May 5, 2026 • 29 mins
Christopher Borgatti learned the business from his father. His son, Christopher, learned it from him. Since 1935, four generations of Borgattis have been rolling pasta in the same Bronx shop through the Depression, through WWII, through changing neighborhoods, through the internet age and through a pandemic. The name on the door has never changed. Neither has the commitment to quality.
But legacy does not mean easy. When bird flu sent egg prices through the roof, the Borgattis absorbed the cost rather than pass it on to their customers. When the ravioli machine broke in the middle of Christmas week, their most critical week of the year, they did not close up shop. They fixed it.
Join Ben and Kathleen as they talk with Christopher and Christopher about what it really means to be a neighborhood institution, why putting customers over profits is both a values decision and a business strategy and how a family pasta shop has outlasted nearly a century of American upheaval. These are The Unshakeables.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
There are certain platitudes that get said so often in
the business world they can become a bit trite. But
what I do like is it isn't the fittest that survive,
it's the most adaptable. I actually think there may be
something to that one.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
My father used to say, if we had a snowstorm,
it'd kill our business.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
That's Christopher Borgatti Sr., proud third generation owner and operator of Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles in The Bronx. Borgatti's doors opened in 1935, and a snowstorm used to close the shop down for the day. Over the years, different things affected the company in different ways. Borgatti's was constantly in flux.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
There have been times when the cost of wheat shot up due to droughts, the eggs with bird flu, the families and their children moved on and moved out of there. But some of these businesses get bought by a big company, and they play around with recipes, and it's not the same anymore.
If almost 100 years in business have taught the Borgatti's anything, it's that you have to change with the times or go down trying. Welcome to The Unshakeables, from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. There's nothing small about the impact small businesses have on our country. Every day, I hear from owners who are not only fueling our economy, but also shaping the character of our communities. Yet too often, you tell us about the hurdles you face, regulatory red tape, access to capital, and the constant challenge of finding resources to grow. These aren't just headlines, they're your stories, and they matter deeply to us. We don't use The Unshakeables typically to talk about us. This podcast is about you, but it's important that we also bring to you important resources that may help. And in this case, I'd like to talk about JPMorgan Chase's recent American Dream Initiative, which is designed to help put the American dream back within reach for small business owners everywhere.Through expanded capital and coaching, advocating for smart policies that matter to small businesses, and continuing to innovate around services that help small businesses run and grow, we plan to support 10 million small businesses over the next several years. To learn more about the American Dream Initiative, go to jpmorganchase.com/communities/america. One small business that, to me, fully encapsulates this idea of the American dream is our guest on the show today. We're heading to The Bronx in New York City to visit Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles.Borgatti's opened its doors in 1935. America was in the depths of the Great Depression heading toward World War II. And even though it's a noodle shop, this is a small business built to survive. And to understand how, we have to go back a little further to the turn of the century. Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million people from all over the world immigrated to the US, including Christopher Borgatti's grandparents.
(03:22):
Their names were Lindo and Maria, and my grandparents came
as teenagers from Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And you may be thinking Ellis Island since we're here
in New York, but they actually landed in Boston, where
they got married in nineteen oh seven. Lindo's work with
an Italian wholesaler took him to New York. They worked,
raised their family and settled in the Bronx. Then, when
Lindo and Maria were in their late forties, they decided
to open a shop.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Because grandma had the recipe, something, I guess, growing up as an Italian little girl, learning how to make pasta. And as she got older, this was also a necessity in life, just to learn how to make food. So with the simple recipes she had, they decided to open up a shop to provide, I guess, a livelihood. They rented a store, which we still have.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
All of the Borgatti's were involved from the day the store opened in varying degrees. The older sons were already in careers, but they would help out with repairs. Their son, George, even made the first wooden molds they used for the ravioli, but it was Christopher's father, Mario, who would eventually take over the shop.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
My dad was 18 when the store opened. And my father used to tell customers once in a while, I mean, this was a business that was started on a shoestring.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
On a shoe string, they still were able to make
ravioli two types, one with the ricotta cheese filling, the
other the meat filling all using Maria's recipes. They made
fresh egg noodle dough and sold it to the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And like a hundred raviolis would set you back $1 when the store opened 90 years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Back then this was a neighborhood. In transition, the Irish
and German immigrants moved out and the Italian Americans moved in.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
There was a lot of the Italians who were relocating from Lower Manhattan, and they were settling down in this area because they were working at the botanical gardens, the zoo, Fordham University, because they were helping to build because they were skilled masons and stone cutters. So this made being closer to work easier for them. They probably just felt like, "Hey, Italians, what do we eat? We eat pasta."
Speaker 2 (05:53):
The neighborhood evolved into a true little Italy and the
cultures and customs of the old country came with them.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Used to see Italians all the time, shopping and attending
church across the street, especially during the summers. They used
to have two feats when in honor of Saint Anthony,
one in honor of Lady in Mount Carmel, which is
the parish. So the streets were just full of the
Italians being entertained by music, the food, and of course
(06:21):
the neighborhood did change obviously.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Over the next few decades, Borgati's changed with the neighborhood.
