CEO's You Should Know-Sal Carfagna: Carfagna's

Starting in 1937 as a corner market in the Linden area, Carfagna’s Inc. has now grown into a multi-faceted business with a retail specialty market, restaurant, catering, and manufacturing. Working in the family business since he could “push a broom”, Salvatore Carfagna is a fourth generation Carfagna in their family business. Graduating from John Carroll University in 2013 with a BS in Business Administration – Marketing, he always wanted to help his family continue their legacy. His father, Sam Carfagna, encouraged all his children to get a college degree and explore life outside the family business. Adhering to his father’s words, Sal spent time as a Salesperson in Advertising and in the Medical Device industry before returning full-time to Carfagna’s Inc. At Carfagna’s Inc. Sal oversees the Specialty Market as the General Manager while also acting as Director of Marketing and Advertising, but in a family business, job titles are fluid. Using his business degree he helps advance business processes, operations, and new product development. He enjoys his free time cooking, gardening, fishing, and playing with his three children. He and his wife, Abigail, live in Westerville where they both grew up and met at a young age.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to

(00:20):
another episode of CEOs You Should Know. I am Boxer this week. You
know, when I think of differentItalian places, I think of the legendary
Carfonas who have been around since nineteenthirty seven. Let me just ask you,
do you know the history and thestory behind Carfonyas. Then of course

(00:40):
they branched off into different things thatI can't think of a better person to
have in studio with us and thisweek as a guest, he's a part
of the family. Sal Carfonja,who is with us this week. Welcome
and thanks for being a guest onCEOs You Should Know. Thank you Boxer,
thank you for having me so Normallywe have someone male or female that's
at the top of a company.It's a little different structure though, when

(01:04):
it comes to a family owned businessand a family owned restaurant, specifically restaurant.
You've got the market too up onGemini, but you've branched off into
so many different things. First ofall, how does it work in your
family? How does it We'll getinto the history too, But you do
what exactly you're marketing? Right?So I am marketing and advertising, but

(01:26):
I oversee the market and retail aspectof the business. So I guess general
manager of Carfagna's market. I overseeall of our departments, including our famous
butcher shop, so I oversee themeat department there. Then we have directors
that we call them, who aremanagers of our departments, and they manage
each facet of the market, whetheror not that be our pasta, the

(01:49):
cafe, cheese and deli, specialtygrocery, and the butcher shop. Right,
each one of those has a director, and I kind of oversee their
their activity. Right. We givethem the autonomy of buying and bringing stuff
in, but we approve you know, the different the new stuff that's coming
in, and make sure that everything'son budget track, goals track, uh,

(02:13):
you know, the the production that'sgoing on in the marketplace. And
then overall really try to embody thiskind of feel that you know, this
director is running their own business hereand really try to give them those lessons,
right and and and understand business practiceshow we have learned them because you

(02:36):
need to have them to grow.Right. This isn't just a Hey,
you're gonna sit here and you're gonnarun and slice cheese and meat and all
this kind of stuff. Right,and and and you mentioned something what else
you know? Marketing and advertising?And we also have a cooking classroom that
I oversee. We also do differentevents and event coordination and doing things like
this, like pr stuff. Right. So there's a lot of stuff and

(02:59):
you can't be there all time.Yeah, and when you're spread thin like
that, you need to to reallyyou know, have your your staff to
be able to be autonomous. Sothis is all under Carfaanya's ink though,
right, all of it, allof it. So when it comes to
making decisions, you have your differentdivisions, restaurant, the market. How

(03:21):
does that work? Does the familyall come together and you hash it out
sometimes? How does that work?Yeah? So overseeing everything is my father
Sam Carfanja and my uncle Dino Carfaanya. They are the co owners, once
president one CEO, and they overseeCarfagya's Inc. They head our board as

(03:43):
well, and our board is ourfamily members that are involved in the business.
Yeah, and so every every weekwe have our weekly board meetings and
we discuss state of the union.We discuss what's going on, what are
the new programs or implementations that we'redoing, what needs to be changed,
are problem areas that we need toaddress, where some red flags, and
really kind of hash out everything thatwe see what's going on within the family

(04:05):
business. There. Then we havemanager meetings again once a week in the
beginning of the week, where wereview the past week's numbers, discuss what
was discussed in our family meeting,our board meeting, passed that down onto
them so that they can take thosethat those discussion points and pass them down
to their staff as well. Ifyou're a Carfanja, are you one hundred

(04:27):
percent Italian? Then just sound curiouscuriosity, I am, so my mother
is actually her mom was Irish andFrench Belgian. Oh wow, okay,
so my grandfather Cua was one hundredpercent Italian. Now, my my grandfather
Carfania and grandmother Carfana were both onehundred percent Italian, So I guess you

(04:50):
close. I got one grandmother who'snon Italian. But I only ask because
in these board meetings with the Carfagnafamily, is it are the meetings you
gotta pass? You might get somebodytalking with their hands. You know,
it's like, oh, watch out, is it like? Is it like
the Godfather? Is it? What? What is it like? Are they
funny that you say that because thereis a mural of you know, the

(05:12):
Godfather like during a family dinner.Uh, you know in that room that
we meet at, which is hilarious. But but no, it's uh,
you know, we can be loudsometimes. Obviously I'm not yelling. I'm
just talking loud, you know,but it's it's all good and and uh,
you know, brutal honesty is neededin these meetings and and uh you

(05:33):
know, we we treat it likea business and you have to right,
Yes, we are family. Weare gonna come together and we're gonna love
each other. But uh, butyou we are trying to run something here.
So it is not only you know, supporting our lives in our family,
but we have nearly two hundred employeeswithin Carfina's Inc. And all of

(05:55):
them and their families and their lovedones. You know that that responsibility is
extremely important and you cannot take itlightly because the actions that we do in
this room will have a ripple effectacross nearly two hundred families. And treat
it as such right and treat itwith respect that it deserves self. Carfagnya

(06:19):
is with us. He is thisweek's guest on CEOs. You should know,
hey, give us a snapshot orI guess traveling back in time.
You have such a rich history withCarfgya's. This family owned business started in
nineteen thirty seven. How did itstart? Great question? My great grandfather

(06:40):
started the business. He was ourpatriarch. His name was Saturnino, actually
Aermo Gino Saturnino Carfaga. He wentby Sam hence my father's name Sam Carfanga,
and Saturnino was an emigrant from Italy. Vasto Girardi is the small town
that we came from. Today theremight be two hundred and three hundred people

(07:03):
living there in this small town.It is it is, uh, you
know, extremely small. Yeah,have you been there? By the way,
have I been fortunate enough to beto go there? What's it like?
It's it's special to us. Uh, it is. It is very
nonchalant, you know, it is. It is quintessential simple living. Yeah.

