‘Mafia’ restaurant standing the test

When Mafiozzo’s owner Peter D’Alton took up the challenge of launching an elegant Italian restaurant in Khomasdal, there was no shortage of warnings against the move, he says. Five months down the line though, the restaurant and pizzeria continues to gain a steady following, even reaching beyond the confines of the neighbourhood. “The people who do like it, I think are the right people for it,” a modest D’Alton says of his experience running the first restaurant of what he hopes will grow into a profitable franchise. The idea for an Italian restaurant in fact started with a discussion with Tulungeni Property Developers Managing Director Karin Woermann, he says, after she outlined her idea for a 1960s rock-n-roll-themed mall. “Italian restaurants are generally pretty fiery affairs, but I wanted to achieve a balance towards something a little less formally so,” he says of the idea behind the restaurant. “Of course people kept saying it’s the wrong area, people don’t have money, but I’ve always replied that that situation had changed a long time ago.” That of course does not mean he takes for granted the area’s propensity for experimenting with Mafiozzo’s distinct Italian cuisine. “I’ve actually had a customer say I was on the wrong side of the cheap versus affordable debate when he looked through our menu. But that is part of the strategy to entice guys from the area to try and experiment more,” he says. “I’m starting a food revolution.” A major setback thus far though, he adds, is a delay in the mall’s filling up with tenants, especially with Mafiozzo’s among the first businesses to go operational on the second floor. “We planned our opening around the anticipated completion of the cinema next door, which I believe will greatly enhance business here, though that has been delayed somewhat,” he says. The cinemas are scheduled for completion around the end of 2014’s first quarter, after initial estimates that they would have been finished by September this year. Nevertheless, he says word of mouth and social networks have surprised them in their effectiveness in drawing clientele, some of whom he says are avid supporters of similar eateries elsewhere in the capital. “We’ve handed out a few flyers, and we currently run a promotion with Radio Energy that is quite popular. We’ve also managed to reach over 3 000 likes on Facebook, but most customers I’ve asked say they heard about us from a friend,” D’Alton says.