They got a new storefront in the nineteen fifties when
the family absorbed the hat shop next door. Some of
the businesses owned by other families for generations got new owners,
and the Italian families started to move.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Out, not that there was anything wrong with the neighborhood,
but maybe because apartments are small and they just needed
to expand and have a little more womb. And like
all neighborhoods, as one ethnic group moves out, another will
come and replace them, and their journey just begins for them.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
During the nineteen seventies, Christopher picked up work at the
store during the summers. He started with easy jobs cleaning,
measuring out flour for different doughs. He would also put
cornmeal on the Ravioli boards.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The way the ravioli machine operates is, in the back part, there are these wooden boards that get dust with cornmeal. Because as these boards are put on a conveyor belt, it's going to be fed into the ravioli machine. And then as the raviolis come off the machine on a belt, they get cut by the person operating the ravioli machine. So this way, the person operating the ravioli machine doesn't have to go to the back, put the board into the machine. So it was almost like a meaningless job for someone just to stand there and put the cornmeal on it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But it kept him busy and out of trouble. At
the end of that first day, full of flouring and
cornmealing and sweeping, he got an envelope.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I opened it up and there were two fifty cent
Kennedy heads as might pay for that day. I didn't
keep them. I wish I did. Maybe that'd be like
a keepsake, you know, the first dollar I ever made
at the store.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
A few years later, Christopher joined full time.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
1976, 18-year-old kid and a lot of energy. When I first came here, I didn't have the head for school. My education was being here, being with my father, my aunts, and those who I worked with. It's like, you think of back in the day with the apprentice, learning a trade. You're like the blacksmith or the carpenter, you're learning about it hands-on. You're not being taught about it in a book. So I think that was the best formula for me to learn. I had confidence in myself in so far as doing what I had to do here.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
In those early days, Christopher was focused on learning, not leading.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I was there to more or less support and help my father at the time. I never really challenged him with any ideas on doing things different. I just wanted to be able to support and help him. And as he got older and he got to a point where his health was changing, I didn't just want to take it away from him. But there was a time when he did slow it down, that was time for me to step up and be more responsible.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Time went on and a few other things changed. As
Christopher worked at the store.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
He met my mom while he was working here. She
was working at a pharmacy across the street. One thing
led to another, and me and my sister come around.
You know, that's Christopher Burgotti Junior. We have Christopher senior
and Christopher junior. So we're going to call the younger
one junior going forward, just to keep things easy. He
was always at the store, Probably since I was a baby, I don't remember that far back, but I do remember my dad would fill a ravioli box with cornmeal and I'd be able to drive my Tonka truck around in it. Me and my sister both, we would hang out upstairs in one of the apartments, that TV had Disney Channel, so we'd be there. And we'd be intercom-ing downstairs to tell our parents like, "Oh, we want coloring books. Oh, we want this. Oh, we want that." They're like, "We're busy." I was growing up around the store, growing up around machines, growing up around my family. That would lead to me and my sister helping during holidays, Christmas rushes. Everyone's like, "What are you doing over Christmas break? Are you going here? Are you going there? Are you going on vacation?" It's like, "No, I'm working the ravioli counter."
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Christmas, of course, is the Holy Grail sales season for retailers,
and Borgattis is no exception.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You always hear the customer coming in and saying, I'm
coming to Borgattis for the last twenty Christmases and like
bring my children. And you hear the stories about the
children used to come and now they're coming with their children.
So it just became like a family tradition. This creates
a nice flow of customers who come to shop in
(10:44):
this area. During the holiday seasons.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We go into overdrive those months. We're doing three months worth of production in two weeks when it comes to ravioli. So it's like the machines don't stop, his pasta machine doesn't stop. It's a completely different beast, but you anticipate it every year and you got to perform.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
What if something breaks, I mean you fix it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Has happened.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Now, I think we should talk a little bit about
ravioli and noodle machines. These are large industrial kitchen appliances,
not your tabletop mixer or pasta maker from William's Sonoma.
It's smaller than a car, but bigger than a pretty
good sized photocopier.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It's smaller than a small car. It's not wide, but
it's long. It's like average dining room table size. I
could feed maybe six people. Okay, so it's still not
You don't just pick it up with one Hell, you
don't just pick it up and order around now.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And in order to like transport it, you can't throw
it in the back of a station wagon.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Right in the past, Christopher's uncle George could come by
and do most of the repairs or Christopher would troubleshoot.
But if it's a bigger issue that means mechanic or worse,
the machine has to be repaired by the manufacturer, and
of course the worst time for that to happen would
be during the holiday rush.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It was a machine that makes large ravioli. It was going into the holiday season, and there was a part on it that broke. And it was a situation where he needed to get it to the shop because it had to take the ravioli machine apart, basically, in order to correct something.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And this is in the middle of the holiday rush
where you need all hands on deck.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Okay, yeah, absolutely machines on deck, especially with the Lawge Ravioli.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They're the headliners.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This machine, in particular, was a backup machine they were
using for the season. Their original was with the manufacturer
in Pennsylvania getting rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So as I'm working with this machine, I heard something happening. I heard a noise. It was making a squelching sound. And next thing I know, you got to imagine like there's two steel rollers that are parallel to each other that- you know, did run the door through yep, And
all of a sudden. The role of drop meaning like
(12:51):
you don't see it, but it's inside the machine, the
sides of the roll, the shaft of it. There's bushings
that it sits in.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I did google bushing TLDR. It's a small piece of
rubber that helps reduce noise and friction in metal machines
and helps the parts move. Think of the suspension on
your car. It's like that. But this one was in
a Ravioli machine.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So what happened was this part of the machine wasn't
getting the grease because his grease caps sure and it heated up and it was disintegrating the bushing, and that's what made the roller drop. Now, the rollers aren't aligned, and here I am trying to make dough straight and I was beside myself. It seemed to be I was throwing out more wasted pasta in order to make pasta. It was a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Ravioli production was at a standstill, the line was out the door. And when you're a store called Borgatti's ravioli, you have to have ravioli. Like every good neighborhood shop, they got by with a little help from their friends.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
My wife reached out to her brother who's got an autobody business. And believe it or not, then he sent over a flatbed tow truck for this machine. It was funny to see a ravioli machine on top of the flatbed, and it was trucked down to New Jersey. We got it back in a couple of days, but it was needed to go to the shop in order to fix this.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Do you remember this? Partially. I was a little young, but my mom said people were coming up to the counter and like, "Oh, I need 10 pounds of lasagna." And she would just look at the machine and look at them. She's like, "I don't know what to do for you."