(07:27):
You know, these people they walkeverywhere. They only drive the car
when they have to. There's nogas station in town, so they better
make sure they got a quarter tankof gas to get to the gas station.
Yeah, you know. There theythey may travel outside of the town,
majority of them to work. Butwhen when we're there, it's we're
gonna wake up in the morning.We're gonna walk down a couple houses to

(07:51):
the bar where the the espresso's at. Have an espresso if we're not making
it in house, right, we'regonna go there and maybe they have a
croissant or something. In town.There is a cheese factory where they make
a famous cheese in that region calledcoccio cavallo, which is a type of
provolone. But it is traditionally hungand traditionally it was made in town and

(08:16):
then they would hang it over ahorse back and travel it to the next
town, and by the time itgot to the next town, it was
aged. Coccio cavallo literally means horsecheese. Coccio is cheese, cavallo is
horse, so cocchio cavallo is thishorse cheese it has it's tied with like
a little ball or rope on it, so there's a big bulb, yeah,
a rope tied onto a knot ofcheese on the top of it.

(08:39):
So it has this very distinct uniquelook. I can pull up some pictures
on my phone, yeah and showyou. But when you cut into it,
it might have a little bit ofair pockets in it, kind of
similar like a baby Swiss. Butit is a true provolone style Italian cheese,
it sounds is it pretty popular overin Italy then, is it?
Yes? When we were staying there, the Italian breakfast, I'm not sure

(09:03):
if you are aware of this oryour listeners, but the Italian breakfast is
not what we are used to here. You know, you go down to
their continental you know, quote unquotecontinental breakfast at the hotel. Yeah,
and it is. It looks likea charcouterie board. They got cheese out,
they got pershoot though, they gotcolpa. They have you know,
salami and it's some bread, rightand they got fruit. So no waffles

(09:26):
or omelets, no, no no, And they're like eggs, you know,
no, we cooked with that.But not for breakfast, right.
No, they might have some hardboiled eggs or something like that, but
no, for the most part,to appease the Americans, right, you
know, here's your eggs. Butfor the most part, it's it's it's
fresh fruit, it's cheese, it'ssome meats, it's some bread, and
of course espresso. Wow. Sowhen Carfund just just started nineteen thirty seven,

(09:54):
was it just a restaurant? Whatwas it? Back then? Let's
go back. We kind of gotoff on the Telly Let's Talk podcast.
It's a great thing about a podcast. Take me back. No, it's
so my great grandfather started the companyin nineteen thirty seven, but his story
started in twenty eight. That's whenhe actually immigrated, but it took about
ten years prior to that. Now, he was a World War One soldier

(10:16):
for Italy, was captured, wasa pow in World War One, and
so he spent many years in Germanyon a farm working as a pow.
And believe me when I tell you, by the end of the war,
this is how the story went.My great grandfather was eating at the family's
table with the farmer. The farmerasked him to marry his daughter and to

(10:39):
stay in Germany after the war,and he declined because he had a girlfriend,
my great grandmother back in Italy.Came back to Italy and then began
his journey to America. Was workingin New York at the times, and
was working on the skyscrapers, wasworking wow, you know, and meat

(11:01):
cutting anywhere that he could find ajo. Yeah right, yeah, And
would basically spend you know, upto twelve months at a time in New
York, then go back to Italyfor a few months, then would go
back to New York, you know. And he was doing this for,
like I said, almost a betterpart of ten years before he saved up
enough money to where he could bringhis entire family. Every time he went

(11:24):
back to Italy, he left mygreat grandmother with another child, and then
would go back to America. Hadenough money to where he could then fully
bring the family over to America.Now, put yourself in an immigrant shoes
back then, where are you goingto go in this new country? Why
did he come to Columbus, Ohio? Well, in Vaso Girardi, all

(11:48):
of the emigrants who left Vasto andimmigrated to America settled in majority of them
settled in Central Ohio, and thereason being was somebody made the journey initially
and had a factory of some sort, whether or not that was, you
know, like the military macaroni factoryor whichever, one of these cornerstone Italian

(12:16):
businesses that started in the early nineteenhundreds here in Columbus, Ohio. And
there is a very unique picture.There's a lot of history in the Gemini
Place. So if any of yourlisteners want to go there, I encourage
them to really walk the whole space, the market part, the market and
restaurant and restaurant. You know,there's a lot of historical pieces throughout that

(12:37):
space, including one photo near therestrooms that is the Fraternal Order of Intro
Daquaes. Intro Daqua is a smalltown in Abruzzo, Italy where a lot
of Central Ohio families are from.And that picture has everybody's name on there
and there are little numbers above them, and it's truly Marco. We can't

(13:00):
tell you how many people come thereand we're like, that's my great great
grandfather, that's my great grandmother.And looking at this photo, that photo
was taken outside of the space thatis now Saint John the Baptist Church,
which is the Italian church here inCOLUMBUSO. It's where the Italian festival is
at, right, Yeah. Andso that picture was taken basically where that

(13:22):
location is at because that was quoteunquote Italian village, right, That's where
they all lived. And you cansee a lot of names that you recognize,
Susie's Gentofani, t Berry, alot of these famous names and family
names that we know very very wellhere in central Ohio. So my great
grandfather began that journey and in nineteentwenty eight he fully immigrated and brought over

