets down and dirty and help with the dishes?

[Tony] : Oh absolutely, yes.

[Natalie] : I bring people in! (Natalie is the Marketing director)

[Jason] : How many employees do you have?

[Tony] : We have about 50 to 60 employees. Not a lot of them are full time, we have a lot of college students, high school students, some who work a second job, so they might work 15 hours a week.

[Jason] : Where did the name for Martinellis come from?

[Tony] : I was going to name it something else originally but... eight and a half years ago I told some college buddies that I'm opening up an Italian restaurant, and I'm going to name it this (I forget the original name). They would jokingly call me "Tony Martinelli" because that sounds a lot more Italian than 'Tony Dong', so Martinellis Little Italy it was.

[Jason] : What about future plans for Martinellis? Do you ever plan on franchising, branching out, opening more stores...

[Tony] : Noooo! Not yet. I've got my hands full with this, of course, and 111 Ultra Lounge...

[Jason] : You also owned...

[Tony] : Martinis, which closed down January. Two new steak houses opened up, and it wasn't making enough to justify staying open.

[Jason] : Now this started out as a family owned business?

[Tony] : Yes!

[Jason] : I know your brother managed...

[Tony] : Martinis for a while.

[Jason] : What are they doing now?

[Tony] : John is a partner with me in 111 Ultra Lounge, and is also persuing his MBA at KWU. Dicky, my little brother, helps run the kitchen, Wesely, another brother, also helps with the kitchen, and then Jessica, she is a server and a front of the house manager.

[Jason] : So you're born and raised in Kansas?

[Tony] : Born in Texas, raised in Kansas, Concordia.

[Jason] : Has the recent global economic down turn significantly changed how you do business?

[Tony] : You know, we focus a lot more on marketing now, I mean, people are still going out to eat, our strategy is just to get them to come eat at Martinellis.

[Jason] : Given the high rate of failure among restaurant start-ups especially, and how tough it can be with the hours and demands of running a successful restaurant, what has inspired you, what keeps you going?

[Tony] : You know, I got in to the business, right out of college, because I liked it. I liked working with people, the restaurant, managing it, the instant feedback and having people come to eat here. The mistakes are mine. I look at other careers and I'm like, man I really don't think I'd like doing anything other than this. Even though the hours can be brutal. There's tough aspects to it, but, I just can't think of anything else I'd like to do.

[Jason] : I know Martinellis offers catering, what other services do you offer?

[Tony] : We do delivery for $10 to your office, we do a lot of receptions, weddings, the hospitals, doctors offices, some big orders 20-30...

[Natalie] : Yeah, we did an order for 200 people delivery out to the wind farms. I took it out, I remember it was a lot of food! It wouldn't all fit in my car...

[Tony] : So yeah we do the catering, delivery... we do something kinda unique to Salina anyway, I think were one of only two that have a catering liquor license. So if you have an event where you want alcoholic beverages served, we can do that for you.

[Jason] : What all comes with your catering package?

[Natalie] : Well, we can do anything from sit down plated to a buffet style. On top of that we can do more than just Italian. We've done anything from a potato bar, soup bar, salad bars, chili... we've done just, pretty much anything you can think of!

[Tony] : Barbeques, hamburgers, potato salad... We can grill there, bring our grills, and cook for them.

[Jason] : Whats the biggest group you've ever catered for?

[Tony] : 600? For a Christmas party.

[Jason] : I hear there is a new menu in the works, anything else going on?

[Natalie] : The new menu features St. Louis style Pizza, we also have a new salad coming out which is a, I think of it as a summer salad, it has spinach, shaken walnuts, bacon with a vinaigrette dressing.

[Tony] : Orzo, a rice shaped pasta, we saute it with chicken stock, mushrooms... that's going to be a new side.

[Jason] : I've never seen you without a tie on, and I doubt I would recognize you without it. Should I be buying stock in tie manufacturers? Where do you get your ties?

[Tony] : (Laughing) I go to Kohls man! I can't go get the $60 tie, I'm back there cooking and washing dishes, so these are great.

[Jason] : Thank you for your time!