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You, but you know, one machine down for not that
long can cost you a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yes, especially that week we told.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
The customers what happened. Most of them understood. Others say,
you know what, let me take the small ravioli or
they said I'll come back later in the week to
get the lawge ravioli.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Yeah. Our customers are like really dedicated to us, and
especially when something like that happens, they'll come back. They'll
come wait online at three am before the store even opens,
because like I got to get these things. I don't
want you to run out. I think that's part of
what being a small businesses. You get to know all
your customers really well. So when you go through something
like this, it's not so much you're losing out. It's
going to be tough, it's going to affect those things,
(15:09):
but your customers have your back in a sense. They'll
be back the next day if you run out, or
if you have to close, or something happens to a machine.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Kathleen, let's pause here because there's already so much to
talk about, and I think we should stop and note.
You know, it's the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the country, and we keep thinking about the idea of
these national treasures, you know, these businesses that have been
here for decades, some of them over a century, and
this is one of them. I mean, it is the
fabric of an iconic American neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
To be in existence for a third of our country's history.
Over a third. Yeah, I mean, you're the numbers guy,
but doesn't that ability to survive for that long just
feel statistically exceptional.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I mean, first of all, they started in the depression.
They survived. However, many recessions. They survived nine to eleven,
they survived the housing meltdown, they survived COVID. They've survived
all this stuff with a single store in the Bronx.
That's remarkable, single store and single product. I love the
idea of this just being one single thing. I always
(16:22):
say to people, kiss, keep it stupid, simple, Just become
radically good at one thing. You're nicer than I might say,
keep it simple, stupid.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
But it's so true. I mean, there's so much diversification,
and then you can't tell what's working.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Is it this? Is it that?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And you know, I think a lot about Japan, and
I love the art of the craft there too. They're
really exporting perfectionism, whether it's knives or socket sure, and
I think here in this country too, we have such
powerful stories of that or someone just really doubles down
and perfects a craft. And this felt like that to me.
(17:00):
It filled me with an immense sense of pride.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, I think it's important that I described this neighborhood
to you. Have you been Kathleen t Arthur Revenue?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
No.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
You know, it's funny growing up because I grew up
north of New York City, and I had some Italian
friends where it was the tradition to go, and I
always hoped i'd be invited, but I never was. So
you walk me through it as if I'm going.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You'll have to come next time you're here because it's really amazing. It's a couple of blocks and there's a ton of Italian restaurants and there's a really well-known butcher. There's a terrific cheese shop, they make the mozzarella from scratch. Every day, you watch them pulling it. There's a bakery that does really traditional Italian baked goods. There's a couple of legit Italian delis. The kind of place you walk in, they're like, "You want the matzo or the brioche. It's some of the best traditional Italian food in the city." My wife and I will go have dinner there with friends. It's really fun to go there.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
When you do your family trip, I want to tag
along the Strange family plus one.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Well, you're always welcome to join us, Kathleen. Now let's
get back to the story and to Chris, but not Chris.
Chris Junior, who will continue to call Junior, followed the
same path of his father and grandfather and took up
the apron full time at the shop when he was eighteen.
He'd already grown up in the shop, so it was
really just a matter of formalizing things.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
About my sophomore year of college, that's when I was trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do. And I was going for business school and I was trying accounting, I was trying different entrepreneurial programs, but nothing really made me happy deep down. But being at the store had always made me happy. So I was helping out there weekends and stuff. And slowly it was just like, you know what? If I'm going to do it, I'm going to go full bore into it. I still wanted to get my education, so I started to do night school and I would help out at the store more, especially helping my mom grow our online shipping.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Joan had started Borgatti's online shipping business two years prior.
Each year it grew even still, Chris Senior wasn't sure
about it in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Someone used to say to me, "How come you don't ship your raviolis?" And I was old school, so I used to say, "Well, if I start shipping my raviolis and they come to your doorstep, I'm not going to get to see you anymore." I felt like when you come to the neighborhood, you help sustain the neighborhood, shopping here and shopping at the other businesses. So if people aren't showing up anymore to the neighborhood, what happens to the neighborhood? I'm old school, okay? And I do what I have to do here.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But Johan was a computer teacher. She understood the power
of the internet, and she insisted that Borgatti's had to
be online if it wanted to survive another ninety years.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It was the learning process, and you know, starting with that, it was always extremely expensive because there's so much weight with the raviolis and ice. If you bought $40 a ravioli, you're spending $80 to ship. So what I helped figure out, especially with the shippers we were using at the time is they have these flat rate boxes, so if it fits in the box, it ships for a flat rate.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The shipping now sorted. They fully built out their website
to add an online.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Store, and that's when Liz came on.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Liz is Christopher's daughter, junior sister aka fourth generation Borgatti.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
She's like, let's grow our social media. That's very important. When TikTok first came out, she's like, "I got to get us on TikTok." She has her ear to the ground on all that stuff. When there's a trend that comes out, she'll be like, "All right, who's going to be in this video?" It's usually my dad. He gets a lot more views than anybody. There's a good one where he's yelling about, "They said snow in the forecast, got to get your ravs and cavs," for the ravioli and the cavitelli. That's always a hit when it snows.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
And when customers figured out they could order online, the
Borgattis were really cooking with gas and they did order
a lot. Whether that was to avoid snow or a
few years ago, avoid other people.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm going back to a specific time with covid and
the front of the store at this point was limiting
how many people we could bring in. That was when
online shopping I think jumped for everybody.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And I tell my mom all the time, you were
ahead on this because we had been shipping that point
four years, I think, so we knew what we were doing.