(13:46):
his entire family. He settled ona farm out in New Albany area what
is now New Albany. Wow.And that he saved up enough money to
have that farm. Now from there, is it still there by the way,
just out of curiosities, not,however, there is something still there.
This is where I was gonna getit because I live on that way.
What what's there? So my greatgrandfather raised dairy cattle, chickens and

(14:09):
produce on that farm. He soldmilk and cheese and his produce to a
to the local farmer's market back thenit was the market, right Yeah.
And that building is still standing.There's a brew dog there now, No,
that's the building. That's the building. So and I love going in

(14:30):
there because my wife and I welive near New Albany. We're're not in
New Albany, right, but we'rearound that area, and whenever we visit
that location we I always tell thestory because it's truly remarkable. I you
know, you have this sense ofendearment while you're walking in there, that
my goodness, gracious, this isthis is where you know our family name

(14:50):
had its had its initial roots waswas this building. Now, he sold
enough of those products to where hecould then purchase a corner markets down in
the London area. The first Carfina'smarket was off of Cleveland Avenue. It
was called Cleve Meets a little playon words of Clever, right and like
cl e Ve meets. Also ClevelandAvenue was where it was at. So

(15:15):
it was Cleveland Avenue Cleve Meets Andthat was on the corner of Hudson and
gosh, I'm drawing a blank now, Hudson and Route three, Cleveland Avenue
right just block south. It wasactually Court Place was where it was.
But right there, right at thatintersection was where the first Carfina's location was.

(15:37):
The apartment was above it, sothey moved from the farm, which
had no electricity, right, theymoved to the apartment so they could actually
have some modern amenities. Now,the story goes that I was told from
my grandfather and his siblings was wewould wake up early in the morning,
we would go to the farm,we would go to school, then we'd
work at the market, and wego to sleep, and we go out

(15:58):
to the to the farm where thefarm early in the morning, go to
school, work the market. Andthat was there. That was their daily
schedule that they that they did talkabout truly truly entrepreneurs, extremely hard working,
gradicated people. But this is whatthey did and this is what they
had to do. And that marketis where my dad and my uncle grew

(16:21):
up. That's where they learned howto how to cut meat, and that's
where we really started to get ourI guess niche within the market as butchers
butchers And by the way, beforewe started recording, you mentioned that you're
a butcher, so do you havethat experience as well? I am not
a quote unquote master butcher, right, Okay, we do have four on

(16:42):
on staff and my dad an equar, two of them. Wow, we
saw a matt. What does ittake to be a master butcher? It's
a true trade. You have tobasically be able to say, here's a
steer, break it down to allthe cuts. Wow. And and we
have two of our head meat cutters, Javier and Aaron, who lead our

(17:04):
team, our meat cutting team,and they were trained by my dad and
my uncle who were trained by mygrandfather, who was trained by my great
grandfather. Now we got our start. I'm going to go back to Cleve
Meats here, because this is whatwhen people say, oh, I remember
going to Cleve Meats, I remembergoing to you know, the Cleveland Avenue
shop, and and what do theyremember? They remember the poultry house in

(17:25):
the back. I talked about thefarm they raised the chickens. Now,
the poultry house was in the back, and we used to process live chickens.
And that was our That was theThat was the famous thing. Was
I still have customers who say thatthey remember receiving their chicken and it was
still warm. Oh my goodness,at him back to the house. And
that was you know, you couldn'tget any fresher than that, right,

(17:48):
Well, sal and Sal Carfona iswith us from Carfonja's Inc. And I
don't even know where to go nextbecause I'm thinking, you know, the
restaurant, they get all these differentthing components that came later on. But
let's talk about the history a littlebit. Wells from Cleveland Avenue. You
know we had another step there.Well well, no, no, no,

(18:10):
What I was going to say istimes have changed. So clearly you
can't have a pen of chickens tothe back in twenty twenty three anymore.
So do you have some kind ofa farm someplace? How does that work?
We partner with local producers, localfarms, so you don't have your
own farm anymore. No? Okay, No, you know there's eight carfinas

(18:30):
within the business and all of usare in that building. Yeah. When
did the restaurant come come about?Then? Great question? Two thousand and
seven. Oh so this is fairlynewer then. Yeah. But the concept
that we're at right now was actually, I guess a pre thought to our
restaurant. This whole concept of havinga restaurant and grocery store all in one,

(18:53):
Yeah, was an initial idea frommy dad and uncle that they wanted
to do however, find out theright space. I remember as a child,
you know, before I was ten, going to vacant convenience stores,
big Bears when they were all goingout of business, and walking through these

(19:14):
empty big Bears and them thinking about, this is where they wanted to put
this idea. But it was alittle bit ahead of its time. There
was a lot of build out thathad to go into there. There was
never a full kitchen for a restaurant. And if any of your listeners know,
or if you are aware of thecost that goes into building a commercial
chicken or kitchen is astronomical, andand you know small business, it's yeah,

(19:42):
it's it's hard to do right.And so trying to find that right
spot was not there, and workingwith our business partners, they suggested that
we started off in a small restaurantjust to get our feet wet in the
restaurant industry because we've never done it. We're butchers, that's who That's who
we are, right, We're grocers, and we've never ventured into the Italian

(20:03):
food realm, like we just startedreally getting into catering in the in the
nineties. And so having a restaurantand going fully into this full service food
industry is all very new to us. And to think that that happened in
two thousand and seven. You know, people were like they might know us
as you know, the meatball peopleand or whatever, the pasta sauce people.

