Why they’re in the news
Patty (Pulver) and Nick Ryck, co-owners of Gigi’s Italian Kitchen and Catering, were just married in July, after 22 years together. “It’s our time,” Nick says. “All the kids have moved out!”
Besides Ben, of Webster, their children Bridget Fontaine, Bill Pulver, Andy and Matt Ryck also help out in the restaurant they opened about three and a half years ago.
Gigi's was also recently recognized as a Featured Business by the Irondequoit Chamber of Commerce.
How did you get into this line of work?
Patty was a server at Locust Hill (golf club) during her college years and he was a manager at the onetime Friendly’s restaurant on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit. They had a restaurant, called Wyatt’s, in Geneva, N.Y. for a number of years, but closed, as Nick says, “because it was a long ride ... We were happy when we found a location closer to home.”
Patty, who has a master’s degree in public health, still also works full-time as a supervisor at MVP Health Care and Nick is an assistant manager of a Gannett Newspapers warehouse. “While you’re sleeping, I’m working,” he quips.
How did you decide on an Italian restaurant?
“We’re sort of Italian-American, and we chose it because of my former mother-in-law, Gloria Mascioletti, who gave me all of her recipes because she wanted her son to have the best! She’s still close with all of us. When she became a great-grandmother, the grandkids started calling her “GG (or Gigi).”
How has the restaurant changed or grown since it opened?
“I think the biggest thing is that our customer database has grown to 11,000 names, and we have more than 5,000 email addresses,” Patty said.
She sends out a weekly email/newsletter that includes not only specials, but wonderful stories, information and even jokes.
Ben now manages the restaurant, while Petty does the marketing and is a fill-in hostess and server, and Nick handles the bookkeeping and “running around.”
The Tuesday night “buy one, get one” special, started about nine months after the restaurant opened, is now so popular that Tuesdays are one of the busiest nights at the restaurant, along with Fridays and Saturdays.
They’re now introducing a Thursday promotion: If customers order the special and like it, they get a certificate to come back and have it again. If they don’t like it, they get a coupon toward another meal.
Why they’re in the news
Patty (Pulver) and Nick Ryck, co-owners of Gigi’s Italian Kitchen and Catering, were just married in July, after 22 years together. “It’s our time,” Nick says. “All the kids have moved out!”
Besides Ben, of Webster, their children Bridget Fontaine, Bill Pulver, Andy and Matt Ryck also help out in the restaurant they opened about three and a half years ago.
Gigi's was also recently recognized as a Featured Business by the Irondequoit Chamber of Commerce.
How did you get into this line of work?
Patty was a server at Locust Hill (golf club) during her college years and he was a manager at the onetime Friendly’s restaurant on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit. They had a restaurant, called Wyatt’s, in Geneva, N.Y. for a number of years, but closed, as Nick says, “because it was a long ride ... We were happy when we found a location closer to home.”
Patty, who has a master’s degree in public health, still also works full-time as a supervisor at MVP Health Care and Nick is an assistant manager of a Gannett Newspapers warehouse. “While you’re sleeping, I’m working,” he quips.
How did you decide on an Italian restaurant?
“We’re sort of Italian-American, and we chose it because of my former mother-in-law, Gloria Mascioletti, who gave me all of her recipes because she wanted her son to have the best! She’s still close with all of us. When she became a great-grandmother, the grandkids started calling her “GG (or Gigi).”
How has the restaurant changed or grown since it opened?
“I think the biggest thing is that our customer database has grown to 11,000 names, and we have more than 5,000 email addresses,” Patty said.
She sends out a weekly email/newsletter that includes not only specials, but wonderful stories, information and even jokes.
Ben now manages the restaurant, while Petty does the marketing and is a fill-in hostess and server, and Nick handles the bookkeeping and “running around.”
The Tuesday night “buy one, get one” special, started about nine months after the restaurant opened, is now so popular that Tuesdays are one of the busiest nights at the restaurant, along with Fridays and Saturdays.
They’re now introducing a Thursday promotion: If customers order the special and like it, they get a certificate to come back and have it again. If they don’t like it, they get a coupon toward another meal.
What sets the food at Gigi’s apart?
“We do a lot of sauté work ... and just about everything is made from scratch,” Nick said. “And, you’d be surprised how much sauce (about 30 gallons) we go through in a week!”
Their chef, Jeremy Cotropia, who used to be at Dentico’s, is very creative, Ben said.
Are there menu items that are particularly popular?
“Our spicy romano chicken is one people really like,” Patty said. “And we have a following for our chicken “riggies,” a dish we adapted from the Utica area. Ben also hand-makes our own gnocchi, and people like the six to seven different kinds of manicotti on our menu. They include seafood, garlic and shrimp, and chicken and spinach manicotti.”
You started the restaurant at around the same time as the current economic crisis; how have you coped?
“The economy has not been easy,” Patty conceded, noting that in-house business even slowed a bit this past summer. One way they’ve addressed the situation is to increase their catering business, and they’ve recently hired a catering specialist.”
What have you learned about your customers?
“Close to 50 percent are ‘regulars’ and probably 25 to 30 percent are from Irondequoit,” Ben said. “But we also get people from Webster, Pittsford, Greece .... there’s even a couple that comes from Gates for our fish fry!”
What are your plans for the future?
“We’re trying to prepare now for the East Ridge Road work (which will close the road in one direction in front of their restaurant) next year,” Patty said. “And we’re trying to build our lunch business.
"We talk about opening a second place all the time ... that’s a big step," she added. "But, our focus is right here, right now.”
