Vinnie's
Located on New Zealand’s rugged west coast, Raglan is an idyllic town known for its famous left hand surf break attracting enthusiasts from all over the world, and its home for 14 years to Vinnies, a restaurant suffering from a major identity crisis!
Despite the seemingly Italian theme, there is nothing Italian about Vinnies except the white, red and green styling, the name and of course the odd slice of pizza, but that hasn’t stop current owners Vito & Gina from dreaming big!
14 months ago they decided to adopt the New Zealand lifestyle, and moved their family from New York to Raglan to take over Vinnies, but nothing’s gone to plan!
So today restaurant fixer John Palino is having a good look around to see why no one’s coming to Vinnies, and he can’t believe what he finds; a restaurant with about as much charm as a funeral parlour!
Ok, so leave the décor for a moment, what about the food? For months this place has been virtually empty and John can see why; the menu is as chaotic as the decor!
So having rubbished the décor and food, John has more bad news for Vito. He came in a week ago with surveillance cameras to check out the service...and that too was a shambles.
Tonight he wants to give them another chance but sadly the customers stay away. John can hardly believe it, a restaurant full of staff and not a single customer!
Vinnies is going down the gurgler fast, and John needs a major game plan to turn things around, starting with the sloppy service. So the next day having come up with some new specials fit for a seaside town surf shack; it’s going to be up to waitress T tonight to sell them to customers.
The plan is simple tasty food...that’s where John thinks Vito should be heading with his menu, but with only a few tables tonight, T lacks confidence and struggles to impress out front, and Vito doesn’t do any better in the kitchen with problems cooking the new dishes.
The following morning John shuts the place down for 2 days of renovation, bringing in a team of experts to give Vinnies a complete facelift in record time...Vito can’t afford to be shut for long. In keeping with the Raglan location and the new menu, it will be transformed from a shabby derelict looking shed, into a retro style surf shack by the beach!
Despite the fact that Vito prides himself on his pizzas John knows better and devises a plan for him and Vito to hit the streets of Raglan with their own pizzas, and let the public decide. Not only does John’s pizza come up trumps, but it’s also been a great PR stunt!
Back at the restaurant and the renovations continue, but there’s no time to rest. There’s just one more day before Vinnie’s re-opens to the public, so John and Vito head out on to the streets to drum up support for the big opening.
The next morning surf’s up at Raglan Beach where John is bringing a surf theme to local dive Vinnie’s Restaurant. And today is a big day … they have to get all the renovations done in time for a massive relaunch but there’s something missing!
John has decided the place is screaming for a stronger personality out the front, and the perfect person for the job is the man himself. If Vito invests time in his customers it’ll pay off and from out front he can still keep a hawk eye on the food coming out.
Next the new sign nails the surf theme… and with Raglan being a mecca for surfies, hopefully it’ll drag in a new clientele, and inside more surfing touches with Vito even making a surfers bread stick - his long board loaf.
Vito’s excited and who wouldn’t be? He’s been losing ten k a month for the last year and this is the big break he’s been hoping for, but the rush is on to get the place finished … there’s just a couple of hours before the new Vinnie’s opens.
It’s a complete transformation and just in time for customers to start piling in through the doors and immediately Vito takes charge out front, and as John knew they would, the customers love his hospitality. It’s Vito’s big chance to turn around sixteen months of bad business; he needs to have what it takes to get the locals back on board.
Orders for the new pizzas are flooding in and getting the thumbs up, the tasters are going down a treat, and T’s working her magic on the floor as well.
Everything is going smoothly but, to be sure they’ve got it right, John call’s in friend and critic Luke Dallow, to give Vinnie’s a warrant of fitness, and he’s impressed!
Just a month ago this place was empty on a Friday night, but tonight John returned to see how the team are going, and the place is buzzing. The changes are all working a treat, and this week Vito took his first pay packet in 16 months! Already the future of Vinnies is looking a lot brighter.
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