(20:27):
But you know, our roots areare with a with a cleaver,
yeah, and you know cutting meatbecause soal for the longest time, I
remember the restaurant, but then Ialso remember you had the meat shop.
I forget where where was the meatshop at Carfana's car Market was on one

(20:48):
sixty one. Okay, that's what. Okay, so you said that earlier,
but okay, from the London area. Uh huh. That market We
moved from there in nineteen seventy one. We moved up to one sixty one
in nineteen seventy one. Fifty yearslater, nearly to the date, we
moved to Gemini in twenty twenty one. How long did it take you to
finally find Gemini? Like that wasclearly the place and it had taken a

(21:11):
long time to find that. Iguess, huh, yes, And like
I said, I mentioned that itwas the idea, right was I guess?
Kind of better part of fifteen yearsin the making. And when we
found that place, it used tobe an earth Fair was on Gemini there.
The business was Earthfair, which wasvery similar to kind of like a

(21:33):
Whole Foods where they had a lotof hot food offerings. If you ever
go to Whole Foods and you seethat whole entire prepared food section where you
can get a tray and you can, you know, get food to go,
you eat lunch there, you cando a lot of things. But
they have a full kitchen in orderto produce all that food. And Earthfair
had that. They had an entirefull kitchen on one half of the building

(21:56):
and it was perfect. You know, we had freezer space, we had
already a meat cutting room where theyhad their fresh meat. There was a
kitchen build out where the bones werethere. We did some uh, some
different modifications over on that side,but the bones were there right. And

(22:17):
we gutted that place. And ifyou see it, people come in and
they say, I used to shopat Earthfair weekly and I still can't believe
what you guys have done to thespace. We completely transformed it, Wow,
completely transformed it. And we wereally designed it over what we like
to call experiential retail, it's anexperience, right, Well, why why
go on an airan You're going togo to a grocery store. Make it

(22:41):
fun? So how is it anexperience? Tell us when you're in the
market. Everything that we have donebehind closed doors, making pasta, making
fresh mozzarella, you know, cuttingmeat, we are now doing right out
in front of you. So ifyou want to try our fresh mozzarella,

(23:02):
you're gonna go, and you're goingto see in our corner of the cheese
and deli department there is our teamstretching fresh mozzarella right in front of you.
There is a board right above headthat tells you the exact process on
how to make fresh mozzarella. There'sno secret. It's been done for centuries.
Yeah, but how we do itis the way that they do it

(23:25):
in Italy. We use nothing butlocal curd the best that we can get
on our hands. We primarily orderfrom Western New York, which in my
opinion, is some of the bestdairy farms in the country. There's also
some dairy farms that we will getfrom Wisconsin. If supply is short,
we'll also reach out to Wisconsin,which is known for their cheese. Right
yeah, for their dairy production.So we use the best of the ingredients

(23:47):
that's available to us. The dairyfarms will be and from Western New York
like five hours away. And nowwe're making fresh cheese with that product.
And then we say, hey,if you won't even take it a step
further, we have a classroom inthe back now where you can get hands
on. Roll up your sleeves.You want to hear it, misery,
how we make fresh mazzarella? Yeah, taste it now, Learn, Shop,

(24:07):
taste, Learn are our three verbsthat we really try to hone in
on guest experience. Shop taste,learn, shop it. You're gonna taste
it now if you want to actuallylearn how to do it yourself. We
got a classroom in the back,same thing with the pasta department. The
pasta is adorned by poster boards aroundthe head that have a number of all
the different pasa noodles that we makethere. Yeah, and where it originated

(24:30):
in Italy? What sauce it bestpairs with a little you know, snippet,
brief history fact about it, funfact about that pasta shape, pasta
noodle. And then if you wantto get hands on, you want to
learn how we make pasta. Here'sthe flower right here that we use,
this imported flour from Italy. Ohthat's great. Here is the here's all
the pasta tools that we also usethat you can bring home, that you

(24:52):
can purchase. And then we gotthe classroom in the back. Go learn
how to make some fresh pasta.Go sign up salkarfund with us. Carfonja
Zanke's this week's guest on CEOs.You should know your butcher bundles are pretty
legendary too. Yes, so thatstarted with we call quote unquote our family
value boxes. Now those are gearedtoward families who are looking to buy freezer

(25:18):
meat. Okay, so you're lookingto buy bulk, you're looking to save.
We have a number of different bundles, right. Obviously, we can
do freezer beef where you buy awhole steer, half steer, quarter hinds,
and and then we do also prefabricatedalready boxed out meat. So maybe
you don't want a whole half ofbeef, but maybe you want chicken,

(25:41):
pork, beef, some sausage,maybe some frozen pizzas. And we gear
this as a stock the freezer typeof bundle. And like it, and
those have been wildly popular for obviousreasons. Right, you're you're you're averaging
on these things, you know,thirty meals and it's costing you anywhere from
one hundred and fifty to three hundreddollars and averaging up all the way up

(26:03):
to like forty meals average meals fora family, which makes it extremely affordable.
And maybe you don't want that muchbeef, right, maybe you want
different proteins that are that are withit. Then we actually just launched a
new product this year which is eventook it a step further, which you
mentioned, the Butcher bundles. Sowe have family value meat packages, which

(26:23):
are we say they're too large theship. These are large meat packages that
are dedicated for stocking the freezer.Here's the value. You come and you
pick them up in store. Thenwe have our Butcher Bundles, which are
smaller, more constructed meat bundles thatwe are now shipping to people's door and

(26:45):
we're advertising free shipping on those.They start at ninety nine dollars. You
get our famous sausage that we makein house. You get thirty six links
of our sausage. You can eitherget a festival sausage, Grandpa's recipe,
or our brats or the variety varietypack of those you know, mixture of
all three, and then that getsshipped to your door. We ship them
throughout the whole continental US, sowe can ship all the way to California,

(27:07):
and we advertise free shipping. Doesn'tkurfond? Just do uh? I
think? I think you guys dothis where you buy sauce and you get
free poster or something like that too, all day, every day, boxer.
You got it, man, Ilove that you guys do that.
But is it's a marketing under thetable? Hey, by the way,
say this, but it's I don'tknow of any other place that does that.

(27:30):
We got my product in why whyelse you know you? Our pasta
sauce is is is a flagship productfor our business. We manufacture over half
a million jars annually and we shipthose out to now twenty six different states.
And the crazy stat by the way, you want to hear even crazier
stat. Yeah, yeah. Ourmeatballs over a million meatballs made annually and

(27:56):
guess where we sell those? Onelocation, one market? Are all those
made by hand? By the way, the larger ones you know, I
have to be they have to berolled out. You know, there's there's
some different Honestly, it's like icecream scoop, you know, it looks
like an ice cream like a littlelike dough scooper all of those. It's
not mixed by hand, obviously,but but rolled out. Yeah, you

(28:19):
got to. So I'm I'm asucker for the obviously the spaghetti, but
also your pizza. That's like evenat your old restaurant location on Polaris,
that's I mean, that was mynumber one thing, and I would I
would over order because I wanted tobring some home. That gets some in
it's a go box to go.I just love the pizza, thank you.