We had the system set up so we were able
to keep up with like this huge boom of orders.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
How much pasta do you sell in a week?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Well, it depends on the week.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
With many of the restaurants, like twenty thirty pounds of
Tackley teal a noodle for them Ravioli's, they maybe getting
five to ten boxes.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And that's five to ten boxes of one hundred ravioli
per box. You can do that math.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And these are standard orders every week.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I would still say we're like 60 to 70% retail, but a good portion now has gone to our online shipping, especially a lot of our older and former customers have moved away. They're living in Florida now, the Carolinas, California. So we ship to all of them. And now we have customers who've never even been to New York, but they order us every month.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
So this thing that Christopher was worried about shipping has
not only not ruined the neighbor it's expanded the neighborhood.
Everyone from the Bronx to La to Miami is now
part of the larger Arthur Avenue crowd.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Now, I think the next thing we're breaking into is our wholesaling, and that's where we're trying to grow next. We realize people love to shop locally, and there's a lot of really good supermarkets, delis, and other places that they shop. And these are the places we want to be in. I want to be in everyone's neighborhood shop, not just in my own neighborhood shop.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Ben, you know this is my jam. So I'm going
to take this one from here. I think you'll be
okay with me unpacking this one.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You're a marketing expert, I am not. They're marketing sort
of a very old school business, both old school in
what they do and old school and how long they've
been around on all these like very modern marketing platforms
like TikTok, How do we think about that?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
So when you look at what customers know and love,
eight out of ten customers actually prefer brands that have
the sense of heritage and nostalgia and are older. There's
so much that can be done when you are in
that position, instead of trying to be what you're not,
doubling down on what you are, which is what they're
using in social media, and interestingly, which most people would
(23:18):
not expect, it's our gen z and our younger folks
who love this the most. So we heard Chris Senior
talking about he's doing the best on the tiktoks, who's
resonating with that audience. That platform is a predominantly younger
skewing audience, and everyone's trying to keep up with the
times and have relevant memes. But I would say forget
(23:41):
all that. Don't try to post bad bunny from the
super Bowl. If you are in the fortunate position of
being one of these older businesses, double down on that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Great thanks, And now I have.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
A question for you too. It's about the price of food.
It's all over the news. How are you handling that?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Just to give you an idea, the cost for the six tubs of eggs was $112. When the bird flu occurred and the price of eggs went through the roof, one 30 pound container of egg cost me $120.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
How do you deal with the price fluctuations? And what
do you do?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
We ate it. And you know what? We didn't cut down on the amount of egg we used saying, "Oh, okay, let's drop the eggs a pound of batch because then we'll be saving..." No, that's not what Borgatti says.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And how about real estate? Do you own the building?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Actually we do. I think it was in the early
nineteen eighties. My father and the gentleman with the other
business which is in the building as well, bought it.
And the property was being sold by a couple of
guys who drove taxi cabs who owned it, and it
was not to invest in property. He bought it in
(25:01):
order to protect the business he controlled, his destiny. Yeah, absolutely,
was it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
One of the original owners of the building. Wasn't their
name Ravioli?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Okay, that would be Mary Ravioli. So when the store was in the early parts, she was the owner of the building before these two gentlemen owned it, but her name was Mary Ravioli. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Seconds too much The circle of life, or maybe the circle of ravioli. But as Christopher hinted at, the Borgattis don't see themselves as entrepreneurs or landlords. They see themselves as stewards of pasta with quality customer service and original recipes that haven't changed for 90 years as the world keeps turning around them.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I think of myself as a guardian of this business that my grandparents started, and that my father worked many years doing like a continuation of this story. Yeah, I'm a pasta maker who loves what I do. I love the fact that I got to work with aunts and uncles, and especially my father. And now, I have this dream of working with my wife and children. And I think of my grandparents, husband and wife working together. My wife, Joan and I are working together, and our children involved. And it's like, does it get any better than that when you think of a story that Lindo and Maria started 90 years ago? It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That is amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I got to remind myself every now and then, it's like, we have pictures of them in the store and look at them, and I say, "I hope we're doing a good job."
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Okay, Kathleen, let's bring you in one more time.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
This story is just so rich and it's full of
everything we like to talk about.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
On the Unshakeables, they both talked about themselves as guardian
of something bigger than themselves. I'm sure they do fine.
I'm sure they make a living, but that's only part
of what it is for them.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I think that permeates all aspects of the business, wanting
to make sure even with the cost of good going
up and inflation, these very nominal price increases the essence
of that is about being a guardian of your customer
in your customer's pocketbook too, and taking that responsibility. Really seriously.
(27:13):
Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I have, but it's not common. And when they said, yep,
the price of our egg mixture went up six times
and we just ate it. You weren't sitting here. But
neither of them bad it an eyelash. I mean, they
were just like, Okay, yep, you just ate it because
we were taking the long view. Now, they have some advantages,
as he said, they owned their building that gives them
some insulation and some other things. But still they are
in it for the long haul and they're committed. And
(27:36):
I think the other thing is what they have, and
what that neighborhood has is they've built a business around community.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And that's exactly why small businesses are so vital to
cities across America. This story really is the all American story.
Just loved it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Kathleen, thank you for joining us on this heartwarming episode.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Yeah, the only thing that would have made it better
would have been to have had a plate of pasta
in front of both of us. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
A plate of pasta always makes it better. I want
to close by asking you each to answer one question
for me. If you had one piece of advice for
current or aspiring small business owner, what would it be.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I always think of commitment, being committed to the business.
You have to be there and have a passion for it.
Don't set up a business where you're not going to
be there. You got to be involved. You've got to
be committed.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Chris Junior, Learn from those who came before you. I learned a lot through my dad and he learned a lot through his grandparents, and they have such wisdom to pass down to me, whether it's how to make a good pasta dough, how to fix a machine, how to keep your employees happy and well-loved and them love you back. Those are things that you can't learn in a textbook. So learn from your elders, learn from those who came before you. And the minute you think you know everything, forget it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This is terrific. Chris and Chris, It's been an honor
to meet you. I can't wait to come by the shop.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Thank you, Ben, Thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unshakeables.
