Father-son team Frank and Larkin Grisanti had been thinking about a second restaurant, but even before COVID, they didn’t want another big place like Frank Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant in the Embassy Suites.
“And now, the financial commitment of opening a 200-seat restaurant would be crazy,” Larkin Grisanti said. “But we’ve been thinking about doing a to-go place for a while, even before the pandemic. It’s just always been on the back burner.”
Not any more.
GoGrisanti is coming, though when exactly it will open depends on the weakest link in the supply chain.
“We’ll know everything we need in the next couple of days,” Grisanti said. “We’ll get our list to Federal Equipment but they’ll tell you, what used to take three to four weeks now takes about 10 to 12. I think it’ll be January.”
And that’s fine with him.
“I think it’s probably best anyway, because it allows us to focus here (at Frank Grisanti’s) through the holidays instead of tearing our hair out trying to open a new place and run two places when we’re so busy here,” he said. “January slows down and that’ll be a good time.”
Larkin Grisanti said that Frank Grisanti’s has had an exclusive relationship with UberEats (as opposed to using multiple delivery services) and that he’s not only been happy with the partnership, but that the analytics reports he gets let him know what he needs to offer at GoGrisanti. So planning the menu was easy; they’ve known how to do it for a while.
“Then the pandemic definitely threw a little gas on the fire,” he said.
It all came down to where, and it was a place that was hiding in plain sight.
“We kept wondering about the right place, just where we wanted to go. Then Dad called me one day and said to go look at The Stables, at Farmington and Exeter,” Grisanti said. “I drive by there all the time — it’s right on the corner and it’s the end unit. We think it’s a great place and signed a lease.”
The menu will mostly be pasta, salads, some appetizers.
“We’ll have some kind of family meal deal too, but we don’t know exactly what yet,” Grisanti said.
You can count on Elfo Special, on spaghetti and meatballs, toasted ravioli, Miss Mary’s salad — the Grisanti staples.
“We’ll have a small selection of grab-and-go items. I don’t mean anything like Lucchesi’s, but a few desserts, some salads, sauces, dried pasta, maybe a couple of heat-and-eat meals,” he said.
But mostly, the takeout-only restaurant will offer meals prepared on site, ready to take home and eat. Grisanti said you’ll be able to place your order online or by phone, pick it up or have it delivered. You just can’t eat it there.
They’re working with the creative agency Loaded for Bear and just came up with the GoGrisanti name.
“We think that says it all,” he said. “It tells you we’re to-go, and it lets you know we’re Grisantis.”