(28:41):
Yeah, you know, I rememberas before we opened up that restaurant
in two thousand and seven, Iremember the test does that my dad was
going through and we had a ayou know, a small fridge in the
garage that you would have like youknow, waters and whatnot, and you
a normal family would have refreshments inthe garage freezer, right, maybe some

(29:06):
frozen pizzas up top. Now atthe Carfana household, my dad probably had
about twenty different jars of passa doeor pizza dough fermenting, and they're all
different, you know, different yeastsand different quantities of all this stuff.
And he'd be like, hey,you know your friends want to come over.
We're gonna make a whole bunch ofpizzas. You know, So we'd
have pizza night, and I talkabout fun. Man, You go to

(29:29):
over our house at Carfaa Household,and here comes Sam Carfana and he's slinging
twenty pizzas. You know. Everybody'sleaving out of there, busting at the
seams and rolling out with full bellies. And yeah. So it was a
lot of R and D right,research and environment going into that pizza dough.
And we still make it by hand. Actually, everything in our restaurant

(29:51):
is all homemade pizza, pasta,sauces, soups, everything is made by
Carfagya. But so how many kidsgrow growing up, friends that you had
growing up wanted to come over justto eat. Wait, that's a Carfanya.
I know they have food. Youknow. My grandma Cua, my
mom's mother, always had the famousline of having an extra table setting because

(30:17):
you never know who's gonna come.Yeah, right, and there would always
be an extra table setting. Now, my mom was one of ten,
right, so you can imagine that. You know, in their household there
was constantly people being coming over andwhatnot. And there's an even famous story
of her even cooking for Ohio Statefootball team. But there was always an
extra place setting there because you neverknow who's gonna come. Yeah. Right,
It's like that Sebastian Manascalsko skit wherehe's like he's like I was just

(30:44):
in the neighborhood. Oh, bringout to Sarah Lee. There's as Sarah
ly in the freezer for for theit's for company. Don't touch it,
you know what I mean, bringout the intimates. Know it's it's truly.
It was like that. So it'salways an extra table setting because you
never know who's gonna join. Younever know who's gonna be show up.
But but you need to be welcomingand you need to be warm. Uh.
And that's how I was raised,and I tried to instill that in

(31:07):
my children. Yeah, who arestill young, but you know we're learning.
Congrats by the way, and yourdaughter, thank you, thank you.
That was just what a few weeksago October ninth, Wow, yeah,
wow, not even three weeks threeweeks ago. So you look refreshed,
like you're getting sleep good. Alot of coffee. A lot of
coffee will do that, all right? Can you tell I'm rattling off on
this microal quick? But welcome tothe three child club by the way,

(31:30):
Yes, thank you. I gota beautiful daughter four years old and son
who's two, and now I gota newborn. So full house, right
Carfana, a party of five comingin. We you talked a little bit
about life at home, but whatSal, What was life growing up in
this family business for you? Well? People always say when did you start?

(31:52):
Since I could push a broom?You know, you know, was
that your first job? Sweeping outand sweep and Mary, that's what you
got to do, that's what thecarryouts do. Yes, absolutely, the
first job that, yeah, thatthat I had was carry out carry out
in the groceries right to the people'scar and carry outs would sweep at the

(32:14):
end of the night, break downand help close. Was there just out
of curiosity? Was especially with afamily business like yours with Karfanyas, was
there a time where you felt like, you know, I kind of want
to see what else is out there? And hey, if I don't like
it, I'm sure I could alwayscome back to the family business. Did
you ever have that? Absolutely?Okay. My dad encouraged it. So

(32:37):
he instilled with us that that goand get your college degree, go and
learn something, learn a skill,learn something valuable. Yeah, you know,
he's I will be here and thisis what I chose, and if
you want to do this, sureand I'll help you learn it. But

(32:58):
I want you to attempt to makingyour own path, which I did.
I did I I Uh, Iwent to school uh John Carroll University.
Uh. I studied uh for businessuh marketing. And you know, I
always told my dad I was Weused to sit at the table and he
used to he used to ask allof us as as children, you know,
what are you gonna what do youwant to do when you grow up?

(33:19):
You know what what's your what's yourdreams? You know, what are
your goals? Just a little tabletalk, right, Yeah, And it
was always you know, I'm gonnabe a star football player. And then
it come to me, right,and I'd be uh, you know,
I want to I want to workin the in the back deli with you,
Dad. I want to work youknow, as a as a cook,
and my siblings would all start laughing. I'm one of five, by
the way, I'm middle child numberthree, holding it down, but uh,

(33:42):
you know, they'd always laugh.And I'd always look at him like
what you know? And and Iremember we'd go out to the restaurants and
and my dad would ask to speakto the to the to the cook,
the chef, and the chef wouldcome out and he would he and he'd
sit there he and be like,now, do you work on on holidays
and chefs? Yeah, you knowobviously, do you work on New Year's
even? Yeah? I work onNew Year's Eve? And my dad wud
look at me and be like,is that what you want to do?

