The Farinella Five

Before Farinella had celebrated its first birthday, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The business wasn’t eligible for any government subsidies because it hadn’t yet been open for a full year. The pizzeria and gelateria’s team of 30 people dropped to just six as the hospitality industry grappled with new and shifting realities. Like many other businesses they had to pivot and turned to a takeout-only business model. The Agostinis considered themselves lucky that pizza and gelato were takeout-friendly menu items.

It was a forced stop, and one that Nina acknowledges allowed them to work much more closely with the skeleton crew of six staff that remained than they would have had time for pre-pandemic. May Mustapha, who was the general manager of Farinella at the time and who is now the director of operations for all the locations, reinforces that sentiment. “We were able to really invest in our employees,” she says, adding that many of the staff they were eventually able to add to the team during the pandemic are now in leadership roles.

Though the siblings are undoubtedly ambitious, Cesare says they didn’t go into business five years ago thinking they would expand at a certain rate. “We do things one step at a time, we don’t overcommit,” he says, adding that they don’t jump into plans if they can’t already envision a positive outcome.

Mustapha, who met the Agostinis through her husband and who jumped into managing Farinella as it first opened, says the siblings’ confident outlook was part of what drew her to joining that early venture. “From the get-go they always knew they wanted to open more [restaurants],” she says. “They knew they were going to do well and that mindset really helped me.”

The Agostinis first seriously considered going into business together while in Italy after they had both spent time training and working in Italian kitchens. Cesare had worked at a historic Roman bakery for several years, working his way up from shadowing more experienced staff in the pizzeria to managing the whole bakery. Meanwhile, Nina had gone to Perugia to train professionally in gelato-making. After graduating, she worked in one of Umbria’s busiest gelaterias and she too ended up becoming the shop’s general manager.

Though the two had honed their skills in Italy and were happily steeped in the country’s food culture, they knew they wanted to combine their expertise to bring this taste of Italy back to their hometown. “Home, family, roots — it’s all in Ottawa,” Cesare says.

Food-wise the two divide the labour at Farinella with Nina taking care of all things sweet, and Cesare leading on the savoury-side. Logistically, too, Cesare feels that their skills complement each other. While he oscillates between looking either one day or one whole year ahead, he says Nina is usually looking two to three months in the future. With May on the operations side, they’ve trained their team so that they have no qualms about delegating tasks. “I’m lucky that I have so many people that I can call,” Cesare says of the trust among the staff.

By the time they were approached about an available space in Kanata, the team members felt that if they could weather the curveballs the pandemic had thrown at them thus far, they could transfer the takeaway model of their Rochester space to the suburbs. Not long after that, a friend who knew about a vacancy at the corner of Somerset and Preston suggested that they consider another business at a third location. “He saw that we had some time off,” Nina laughs.

“We had been talking about wanting to open a place that we would want to go for dinner,” Nina says, “everything was either too fancy or too casual.” Retro Gusto, Italian for “after taste,” was the answer to their mission to create a dining experience with warmth and whimsy. They wanted it to feel casual enough to stop in for a snack at the bar, but refined enough for a special occasion. Nina ended up bringing her wedding party back to Retro Gusto.

“The restaurant is full of things from our nonna’s basement,” she adds, noting that their grandmother owned restaurants in Ottawa in the 1970s. The handed down cutlery and plates are a part of the restaurant’s vintage vibe, but also a link to their family’s entrepreneurial history. “That stuff is like family heirlooms,” Nina says. “It kills me when we break a plate.”

Unlike the metre-long pizzas flying out of Farinella, Retro Gusto serves round, thin crust “Tonda” style pizza, along with fried snacks, salumi, cheese and a variety of antipasti. Italian cocktails, a selection of Italian wines and tiramisu for dessert round out the menu. “We just wanted to try to do something that wasn’t Farinella,” Cesare says, “we have a lot we want to show people here in Ottawa.”

As of May 2024, Ottawans are able to find some more of what the sibling duo wants to show off at Farm Boy’s Trainyards location. “We were supposed to slow down and then this came up and we couldn’t say no,” May jokes. Shoppers can order by the slice or full pizzas for takeaway; they get fired in the oven while folks go on to do their groceries. Farinella’s focaccia, sourdough and panini are also available.

The Farm Boy outpost is staffed by Farinella. “If I opened a Farinella in Italy, it would be like any other restaurant there,” Cesare says, noting that it would be relatively easy to find bakers. But in many ways, Agostini prefers a blank slate. Farinella staff “get trained from zero” and it forces Cesare and his senior kitchen staff to be able to put into words the skills that have often become intuitive to them over time.

In an industry with a high turnover rate, Cesare is focused beyond staff training to retention, and prides himself on spotting someone’s talent and ensuring they get opportunities to shine. “If people aren’t bored, they’ll stay,” he reasons. Nina echoes the sentiment, saying she always wants staff to have their own outlet within the company. Between the five locations the team has grown to 70 people.

With so much unpredictability in the world and the hospitality industry in the past few years, Cesare says they can’t focus on the factors that are out of their control. “What we do focus on is our core team of people,” he says. “Without them none of this would be possible.”

Having grown up and worked on Preston Street, Cesare says it’s special to be a part of Little Italy’s main drag with Farinella Snack Bar having opened its doors this spring. Once again, it was a case of the space becoming available before the siblings had sought it out. They hustled to open their latest expansion in time to catch ice cream season on the Snack Bar’s patio.

The Snack Bar serves coffee, sweet and savoury snacks (think sandwiches and mini cups of tiramisu) and gelato made daily around the corner at the original Rochester location (they’re also whipping up milkshakes with any of the gelato flavours on offer). Cesare is keen to add tramezzini, typically crustless triangular sandwiches with a variety of fillings, to the snacking rotation. “Hopefully by [the] end of summer when I have some room to breathe,” he says.

Five years in, and though it’s still a grind, the Farinella team is grateful to be as busy as it is. Nina says she’s delighted every time guests tell her they feel like they’re eating in Italy. For his part, Cesare says it’s hard to put the feeling of seeing the business grow into words.

“We work hard, we’re very lucky, we have great customers, great staff,” Cesare says. “I’m just happy to work every day.”

Retro Gusto
122 Preston St., Ottawa
retrogustoeats.com | 613.234.5747 | @retrogusto.ottawa

Farinella
farinellaeats.com |  @farinella.ottawa

Farinella Rochester
492 Rochester St., Ottawa | 613.422.6462

Farinella Kanata
806 March Rd., Unit 1 | 613.592.7775

Farinella Snack Bar
344 Preston St., Ottawa

Farinella at Farm Boy
Train Yards, 830 Belfast Rd., Ottawa