Family food, friendly service are the recipe at Florentine
By Suzanne Cristallo
Hand Bryan Godfrey a business card, and it goes immediately into a database along with all the cards deposited in a bowl from folks hoping to win a free dinner for two at Florentine Restaurant in Saratoga. Godfrey guards those cards jealously.
As general manager of a nine-restaurant chain that rewards its managers with a piece of the corporate pie for a job well-done, Godfrey is into numbers that prove his love of the business is good for it. He's also into promoting that business with every contact he makes, marketing on the Internet, mailing fliers and encouraging business lunches.
Florentine has been around locally since 1964, when native Italians Michael and Ernestine Del Monico first opened their small spaghetti and meatball eatery in Cupertino. They sold their interest to a corporation in 1998, retaining a vestige of the business as suppliers of sauces and stuffed pastas to the restaurants they once fostered as a family. The Saratoga store has usually been the front-runner of the nine, creating specials on its menu that have become part of the core menu for all the others and where corporate dishes are tested.
"We're a working people's family restaurant," says Godfrey, who revels in "schmoozing" with customers, occasionally joining them at the table for a chat. What they tell him about service or food is part of the data he collects along with the comments others email to him on the restaurant website.
"Nearly 800 people have emailed us," he notes, "and it's not just when they're mad." In fact, he says, the positive comments outnumber the negatives that might complain about service, such as "They didn't refill our sodas soon enough." Instead, there are requests for information about catering and recipes for such dishes as the popular Sausage a la Milano. For the record, it's grilled Italian sausages atop roasted garlic mashed potatoes, topped with peppers, garlic and onions, in a wine sauce for $18.95.
Godfrey, 33, took over as manager in Saratoga nearly two years ago after a short stint with a family-owned restaurant and eight years as a bartender. "I always had a goal to be a general manager," he explains, knowing he needed to move to a bigger outfit for opportunity. "The minute I walked into the interview with Florentine's, the place felt good."
The first thing he did was improve service, expanding the wait staff of five to 10 and hiring young, fresh locals "who take pride knowing their friends and family will be coming in." He experiments with new dishes for specials with chefs Augustine Sotello and Salvador Linares--who also is able to recall dishes he has prepared over the past 15 years and will whip up one should a longtime customer request it.
One much-requested dish is the berry cobbler--a mix of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries with a crumble crust "all hot and bubbly" topped with vanilla ice cream for $5.95, or the Gourmet Bag Lunch with pasta and sauce, salad, bread sticks, cheese spread and a mint for $5.50.
Noteworthy improvements in the price category: Last year, Florentine prices came down 10 percent, and this week, the specials menu includes chicken parmigiana for $5.99.
Florentine Restaurant, 14510 Big Basin Way. Saratoga. Open for lunch and dinner Sun. noon-9 p.m., Mon.-Wed. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Thurs.-Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. noon-10 p.m. 408.741.1784. www.florentine-saratoga.com.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