If you liked this episode, please rate and review it.
Next time, we'll be speaking to another second generation business owner,
but one who took the name of his father's horse
racing company to make luxury apparel.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
He thinks it's all crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
He was one of the first doubters, like who's going to wear a Siegelman Stable Hat.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I'm Ben Walter and this is The Unshakeables from Chase
for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. We'll see you
back here soon
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
There are certain platitudes that get said so often in
the business world they can become a bit trite. But
what I do like is it isn't the fittest that survive,
it's the most adaptable. I actually think there may be
something to that one.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
My father used to say, if we had a snowstorm,
it'd kill our business.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
That's Christopher Borgatti Sr., proud third generation owner and operator of Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles in The Bronx. Borgatti's doors opened in 1935, and a snowstorm used to close the shop down for the day. Over the years, different things affected the company in different ways. Borgatti's was constantly in flux.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
There have been times when the cost of wheat shot up due to droughts, the eggs with bird flu, the families and their children moved on and moved out of there. But some of these businesses get bought by a big company, and they play around with recipes, and it's not the same anymore.
If almost 100 years in business have taught the Borgatti's anything, it's that you have to change with the times or go down trying. Welcome to The Unshakeables, from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. There's nothing small about the impact small businesses have on our country. Every day, I hear from owners who are not only fueling our economy, but also shaping the character of our communities. Yet too often, you tell us about the hurdles you face, regulatory red tape, access to capital, and the constant challenge of finding resources to grow. These aren't just headlines, they're your stories, and they matter deeply to us. We don't use The Unshakeables typically to talk about us. This podcast is about you, but it's important that we also bring to you important resources that may help. And in this case, I'd like to talk about JPMorgan Chase's recent American Dream Initiative, which is designed to help put the American dream back within reach for small business owners everywhere.Through expanded capital and coaching, advocating for smart policies that matter to small businesses, and continuing to innovate around services that help small businesses run and grow, we plan to support 10 million small businesses over the next several years. To learn more about the American Dream Initiative, go to jpmorganchase.com/communities/america. One small business that, to me, fully encapsulates this idea of the American dream is our guest on the show today. We're heading to The Bronx in New York City to visit Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles.Borgatti's opened its doors in 1935. America was in the depths of the Great Depression heading toward World War II. And even though it's a noodle shop, this is a small business built to survive. And to understand how, we have to go back a little further to the turn of the century. Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million people from all over the world immigrated to the US, including Christopher Borgatti's grandparents.
(03:22):
Their names were Lindo and Maria, and my grandparents came
as teenagers from Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And you may be thinking Ellis Island since we're here
in New York, but they actually landed in Boston, where
they got married in nineteen oh seven. Lindo's work with
an Italian wholesaler took him to New York. They worked,
raised their family and settled in the Bronx. Then, when
Lindo and Maria were in their late forties, they decided
to open a shop.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Because grandma had the recipe, something, I guess, growing up as an Italian little girl, learning how to make pasta. And as she got older, this was also a necessity in life, just to learn how to make food. So with the simple recipes she had, they decided to open up a shop to provide, I guess, a livelihood. They rented a store, which we still have.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
All of the Borgatti's were involved from the day the store opened in varying degrees. The older sons were already in careers, but they would help out with repairs. Their son, George, even made the first wooden molds they used for the ravioli, but it was Christopher's father, Mario, who would eventually take over the shop.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
My dad was 18 when the store opened. And my father used to tell customers once in a while, I mean, this was a business that was started on a shoestring.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
On a shoe string, they still were able to make
ravioli two types, one with the ricotta cheese filling, the
other the meat filling all using Maria's recipes. They made
fresh egg noodle dough and sold it to the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And like a hundred raviolis would set you back $1 when the store opened 90 years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Back then this was a neighborhood. In transition, the Irish
and German immigrants moved out and the Italian Americans moved in.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
There was a lot of the Italians who were relocating from Lower Manhattan, and they were settling down in this area because they were working at the botanical gardens, the zoo, Fordham University, because they were helping to build because they were skilled masons and stone cutters. So this made being closer to work easier for them. They probably just felt like, "Hey, Italians, what do we eat? We eat pasta."
Speaker 2 (05:53):
The neighborhood evolved into a true little Italy and the
cultures and customs of the old country came with them.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Used to see Italians all the time, shopping and attending
church across the street, especially during the summers. They used
to have two feats when in honor of Saint Anthony,
one in honor of Lady in Mount Carmel, which is
the parish. So the streets were just full of the
Italians being entertained by music, the food, and of course
(06:21):
the neighborhood did change obviously.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Over the next few decades, Borgati's changed with the neighborhood.
They got a new storefront in the nineteen fifties when
the family absorbed the hat shop next door. Some of
the businesses owned by other families for generations got new owners,
and the Italian families started to move.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Out, not that there was anything wrong with the neighborhood,
but maybe because apartments are small and they just needed
to expand and have a little more womb. And like
all neighborhoods, as one ethnic group moves out, another will
come and replace them, and their journey just begins for them.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
During the nineteen seventies, Christopher picked up work at the
store during the summers. He started with easy jobs cleaning,
measuring out flour for different doughs. He would also put
cornmeal on the Ravioli boards.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The way the ravioli machine operates is, in the back part, there are these wooden boards that get dust with cornmeal. Because as these boards are put on a conveyor belt, it's going to be fed into the ravioli machine. And then as the raviolis come off the machine on a belt, they get cut by the person operating the ravioli machine. So this way, the person operating the ravioli machine doesn't have to go to the back, put the board into the machine. So it was almost like a meaningless job for someone just to stand there and put the cornmeal on it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But it kept him busy and out of trouble. At
the end of that first day, full of flouring and
cornmealing and sweeping, he got an envelope.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I opened it up and there were two fifty cent
Kennedy heads as might pay for that day. I didn't
keep them. I wish I did. Maybe that'd be like
a keepsake, you know, the first dollar I ever made
at the store.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
A few years later, Christopher joined full time.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
1976, 18-year-old kid and a lot of energy. When I first came here, I didn't have the head for school. My education was being here, being with my father, my aunts, and those who I worked with. It's like, you think of back in the day with the apprentice, learning a trade. You're like the blacksmith or the carpenter, you're learning about it hands-on. You're not being taught about it in a book. So I think that was the best formula for me to learn. I had confidence in myself in so far as doing what I had to do here.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
In those early days, Christopher was focused on learning, not leading.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I was there to more or less support and help my father at the time. I never really challenged him with any ideas on doing things different. I just wanted to be able to support and help him. And as he got older and he got to a point where his health was changing, I didn't just want to take it away from him. But there was a time when he did slow it down, that was time for me to step up and be more responsible.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Time went on and a few other things changed. As
Christopher worked at the store.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
He met my mom while he was working here. She
was working at a pharmacy across the street. One thing
led to another, and me and my sister come around.
