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January 2003
Scuzzi Stands Out , By Bruno Gentile

O‘Connell Street in Adelaide is renowned for it’s popular Cafes and Restaurants, and is the location of one of Adelaide’s respected and frequented cafes, Scuzzi.

From the moment you walk in to Scuzzi the feeling of being somewhere in Italy truly awaits you. This is your typical Italian run business as both Robert Sr., Robert Jr. and the Barboro family all play a role within the business.

Robert Sr. became stagnated in his career as a hairdresser, so he decided to sell his hairdressing business and venture into his "other love", Food. So in 1994 Robert opened his café and Scuzzi was born.

The ambience and the heavy use of wood are paramount through the fixture and fittings and omit a warm and welcoming feel. Robert Jr. gives me some insight into the use of the wood and reflects how the main bar was all hand crafted by a boat builder. The bar has also won Scuzzi accolades for its excellence and also won "THE BEST BAR IN ADELAIDE." It is not until you see the bar for yourself that one actually appreciates the level of skill, expertise and craftsmanship that has gone into the construction of this bar and it is truly a masterpiece.

Smoked Turkey Pizza

The aromas from the kitchen floated through the café as I read my menu, which read like a typical Italian menu with a fine selection of the usual Bruschetta, Foccacia, Pizza, Calzone, and Pasta. Risottos etc. I decided to try two pizzas and settled for Italian sausage, chili, roasted capsicums, tomato and cheese, while my friend Conrad ordered the smoked turkey, Spanish onions, kalamata olives, cranberry sauce, tomato and cheese.

Studying the menu, I notice out of the corner of my eye, something that is common and a delight to see and that is "Mamma in the Kitchen," Calina Hotea. Robert Jr. says, "My mother-in-law has become an integral part of our kitchen team. It is her inspiration, attention to detail and her casalingo style of cooking that makes dinning at Scuzzi a unique experience. No one here can match her flavours, technique or style. The chefs come close but Calina excels in flavour and taste all the time.

"Why is it that so many Italian restaurants or cafes always seem to have their own "Mamma in the Kitchen?" I can recall in my early restaurant days, training as a chef, (yes we had restaurants back in my days) the importance of my mother in our kitchen and the influence she played on my cooking...but this is another story.

When our pizzas arrive they look bright and fresh and are very aromatic. While the pizzas don’t seem very gourmet and lack presentation, the flavours are quite pronounced and totally enjoyable. The Italian sausage pizza lived up to my expectation with just the correct amount of chili for my liking and cooked to perfection. While the smoked turkey pizza worked well I found that a little seasoning was needed to bring out the flavours.

Greg Santoro is the head pizza chef and has been making pizzas in Adelaide since he was 13 years old. Greg, a qualified maintenance fitter and also a biscuit maker for Arnott’s Biscuits, admits his passion in life has always been pizza making. Even when Greg was working full time he still found the time to work casually as a pizza maker and after 20 years still loves his work. "I love the creativity pizza making has, and to see the customer’s enjoyment and satisfaction that they receive from my pizzas. It is so self satisfying for me.

"When asked, "What makes a great pizza?" Greg is quick to reply "The right puffy pastry, a great balance of ingredients, where no single ingredient over powers or dominates another, a full flavoured sauce and a good quality, not too oily cheese." All this was evident in the two pizzas that Greg made for us on the night.

Scuzzi’s popularity can be summed up by location, high quality and consistent food, great friendly service, décor and ambience. Robert Sr. says that features in magazines and also the Gold Entertainment Award are proof of the success of Scuzzi. We recently conducted a customer survey, where we surveyed approximately 150 customers. We listened and recorded the results. Then we acted on as many, if not all, the recommendations that were suggested by the survey. One example of the changes that we made is we used to have the radio playing as background music; however the customers found the radio music unacceptable so we changed to recorded music. Another example of changes made from the guest survey was that as a café the customers came up to the counter to place their orders. This proved to be a problem with large tables, so now we offer table service for them. This has worked not only in favour of the customers but also to our advantage with less wrong orders and a faster service to the customer. The most vital link in our popularity chain is the fact that we are a family owned and operated business and therefore our family all work for the same interest and benefits because we have a self invested interest. We treat our customers and also our staff with a high degree of importance and respect, so that when there is a problem we attend to it straight away and fix it.

QUESTIONS OF INTEREST:

Q: In the area of service, ambience, menu design and selection how do you think you achieve perfection?
ANS: You must have total control and awareness on all the areas mentioned above and keep monitoring them on a regular basis. • Q: How do you determine what staffing improvements need to be carried out? ANS: We listen to customers feed back on our staff and by keeping a keen eye on our staff. We follow this up by having regular staff meetings, menu briefing and ongoing staff training.
Q: What makes your food more distinctive than your competitors?
ANS: When you have your competitors as close as we do (Scuzzi is located on a corner with three of the corners occupied with Cafes all selling the same style food) you must be a step ahead of them all the time. Our food is designed to be not your typical café food and we promote a comfortable atmosphere to enjoy your meal in
Q: How do you monitor customer satisfaction?
ANS: We conduct regular customer surveys and listen to customer feedback. It is not only important to listen and conduct surveys it is more important to act upon feedback and suggestions as quickly as possible.
Q: What has been your most successful marketing tool?
ANS: Our two main marketing tools would be:
Our 14 foot Big Screen.
We installed this screen for the Olympic Games. It definitely attracted more customers who also brought in their friends and created more consistent and regular business.
THE ENTERTAINMENT BOOK.
This is a book comprising of Adelaide’s Premium restaurant and cafes and offers various discounts and savings.
Q: How do you entice new customers?
ANS: The method we use to entice new customers is to keep the customer as happy as possible at all times and provide the optimum service
Q: What are you most popular dishes?
ANS: We have four pasta dishes that have been on the menu since the day we opened. The popularity of these dishes is such that it would not be in the best interest of the business to remove them from our menu. They are dishes like Pappadella pasta with smoked chicken. macadamia nuts and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Home-made gnocchi with roasted roma tomatoes, spinach and tomato basil salsa.

In summary I found Scuzzi to have great ambience, feel and was a comfortable and warming place to dine. While the presentation of the food could be improved, the quality and taste was (apart from a little more seasoning) of a high quality.

Bruno the PIZZA GURU gives Scuzzi 3 out of 5.

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