(34:02):
Do you want to do? Youwant these hours? And I'm like,
damn, man, like sorry,I'm and I'm like, you know,
like, well, Dad, Iyou know, this is what I wanted
to do. Now. I tookthat a step further throughout my young adulthood.
And then when I was in collegeand and I wanted to go to
business school, I knew that Iplayed football for a couple of years at
John Carroll University. That's where whatwas your position? I was a wide

(34:24):
receiver that was really wide receiver.I was a slot back, which is
you know my position at the SalesHigh school where I played huh and uh.
So I was a little scat back, you know, type of guy
running little out routes, jet sweeps, uh posts over the over the linebacker's
heads, and and that type ofthing, while also aiding in the run
blocking scheme. But I went therefor business marketing and with the goal of

(34:50):
to helping the family business out atsome point now post college. Then I
got actually into the advertising realm insales a little bit, and then that
actually led me into medical device sales, which I did for nearly about ten
years. So I was really doingsomething that I did not know that I
was going to be doing. AndI was a part of the O R

(35:13):
team. I was in joint andreconstruction, so I was selling knee replacements,
hip replacements, shoulder replacements. Andthen I got into another company where
I sold laparscopic equipment and I soldyou know everything that grabbers, graspers bags
that you know would be used forlaparoscopic surgeries. I saw everything from babies
being born to cancer being taken out, and I was right there in the

(35:35):
o R with the doc in thenurses and you know, anesthesiology, and
it was very high stress. Right, patient on the table a very you
know, a I guess a honoredspace, right, a very you know,
dedicated space that that is that isone respectful and and you have to

(36:00):
be on your on your game,right and you better be able to do
your job because that patient on thetable has a family. Yeah, yeah,
there's a life at stakes, alife at stake, all of that,
right, And so it is,uh, it's it is a very
unique job. So you must havegotten to a point where obviously you're like,

(36:21):
okay, I I'm ready to comehome. You mean to come come
back to Carfana. So I actuallynever really left. I ran all of
our social media accounts on the side, and and I would kind of be
our social media liaison, you know, help with the website wherever I could,
whenever I could. But if youever d MD Carfanya's on any of

(36:45):
our social media handles, I wasreplying back to them. So I was
the direct It was probably with mewith the likes and stuff like that when
I would plug you guys. Yes, So I never really left, right
And and I and I did thatat no charge for my family, and
that was my way of giving back, right and helping out. And then

(37:07):
the conversation of hey, this newspace at Gemini is available, and the
discussion about you know, what arewe going to do and and how is
this going to look out into thefuture. And I promised my dad that
if we were going to go throughwith this, that I would come back

(37:27):
and help him because he can't doit by himself. Yeah. And and
there's no reason he doesn't need todo that, you know, but he
wanted to do that and and andto give our generation that opportunity, him
and my uncle to give us theopportunity to continue this for another generation when
it's a family business. By theway, like this, is there such

(37:51):
a thing as you know, youown the business? So is there such
a thing as retirement, because itjust seems like, especially with Carfanya's,
it's it's just in your blood.You love what you do and you you
love to work. Yeah. Andagain another great question my experience firsthand with
my elders retiring was my grandfather,Eddie Carfana I'm doing finger quotations retired right.

(38:20):
My grandfather was still he put onhis his meat cutting coat and would
walk the line whenever he could justallow his presence being known. Yeah,
yes, he did retire obviously whenhe got older into age, would spend
a lot of time, you know, in warmer climates, would go back
to Italy and to visit his cousinsthere, and yeah, would spend time

(38:40):
with his relatives that that are stillin Italy. But you know, when
I was growing up and talking aboutwhen I could push a broom, and
then when I was old enough towork behind the meat counter, he was
still you know again quote unquote retired, but was still back there and helping.
And in my dad and my unclethey say the same thing. And

(39:01):
they're also in the mindset of ifI stop, my health is going to
deteriorate immediately. Right. It's theJoe pa effect. Joe Paterno in football.
As soon as he as soon ashe stopped coaching, you know,
the man passed, right, andand so there's a lot of they have

(39:22):
seen it with their relatives. Withmy grandfather's siblings, you know, they
were My aunt, Phyllis Philomena Militelloworked until she was in her mid nineties.
It wasn't until she got in acar accident that was not her fault.
She was literally had to stop working, you know, otherwise she wouldn't

(39:43):
have stopped, and she was workingwell into her in her nineties. You
think about that, right, andand again it was you, you need
to retire, you need to takesome time for yourself, And it was
just never an option with them.Again, this is that same generation.
She was a little girl going fromthe apartment to the farm, to school
to the market, you know,and that's how she lived. And now

(40:07):
she's being told to take some timefor yourself like no, like never.
That was never in her blood.Right. So again, my dad and
my uncle, will they retire,Yes, we're trying to build that life
for them. Sure, they stillfeel obligated. There's still some things that
they want to do that they wantto accomplish within the building. But we
are encouraging them and trying to givethem the confidence that they can't step out
and spend more time for themselves.Is that hard to do? So?

(40:30):
Is that is that hard to instilla new idea or something that you think
might be more efficient. You canlead a horse to water, you can't
force them to drink it, youknow, it's it is, yeah,
because this is I don't know morethan them, I don't their their wealth.

(40:51):
I try to be a sponge wheneverI'm around them. You have to
be the amount of knowledge, theamount of business acumen that they have acquired
through the years. Right, theywere working when they could push a broom
and they saw the business girl froma little corner market in the London area
to what it is now. Theywere the ones who were instrumental in that.
They were the ones who implemented thepasta sauce and the Presto pleasers frozen

(41:15):
line and growing into a food manufacturingand growing into a restaurant. My dad
and my uncle were the generation thatexpanded that and and trying to hone in
on their you know, experiences andlearning from them and every little snippet that

(41:36):
you can be right, you haveto be a sponge with them because because
time is short, and time withthem especially is short, and and you
know, I get choked up thinkingabout it, but it's it is.
It's it's endearing and you have tobe respectful of that. And and you
got to learn from them because uh, they will at some point. Trust

(41:59):
our general to now step up andthey're not going to be there. Yeah,
and then it's go time, rightand uh, and now you have
to take everything that they have taughtyou, that they have taught us and
and put that into practice. Carfinishas such an incredible legacy. Where's it
going? What's what's next? Asthe baton in a few years will be

(42:22):
the torch will be passed down.Yeah. Well, you know, we
are still getting settled into Gemini place, and we are still kind of I
guess chiseling out all of our featureprograms, you know, really trying to
define what we are here at Gemini. This is a brand new concept really
to Columbus, Ohio. There's alot of quote unquote grossurants around the world.