You know, that's Christopher Burgotti Junior. We have Christopher senior
and Christopher junior. So we're going to call the younger
one junior going forward, just to keep things easy. He
was always at the store, Probably since I was a baby, I don't remember that far back, but I do remember my dad would fill a ravioli box with cornmeal and I'd be able to drive my Tonka truck around in it. Me and my sister both, we would hang out upstairs in one of the apartments, that TV had Disney Channel, so we'd be there. And we'd be intercom-ing downstairs to tell our parents like, "Oh, we want coloring books. Oh, we want this. Oh, we want that." They're like, "We're busy." I was growing up around the store, growing up around machines, growing up around my family. That would lead to me and my sister helping during holidays, Christmas rushes. Everyone's like, "What are you doing over Christmas break? Are you going here? Are you going there? Are you going on vacation?" It's like, "No, I'm working the ravioli counter."
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Christmas, of course, is the Holy Grail sales season for retailers,
and Borgattis is no exception.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You always hear the customer coming in and saying, I'm
coming to Borgattis for the last twenty Christmases and like
bring my children. And you hear the stories about the
children used to come and now they're coming with their children.
So it just became like a family tradition. This creates
a nice flow of customers who come to shop in
(10:44):
this area. During the holiday seasons.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We go into overdrive those months. We're doing three months worth of production in two weeks when it comes to ravioli. So it's like the machines don't stop, his pasta machine doesn't stop. It's a completely different beast, but you anticipate it every year and you got to perform.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
What if something breaks, I mean you fix it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Has happened.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Now, I think we should talk a little bit about
ravioli and noodle machines. These are large industrial kitchen appliances,
not your tabletop mixer or pasta maker from William's Sonoma.
It's smaller than a car, but bigger than a pretty
good sized photocopier.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It's smaller than a small car. It's not wide, but
it's long. It's like average dining room table size. I
could feed maybe six people. Okay, so it's still not
You don't just pick it up with one Hell, you
don't just pick it up and order around now.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And in order to like transport it, you can't throw
it in the back of a station wagon.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Right in the past, Christopher's uncle George could come by
and do most of the repairs or Christopher would troubleshoot.
But if it's a bigger issue that means mechanic or worse,
the machine has to be repaired by the manufacturer, and
of course the worst time for that to happen would
be during the holiday rush.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It was a machine that makes large ravioli. It was going into the holiday season, and there was a part on it that broke. And it was a situation where he needed to get it to the shop because it had to take the ravioli machine apart, basically, in order to correct something.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And this is in the middle of the holiday rush
where you need all hands on deck.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Okay, yeah, absolutely machines on deck, especially with the Lawge Ravioli.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They're the headliners.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This machine, in particular, was a backup machine they were
using for the season. Their original was with the manufacturer
in Pennsylvania getting rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So as I'm working with this machine, I heard something happening. I heard a noise. It was making a squelching sound. And next thing I know, you got to imagine like there's two steel rollers that are parallel to each other that- you know, did run the door through yep, And
all of a sudden. The role of drop meaning like
(12:51):
you don't see it, but it's inside the machine, the
sides of the roll, the shaft of it. There's bushings
that it sits in.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I did google bushing TLDR. It's a small piece of
rubber that helps reduce noise and friction in metal machines
and helps the parts move. Think of the suspension on
your car. It's like that. But this one was in
a Ravioli machine.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So what happened was this part of the machine wasn't
getting the grease because his grease caps sure and it heated up and it was disintegrating the bushing, and that's what made the roller drop. Now, the rollers aren't aligned, and here I am trying to make dough straight and I was beside myself. It seemed to be I was throwing out more wasted pasta in order to make pasta. It was a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Ravioli production was at a standstill, the line was out the door. And when you're a store called Borgatti's ravioli, you have to have ravioli. Like every good neighborhood shop, they got by with a little help from their friends.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
My wife reached out to her brother who's got an autobody business. And believe it or not, then he sent over a flatbed tow truck for this machine. It was funny to see a ravioli machine on top of the flatbed, and it was trucked down to New Jersey. We got it back in a couple of days, but it was needed to go to the shop in order to fix this.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Do you remember this? Partially. I was a little young, but my mom said people were coming up to the counter and like, "Oh, I need 10 pounds of lasagna." And she would just look at the machine and look at them. She's like, "I don't know what to do for you."
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You, but you know, one machine down for not that
long can cost you a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yes, especially that week we told.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
The customers what happened. Most of them understood. Others say,
you know what, let me take the small ravioli or
they said I'll come back later in the week to
get the lawge ravioli.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Yeah. Our customers are like really dedicated to us, and
especially when something like that happens, they'll come back. They'll
come wait online at three am before the store even opens,
because like I got to get these things. I don't
want you to run out. I think that's part of
what being a small businesses. You get to know all
your customers really well. So when you go through something
like this, it's not so much you're losing out. It's
going to be tough, it's going to affect those things,
(15:09):
but your customers have your back in a sense. They'll
be back the next day if you run out, or
if you have to close, or something happens to a machine.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Kathleen, let's pause here because there's already so much to
talk about, and I think we should stop and note.
