Building Family Culture Through Authentic Leadership: Danilo Di Nardo’s Story

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and today’s guest is Danilo DiNardo. He is the vice president of operations at Lombardi family concepts. They are a 49 year old family owned restaurant group known for award winning cuisine and a family oriented atmosphere.

Their mission is to create warm, welcoming dining experiences that make every guest feel like part of the Lombardi family. They have been recognized by Wine Spectator for six years, showcasing an exceptional global wine program. Danilo joined Lombardi Family Concepts in December of 2019, bringing diverse experience in restaurant and hospitality management. He previously served as director of operations and regional director of hospitality

at Somelier at Harbwood International. His leadership has helped shape new initiatives and drive operational excellence across the company’s multiple locations. Under his guidance, the team continues to refine menus, enhance service, and maintain a family-oriented atmosphere across all venues. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency.

where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. Imagine being able to give your employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money in your employees’ pockets and the company’s too. One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year.

Now results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, VP of Ops at Lombardi Family Concepts, Danilo DiNardo. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (02:09)
Pleasure to be here, Anthony. How are you?

Anthony Codispoti (02:12)
I’m doing great. So let’s get into it. You started working in the restaurant industry at 13. As I understand it, to buy an expensive pair of jeans after your dad challenged you. Can you tell me more about that?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (02:19)
13.

That is absolutely correct, yes. ⁓ Well, I was born and raised in Italy ⁓ and obviously lived with mom and dad as I should be when I was 13. And there was a specific brand ⁓ of jeans and fashion at the time that was becoming very popular and ⁓ I wanted that pair of jeans for Christmas.

And so, you know, I had mentioned it to my parents and obviously Christmas came around and the pair of jeans did not show up. ⁓ And I guess I was a little bit upset about it. ⁓ And my dad sent me down and, you know, told me, son, until you leave under this roof, we are going to provide the best that we can for you. ⁓ And we’re to get you clothes that we think are appropriate for your age and yada, yada, yada. All right. So I listened to it, but…

The pair of jeans did not go anywhere. I still had it in my mind. So at that point, summer approached and I was looking to get a job. I was looking to make some money so I could earn my pair of jeans. And my dad told me when you enter the workforce, you’re to be able to earn for yourself. You can afford everything you want, but until then, you leave under my roof. Those are the rules. So I did, found a job.

Anthony Codispoti (03:49)
At the age of 13, was that unusual in Italy at the time?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (03:50)
I’m 13.

I think back in the days, probably one or two generations before mine, I think it was actually very common. But I was born in 1983, and my age was not that common. But my parents had this membership at this beach club on the coast of southern Italy in Puglia where I’m from. So I started making phone calls here and there, and the owner of the club

Said yes, I have a spot for you. I need somebody that makes coffee The job is called barista. No, and I said, yeah, of course. I’ll be there when we start So then I went back to my dad and I said hey, think I found a job. I think I found a summer job I want to start working My dad went furious. He’s like there is no way you’re 13 years old There is no chance you’re gonna start working. I said, okay

Anthony Codispoti (04:39)
really?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (04:48)
Well, at that point, entity, in the middle of the night, one night, I took a hundred euro out of his wallet. And I left home in the middle of the night, slept on top of my roof building that night, got two buses and a train, did not eat for probably good 48 hours, and I made it to point of destination.

And I got to the job, I presented myself, they told me what I was gonna do with this and that. And as I said, my parents were member at this club. We had a beach house there. And so in my head, I’m like, hey, I’m gonna have no problem when I work there, I’m gonna go sleep in my own home. Come to find out I arrived to my house, everything is locked, I obviously don’t have keys, I was hoping to find a window that I could crack to get in and sleep.

Instead, I couldn’t and I slept on the terrace. By day two, my parents obviously were going crazy looking for me. The lady that owned the club figured it out that something was wrong by me probably wearing the same set of clothes two days in a row. And she made a call to my parents. And my parents came over ⁓ and, you know.

figured it out what was in my head and what I was doing. However, I did kept that job. I worked the entire summer making coffee and I eventually went back for the second season at 14 and I did, you know, other different style with the same club as far as animation and get people involved to do dances and group activities and stuff like that. that was my first job. I never stopped working after that.

Anthony Codispoti (06:42)
So your plan was I’m gonna sneak out of the house early every morning to get to this job and then sneak back into the house at the end of the day. My parents will just think I’m off goofing around with my friends. They won’t miss me. They won’t know anything’s up. This was sort of the plan.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (06:53)
Correct.

Right. No, no, but I was in a totally different city. So my hometown is about 30 minutes away from the beach town.