(42:46):
Uh. The most famous one thatpeople may have heard of is Italy.
Right. It's this space that isboth dining and retail and uh an
experiential you know, shopping destination.And we really tried to create that here
for for Columbus and and honing inon what works for us is is an

(43:12):
ongoing process. So that is theinitial aspect of it. The next would
be breaking out into e commerce becausewe are one stop shop. How many
times do I get do I gethurt. You guys got to put one
of these in Hilliard. You guysgot to put one of these in Double
I'm all the way out in Patasca. Can you guys put one out east?
You know? And and it's Iwould love to do that. I
would love to do that, butthey don't know. I got two hundred
people at this at this location,and we have a hard time just staffing

(43:35):
that location. And think about openingup another one of these and trying to
trying to staff that location. Isthat where e commerce for you comes in
handy, That's what I'm trying todo. Why why try to to build
another brick and mortar when when themodern amenities are now allowing me to bring
that product to your door. Andwe were looking into expanding on this aspect

(43:58):
of hey, and the hardest onewas fresh meat. How do you deliver
fresh meat two people? Right?And how do you get that to a
process that is conducive to your business? Once we figured that out, and
we're we feel like we did withthis butcher bundle aspect. Once we have
that dry goods is a is ais a cake walk compared to that,

(44:22):
right, So okay, so let'sget into this e commerce aspect that is
growing exponentially since COVID, And let'sget our feet wet a little bit with
the fresh meat. That's what peoplewant. I got people out in California,
transplants from all over the country.I grew up on your guys's stuff.
I want to bacon wrap filet mignon. I want a Carfania's bacon wrap
right now. I don't care whatI will pay, I'll get it overnighted.

(44:45):
And you know we would do thatfor these customers, and it's like,
Okay, this is what the customerwants. Now's another lesson of my
great grandfather that was passed down thatmy dad and my uncle taught us.
It's not about what you want,It's about what the customer wants, sure,
right, And it's we got tobe challenging. I bet at times
because of cost inflation. Is isyou know, still a pretty penny and

(45:06):
you've seen the prices of meat lately, Boxer, My goodness, gracious,
you talk about, yeah, youknow challenges. Yeah, oh, you've
increased your prices since you moved toPolaris. It's like, well, not
that much. I mean, likeyou have to just because of inflation.
You've had no choice. We've hadno choice. And it's not because of
rent and all that kind of stuff. It's literally because we're buying it at

(45:28):
X price, right, and wehave to sell it at why price.
This is just basic business. Andif you talk about like margins and what
we do and all this kind ofstuff, my goodness, gracious, people
like the we are, we literallydo everything that we can to pass it
down to our employees, right,Like we're we're extremely modest family, right,

(45:51):
We're not. You don't see usat the country clubs and flashy and
all that kind of stuff, Likewe are, Yeah, we are,
you know, we're butchers man,We're simple people, and and we're we're
doing this again to support the familiesthat we have and then the pass down
the savings to UH to the ourcustomer base to central Ohio. And just
meat prices alone are extremely, youknow, ever increasing. So can I

(46:17):
ask you what what sector of thebusiness is the most profitable. Our flagship
is the meat department, that isthat is the backbone of the whole business.
Is that meat counter? You know, the market in itself retail aspect

(46:38):
is where we we do the mostvolume. You know, you think about
a restaurant and and catering and youreally have to push volume, uh in
order to do that. And inthe restaurant industry, I mean, look
at Cameron Mitchell right, you needto have you just put Incento right.
Shout out to Camer Mitchell his hundredthrestaurant. I've never read his book.

(46:58):
It's fantastic, but talk about atrue entrepreneurial and somebody we can learn a
lot from right here in central Ohio. But you need to have multiple restaurants
really to see it generate, youknow, some some substantial you know profits.

(47:19):
What a risk taker too. Bythe way, side note with camera
and Mitchell another guy to obviously lookup to and be inspired. But remember
post pandemic, we were doing aninterview actually he was a guest on CEOs
you should know, and we weretalking about the pandemic and he told the
story about he was laying in bedone night with his wife and his wife
asked him, are we going tolose the house? Are we gonna you

(47:42):
know, because things were closing downbusiness wise wasn't as great obviously during the
pandemic. And he's like, Idon't know. And now you look at
post pandemic to see what he's done, and he's celebrating his one hundredth restaurant.
I mean there's a heck of arisk taker right there. Absolutely,
And in business you need to havethat, You need to be a risk

(48:04):
taker. Yeah. Yeah, Andthis location, Gemini, was a huge
risk. We opened it in Septemberof twenty twenty one. We were demoing
demoing in twenty nineteen of December whenthe pandemic hit. We were sitting on
this on this building that we werecommitted to, and the pandemic hit.

(48:32):
I mean, there was long discussionsabout are we even going to go through
with this? Yeah, you know, people telling us you're crazy, Why
would you do that? You hadto, You had to take a risk
because otherwise if we stayed at thatat that old location on one sixty one
and you know, people, Imissed that location. I wish you guys
would have never moved. You knowit it hurts us that to leave that

(48:55):
old neighborhood. Sure, you knowthat that's where we grew up and uh
and a lot of the business maturedthere. But if we were to stay
there, I'm not so sure ifthere'd be a Carfania's in ten years.
Why do you say that South?Just because of the we were out growing
the space, right, We weregrowing as a business, but but we

(49:16):
were we could not we were ateconomies to scale there, right, And
and that the customer base was nowdwindling, right, and we were losing
customer counts by the year. Andit was like, where were they going?
Do you know wherever? Okay,it's you know, it's people nowadays?

(49:39):
Were they even going anywhere? Youcan get groceryes delivered to your door?
Yeah? Yeah? Why would I? Why would I spend an hour
and wait an hour at Carfanya's becauseI got to get a ticket and and
sit there just for some sausage andsome chicken salad when I can get it
delivered by Kroger, Giant, Eagle, Whole Foods. You know, they

(49:59):
all have delivery services now. Arepeople actually even shopping? You know?
Where were they going? I thinkthat it's you know, it's a it's
it's a multifaceted answer. Right.They got a grocery store now in their
in their backyard, their neighborhood.They can get things delivered with e commerce.