You know, it's the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the country, and we keep thinking about the idea of
these national treasures, you know, these businesses that have been
here for decades, some of them over a century, and
this is one of them. I mean, it is the
fabric of an iconic American neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
To be in existence for a third of our country's history.
Over a third. Yeah, I mean, you're the numbers guy,
but doesn't that ability to survive for that long just
feel statistically exceptional.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I mean, first of all, they started in the depression.
They survived. However, many recessions. They survived nine to eleven,
they survived the housing meltdown, they survived COVID. They've survived
all this stuff with a single store in the Bronx.
That's remarkable, single store and single product. I love the
idea of this just being one single thing. I always
(16:22):
say to people, kiss, keep it stupid, simple, Just become
radically good at one thing. You're nicer than I might say,
keep it simple, stupid.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
But it's so true. I mean, there's so much diversification,
and then you can't tell what's working.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Is it this? Is it that?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And you know, I think a lot about Japan, and
I love the art of the craft there too. They're
really exporting perfectionism, whether it's knives or socket sure, and
I think here in this country too, we have such
powerful stories of that or someone just really doubles down
and perfects a craft. And this felt like that to me.
(17:00):
It filled me with an immense sense of pride.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, I think it's important that I described this neighborhood
to you. Have you been Kathleen t Arthur Revenue?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
No.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
You know, it's funny growing up because I grew up
north of New York City, and I had some Italian
friends where it was the tradition to go, and I
always hoped i'd be invited, but I never was. So
you walk me through it as if I'm going.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You'll have to come next time you're here because it's really amazing. It's a couple of blocks and there's a ton of Italian restaurants and there's a really well-known butcher. There's a terrific cheese shop, they make the mozzarella from scratch. Every day, you watch them pulling it. There's a bakery that does really traditional Italian baked goods. There's a couple of legit Italian delis. The kind of place you walk in, they're like, "You want the matzo or the brioche. It's some of the best traditional Italian food in the city." My wife and I will go have dinner there with friends. It's really fun to go there.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
When you do your family trip, I want to tag
along the Strange family plus one.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Well, you're always welcome to join us, Kathleen. Now let's
get back to the story and to Chris, but not Chris.
Chris Junior, who will continue to call Junior, followed the
same path of his father and grandfather and took up
the apron full time at the shop when he was eighteen.
He'd already grown up in the shop, so it was
really just a matter of formalizing things.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
About my sophomore year of college, that's when I was trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do. And I was going for business school and I was trying accounting, I was trying different entrepreneurial programs, but nothing really made me happy deep down. But being at the store had always made me happy. So I was helping out there weekends and stuff. And slowly it was just like, you know what? If I'm going to do it, I'm going to go full bore into it. I still wanted to get my education, so I started to do night school and I would help out at the store more, especially helping my mom grow our online shipping.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Joan had started Borgatti's online shipping business two years prior.
Each year it grew even still, Chris Senior wasn't sure
about it in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Someone used to say to me, "How come you don't ship your raviolis?" And I was old school, so I used to say, "Well, if I start shipping my raviolis and they come to your doorstep, I'm not going to get to see you anymore." I felt like when you come to the neighborhood, you help sustain the neighborhood, shopping here and shopping at the other businesses. So if people aren't showing up anymore to the neighborhood, what happens to the neighborhood? I'm old school, okay? And I do what I have to do here.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But Johan was a computer teacher. She understood the power
of the internet, and she insisted that Borgatti's had to
be online if it wanted to survive another ninety years.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It was the learning process, and you know, starting with that, it was always extremely expensive because there's so much weight with the raviolis and ice. If you bought $40 a ravioli, you're spending $80 to ship. So what I helped figure out, especially with the shippers we were using at the time is they have these flat rate boxes, so if it fits in the box, it ships for a flat rate.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The shipping now sorted. They fully built out their website
to add an online.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Store, and that's when Liz came on.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Liz is Christopher's daughter, junior sister aka fourth generation Borgatti.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
She's like, let's grow our social media. That's very important. When TikTok first came out, she's like, "I got to get us on TikTok." She has her ear to the ground on all that stuff. When there's a trend that comes out, she'll be like, "All right, who's going to be in this video?" It's usually my dad. He gets a lot more views than anybody. There's a good one where he's yelling about, "They said snow in the forecast, got to get your ravs and cavs," for the ravioli and the cavitelli. That's always a hit when it snows.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
And when customers figured out they could order online, the
Borgattis were really cooking with gas and they did order
a lot. Whether that was to avoid snow or a
few years ago, avoid other people.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm going back to a specific time with covid and
the front of the store at this point was limiting
how many people we could bring in. That was when
online shopping I think jumped for everybody.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And I tell my mom all the time, you were
ahead on this because we had been shipping that point
four years, I think, so we knew what we were doing.
We had the system set up so we were able
to keep up with like this huge boom of orders.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
How much pasta do you sell in a week?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Well, it depends on the week.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
With many of the restaurants, like twenty thirty pounds of
Tackley teal a noodle for them Ravioli's, they maybe getting
five to ten boxes.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And that's five to ten boxes of one hundred ravioli
per box. You can do that math.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And these are standard orders every week.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I would still say we're like 60 to 70% retail, but a good portion now has gone to our online shipping, especially a lot of our older and former customers have moved away. They're living in Florida now, the Carolinas, California. So we ship to all of them. And now we have customers who've never even been to New York, but they order us every month.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
So this thing that Christopher was worried about shipping has
not only not ruined the neighbor it's expanded the neighborhood.
