Frank Cipriano and his wife Christina own Cipriano's Ristorante & Pizzeria, a classic little Italian joint on Vancouver's Main Street. Like most mom-n-pop restaurateurs, the Ciprianos would have kept things all in the family, but the multitude of tasks called for outside help.
Now half the staff are relatives, and the other half are not. Frank runs the front of the house, assisted by Christina's brother, Allan. Christina is the Chef, and Frank's nephew Vinnie is her Sous-Chef. The three non-family members are Ravi, who does the dishes, kitchen helper Mandy, and Maria, who busses tables.
It was tempting to let job definitions dictate a two-tiered system of duties and rewards, but the Ciprianos were determined to avoid an "upstairs/downstairs" dynamic. From the get-go, Frank had the philosophy: "If you want to work in a restaurant, you might as well be working for me."
One way to demonstrate this commitment was not to stick the hired help with all the dirty work, but to share the load regardless of family connections. "There's nothing we won't do, from sweeping the floors and up," says Frank. "Allan cleans the grease trap on a weekly basis. If he goes on holiday, I'll step in," says Christina. On a busy night, "I'll wash dishes with Ravi so he can get out early and catch his bus," she says. "We'll clean toilets, do anything. Everybody's treated the same. We make sure there's no nepotism in terms of who does what. There's no 'that's not my job' attitude here."
By blurring the lines in this way, everyone gets treated as family, which in turn, rewards the Ciprianos with infrequent staff turnover. "Most of our employees are referrals," says Frank. "If someone's leaving, they replace themselves." Christina explains: "We have never placed an advertisement, because someone who's leaving will get their sister to replace them."
The Ciprianos deal with payroll similarly. Everyone is salaried with paid holidays, says Frank, "and payday is always on time." They'll never be told, 'Oh, you'll get your cheque next week.' Since everybody's on salary, if it's a dead night and the restaurant closes at 9:00, they don’t lose pay. "A half-dozen times a year, hey, they might have to work some overtime. And because everybody invariably works on their birthday, we celebrate every birthday in the restaurant with a cake with their name on it."
The management of non-family in a family restaurant is, "all about mutual respect and personal attention," says Frank, who insists on having one-on-one quality time with each staffer nightly. "When I come in at 5 o'clock, I say hello to all my employees on an individual basis. On the way home last night, Ravi came into the dining room and shook my hand good-night. We believe in a formal hello and a formal goodbye here," he says with a laugh.
It's also good business, Frank admits. "As every restaurant owner knows, you got no dishwasher, you got nothing."