(50:20):
Uh, you know, so togo to Carfagna's. We carry the
products that people don't have, andwe have to do that right with imported
goods and all of that. Soyou have to give people a reason to
come out there. You know,we don't sell Carfagja sausage anywhere else.
Carfinia's meatballs. Yeah, you canget our pasta sauce at at your local
grocer. But for some of ourbacon wrap fullllet mignon Carfin's bacon wrap,

(50:42):
right, some of our our stapleproducts, Carfinia's pizza, like you mentioned,
you know you got to go thereto get it. Is there is
sal as we start to wrap up, though, is there uh talks of
maybe distribution to grocery stores with someof those items. You know, they're
they're always is. It's been differenttalks about sausage being distributed you know through

(51:05):
uh other grocers in the in thepast. But you know it's because you're
you have a household name. Itis really it's a very you know,
precarious situation with with a product,and especially a fresh product when it comes
to meat like that, and anduh and making that you know, have
a distribution, you know, fastento it, making it worth your while

(51:30):
it's got it. What is putin the product? Is it going to
hold the integrity of the product.This is a fresh sausage product that that
you need to have now frozen andthen they're slacking out and then there and
then it has a shelf life onthat, so then these retailers probably have
to sell it frozen and that hasa price tag to it, right,
all of the all of the differentthere's just a there's multi levels onto it.

(51:51):
Yeah, sure we can entertain it. Or you can do the things
that you're doing good right now andfocus on that. You know, I'm
a believer of of you have toyou can do multiple things good, you
know, or a few things greatand direct your attention on stuff that we
have right the PASTA sauce twenty sixdifferent states. There's no reason why it
shouldn't be in all fifty. Yeah, you know, do we expand that?

(52:14):
Do we expand our our manufacturing capabilities? Do we expand this this e
commerce line to where maybe we're notdistributing our products out to other retailers,
but maybe we're just distributing and goingdirect to the consumer. Yeah, with
other product, it's just Carfonias dotcom right, carfanjas dot com. Thank
you docs, Hey, no problem, Hey sell. As we start to
wrap up, I hear, there'snothing like and I have to see it

(52:37):
for myself this time of the year, but I hear, there's nothing like
Christmas at your market. That isa tried and true tradition. In your
listeners, I'm sure some of themhave been there and have experienced it,
but you know, I get kindof goosebumps thinking about it, because it
is it's a special time for ourfamily, for many families in central Ohio

(52:58):
at Carfanya's, and whether or notit's our famous rib roasts, our prime
rib roast, beef tenderloin roasts,all of our products, the Panatone,
the torone, these these specialty cakesthat come in from Italy, all the
Italian chocolates and Italian candies and Canoli'sand all this fun stuff right that that
are traditions and staples on people's tablesat Christmas time and during the holidays,

(53:24):
and we absolutely love it, andit is it's a truly remarkable time.
On November fourth, we're going tohave a quote unquote preview show, or
we're going to have a lot ofthese different imported items that we're going to
be sampling. And if you preorder your either holiday dinner pre fully cooked
serves up to ten people with reheatinginstructions, a full holiday feast, you

(53:49):
can order those at carfinis dot com. Our holiday roasts. You pre order
a roast, you pre order asteak, boxes, give baskets, anything
like that. We give you themmoney back that you can shop that day
at Carfanias, So you'll get moneyback if you pre order that on November
fourth, which is a Saturday,that is our holiday preview show. Then
on December ninth, mark your calendars. Santa's coming to town. Christmas at

(54:14):
Carfanya's is our This is now thesecond year that we've done this at this
space. We now have an eventspace that we can utilize and Christmas at
Carfania's where we have a Santa comein free photos. We don't charge,
you know, parents want to comein, take it and it's good Santa
man. This is a good Santa. Yeah. And we have a huge
tree that we decorate and there's alwaysornaments like Canoli ornaments and prostudo ornaments and

(54:37):
classes of wine and whatnot that youcan purchase, but and then free decorating,
free cookie decorating for the children.So go get a picture with Santa,
tell them what you want for Christmas. Then then come and decorate a
cookie. And then obviously the samplingof all those Italian imports and specialty stuff
is on December ninth, and thenbusiest day of the year man before Christmas

(55:01):
Eve twelve twenty three, a yearand a year out. That is that
is our our it's our busiest day, man, it is. It is
a madhouse in there. We haveoutside curbside pickup for the roast, for
the dinners for people. We havepeople come inside. They're getting their perscutto

(55:22):
they're getting their their Christmas Eve dinnerfixings, they're getting their Christmas Day dinner
fixings, you know, and tothem to those people, I mean,
it's it's truly remarkable the customers everyyear and year out that that this is
their tradition, you know, thisis a part of their family traditions that
they go to Carfania's and they theywear certain clothes and they got their thermoss

(55:43):
with hot chocolate or or whatever,and they're you know, they're experiencing,
uh, their Christmas time and theyget the same products. Right, they're
getting these things. Maybe they're doingthe feasts of the Seven Fishes, which
is a strong Italian tradition on ChristmasEve. Maybe they're they're getting their prime
rib and and they're getting ready forthat special day that we all experience,
you know, every year. Cannotwait, Sal, what a great conversation

(56:07):
with you. I've been really wantingto know more about the history of Carfana's,
and I think you've done an excellentjob. By the way, you're
a name dropper, a line dropperwith movies. Have you seen Elf?
Of course? Okay, so whenyou're talking about good Santa, I think
back to Will Ferrell. You smelllike beef and cheese. Santa Carfins does

(56:29):
not smell like bef and cheese.He might leave leaving there, leaving the
market. He might smell like beefand cheese. We all do. But
hey, you know when he comesin, man the reindeer on the roof
at Carfana's, it's it's it's it'sjolly, right, It's it's a jolly
scent. So, Sal, I'ma big fan of Carfanya's your family.
It's such a pleasure to finally beable to meet you. Likewise, thanks

(56:51):
for your time and looking forward toworking with you. Thank you Boxer,
absolutely, thank you Columbus for listening. CEOs You Should Know is hosted and
produced by Brandy Boxer, a productionof iHeartMedia Columbus