Everyone from the Bronx to La to Miami is now
part of the larger Arthur Avenue crowd.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Now, I think the next thing we're breaking into is our wholesaling, and that's where we're trying to grow next. We realize people love to shop locally, and there's a lot of really good supermarkets, delis, and other places that they shop. And these are the places we want to be in. I want to be in everyone's neighborhood shop, not just in my own neighborhood shop.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Ben, you know this is my jam. So I'm going
to take this one from here. I think you'll be
okay with me unpacking this one.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You're a marketing expert, I am not. They're marketing sort
of a very old school business, both old school in
what they do and old school and how long they've
been around on all these like very modern marketing platforms
like TikTok, How do we think about that?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
So when you look at what customers know and love,
eight out of ten customers actually prefer brands that have
the sense of heritage and nostalgia and are older. There's
so much that can be done when you are in
that position, instead of trying to be what you're not,
doubling down on what you are, which is what they're
using in social media, and interestingly, which most people would
(23:18):
not expect, it's our gen z and our younger folks
who love this the most. So we heard Chris Senior
talking about he's doing the best on the tiktoks, who's
resonating with that audience. That platform is a predominantly younger
skewing audience, and everyone's trying to keep up with the
times and have relevant memes. But I would say forget
(23:41):
all that. Don't try to post bad bunny from the
super Bowl. If you are in the fortunate position of
being one of these older businesses, double down on that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Great thanks, And now I have.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
A question for you too. It's about the price of food.
It's all over the news. How are you handling that?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Just to give you an idea, the cost for the six tubs of eggs was $112. When the bird flu occurred and the price of eggs went through the roof, one 30 pound container of egg cost me $120.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
How do you deal with the price fluctuations? And what
do you do?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
We ate it. And you know what? We didn't cut down on the amount of egg we used saying, "Oh, okay, let's drop the eggs a pound of batch because then we'll be saving..." No, that's not what Borgatti says.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And how about real estate? Do you own the building?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Actually we do. I think it was in the early
nineteen eighties. My father and the gentleman with the other
business which is in the building as well, bought it.
And the property was being sold by a couple of
guys who drove taxi cabs who owned it, and it
was not to invest in property. He bought it in
(25:01):
order to protect the business he controlled, his destiny. Yeah, absolutely,
was it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
One of the original owners of the building. Wasn't their
name Ravioli?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Okay, that would be Mary Ravioli. So when the store was in the early parts, she was the owner of the building before these two gentlemen owned it, but her name was Mary Ravioli. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Seconds too much The circle of life, or maybe the circle of ravioli. But as Christopher hinted at, the Borgattis don't see themselves as entrepreneurs or landlords. They see themselves as stewards of pasta with quality customer service and original recipes that haven't changed for 90 years as the world keeps turning around them.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I think of myself as a guardian of this business that my grandparents started, and that my father worked many years doing like a continuation of this story. Yeah, I'm a pasta maker who loves what I do. I love the fact that I got to work with aunts and uncles, and especially my father. And now, I have this dream of working with my wife and children. And I think of my grandparents, husband and wife working together. My wife, Joan and I are working together, and our children involved. And it's like, does it get any better than that when you think of a story that Lindo and Maria started 90 years ago? It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That is amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I got to remind myself every now and then, it's like, we have pictures of them in the store and look at them, and I say, "I hope we're doing a good job."
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Okay, Kathleen, let's bring you in one more time.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
This story is just so rich and it's full of
everything we like to talk about.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
On the Unshakeables, they both talked about themselves as guardian
of something bigger than themselves. I'm sure they do fine.
I'm sure they make a living, but that's only part
of what it is for them.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I think that permeates all aspects of the business, wanting
to make sure even with the cost of good going
up and inflation, these very nominal price increases the essence
of that is about being a guardian of your customer
in your customer's pocketbook too, and taking that responsibility. Really seriously.
(27:13):
Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I have, but it's not common. And when they said, yep,
the price of our egg mixture went up six times
and we just ate it. You weren't sitting here. But
neither of them bad it an eyelash. I mean, they
were just like, Okay, yep, you just ate it because
we were taking the long view. Now, they have some advantages,
as he said, they owned their building that gives them
some insulation and some other things. But still they are
in it for the long haul and they're committed. And
(27:36):
I think the other thing is what they have, and
what that neighborhood has is they've built a business around community.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And that's exactly why small businesses are so vital to
cities across America. This story really is the all American story.
Just loved it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Kathleen, thank you for joining us on this heartwarming episode.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Yeah, the only thing that would have made it better
would have been to have had a plate of pasta
in front of both of us. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
A plate of pasta always makes it better. I want
to close by asking you each to answer one question
for me. If you had one piece of advice for
current or aspiring small business owner, what would it be.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I always think of commitment, being committed to the business.
You have to be there and have a passion for it.
Don't set up a business where you're not going to
be there. You got to be involved. You've got to
be committed.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Chris Junior, Learn from those who came before you. I learned a lot through my dad and he learned a lot through his grandparents, and they have such wisdom to pass down to me, whether it's how to make a good pasta dough, how to fix a machine, how to keep your employees happy and well-loved and them love you back. Those are things that you can't learn in a textbook. So learn from your elders, learn from those who came before you. And the minute you think you know everything, forget it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This is terrific. Chris and Chris, It's been an honor
to meet you. I can't wait to come by the shop.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Thank you, Ben, Thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unshakeables.
If you liked this episode, please rate and review it.
Next time, we'll be speaking to another second generation business owner,
but one who took the name of his father's horse
racing company to make luxury apparel.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
He thinks it's all crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
He was one of the first doubters, like who's going to wear a Siegelman Stable Hat.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I'm Ben Walter and this is The Unshakeables from Chase
for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. We'll see you
back here soon
Hosts And Creators
Ben Walter
Kathleen Griffith
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