Aldos Ristorante Italiano & Bar serves up New York-style pizza to the Naples, Florida area. Owner Kelly Musico, along with her husband, Aldo, support the local music scene by providing live jazz each week.
Q: How has offering entertainment three nights a week impacted your business, as well as its ambience?
A: At Aldos, we pride ourselves on being an active member of the South West Florida community. Supporting local musicians and artisans is paramount. Crafting a ‘family’ within a community requires partnerships. Our partnership with our Naples jazz musicians offers patrons an environment where good friends, great food, great conversation and dancing are customary. Our motto at Aldos is ‘Where you are treated like family.’
Q: As a dinner-only restaurant, have you considered opening for lunch service? Why or why not?
A: As a newly established restaurant over 10 years ago, Aldos was a lunch and dinner restaurant. Nestled within a golfing community with many lunch options available, we’ve maintained a dinner-only business. However, our commitment to the community and belief in providing only the freshest, best quality ingredients, we pioneered a lunch program with our local country day school. Aldos lunch program provides nutritious, healthy, organic lunches using locally grown fruits and vegetables to over 200 children ages 4 to 18 daily.
Q: You have a wide menu of pizzas, pastas and entrées. How do you keep your food costs down?
A: All of our meals are prepared fresh daily, by order. To ensure the highest quality and the most consistency, all ingredients are measured precisely for each serving. This maintains that only the freshest ingredients are served and eliminates any waste.
Q: Aldos offers an extensive wine list and bar offering. What role does your bar play in your business strategies?
A: Like a dinner table at Nonna’s house in Italy, pairing that wine with the aromatic, flavorful foods on the table completes the meal! Happy Hour specials allow our patrons to try new menu items and drink specials at half the price. Whether pairing our wines with our extensive menu items such as seafood, veal, pastas or pizzas, or tasting that Italian cosmo during Happy Hour, it allows our patrons to be a little more adventurous in their dining experience.
Q: What’s “Wheel it Wednesday” and how did it help drive mid-week traffic into your restaurant?
A: On Wheel it Wednesday, patrons would place their order and then spin to ‘WIN.’ The spin of the Wheel reveals a special prize. Prizes range from a free dessert to a free glass of wine, a free pizza to a free entrée, or discounts up to 30 percent off the entire bill. Each time the wheel was spun, the restaurant erupted in chants and cheers for the patron spinning. Every patron was a winner on Wheel it Wednesday!