Anthony Codispoti (07:08)
So you

weren’t going to be coming back and forth every night. So where were you going to sleep there? Where were you sleeping when you were working at the beach club?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (07:11)
No, no, I was set. That’s it, this is what I’m ⁓

At the beach house.

Anthony Codispoti (07:19)
Okay. ⁓ your family’s beach house there. Got it. ⁓ okay. Now I’m up to speed. I missed that part. Okay. So you were sleeping on the terrace at the beach house where you thought you could find a way in. Okay. Got it. Now, how long before you actually got the genes then?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (07:21)
Right, right, right, yeah.

Correct. Exactly.

I did end up buying the gym that summer and I still haven’t.

Anthony Codispoti (07:45)
and you still have them. What’s the brand?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (07:46)
I still have

it there in my closet. They’re dark gray. And my wife today asked me, can we throw these things away? I’m like, no. It is a symbol of something. It means something.

Anthony Codispoti (07:49)
Okay.

It’s a symbol. mean, you know, like, like

for a lot of business owners, they’ll frame like the first dollar that they made. feel like for you, like, this is kind of, you know, this is like your starting point, right? Like it should be in a frame somewhere. Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (08:05)
Yep.

It was

the original push. It was the motivation.

Anthony Codispoti (08:15)
Okay, and so you’ve been working

ever since. So how did your dad get on board with this then?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (08:20)
Well, at that point, I just took control myself. said, this is what I’m doing and I’m going to do it. And he had to put up with it. And, you know, I always loved working. I love the environment. I always loved F &B. As you understand, I’ve been doing that since I was 13. I’m 41 years old now. ⁓ I went back to that club, two summer jobs, two summers. And then after that, I went back to my hometown after the second season and I started working fully in kitchens.

Anthony Codispoti (08:24)
You

Danilo A. Di Nardo (08:48)
in a pizzeria that was right by my house. And I was going to school in the morning and working at night. And to be honest with you, I come from a good family that provided very well, but I just had the need for more, I guess. And I was going with my bicycle after school every day. My first job in this pizzeria was assistant pizza maker.

Anthony Codispoti (09:16)
The assistant pizza

maker.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (09:17)
Assistant

yeah, I was basically cutting the vegetables and getting everything done for the prep for the pizza lady at the time I wasn’t allowed to stretch the dough. I wasn’t allowed to put the sauce. I was allowed to do anything just prep work

Anthony Codispoti (09:27)
Okay.

You had to pay your dues, you had to work your way up. Okay, so you continued to work in food and beverage while you’re in Italy, right? And then in 2003, you had an opportunity to come to the States. How did that unfold?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (09:36)
100%.

Yes.

Correct.

Well, that actually has a little bit of a longer story. ⁓ So, my parents had lived in the United States in 70s and 80s. The reason how we got there is because during World War I, one of my aunt got married with a ⁓ U.S. citizen that was a national army based

in Italy. ⁓ My aunt was the first out of seven and my father is the last of them. ⁓ So she moved to United States I believe was 1945 or 1946 and then little by little she started recalling all brothers and sister to come and join her in Los Angeles. Eventually my dad in 1976

came to United States, went to UCLA, ⁓ and started having a life in California. Went back home for vacation a couple years later and married my mother and took my mother with him back to California. In 1982, ⁓ because of some family issue, my grandpa passed away and so on.

my dad decided to move back with my mother and I was born in 1983. So, you know, if you ask my mother, my dad, they’ll tell you that the idea of having me was actually in the States. But I was born in Italy and then they stayed there until, you know, I think my dad came back to the States in the year 2000. And then I finished school and I came here in 2003 for a vacation.

because my dad really wanted me to see the United States. I… No, no, no, he came back in 2000 just for a visit. And then he went back to Italy, life as normal. And then 2003, I said, vacation with my dad to United States, he wanted to show me US and where the family did this and did that, and yada, yada, yada. And I arrived in Miami in 2003.

Anthony Codispoti (11:47)
And he was in California at the time.

Okay. Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (12:12)
⁓ legally, likely, ⁓ cause my parents were able to obtain a citizenship while they were here in the seventies and eighties. And, ⁓ I had an open ticket for about three months to then come back to Italy. And about 30 days later, I said to my dad, said, I’m not going back. This is beautiful. We landed in Miami. ⁓ so you can only imagine I’m at this time I’m like 20 and a half, almost 21.

Anthony Codispoti (12:31)
Ha

Danilo A. Di Nardo (12:40)
I land in Miami, the beach, the people, the colors, totally different than southern Italy, so fascinating. And that’s it, I decided to stay. I think my mother cried for like a month and a half straight, thought she was gonna lose a son. But yeah, here we are today, you know, what, 21 years later? 22 almost, here I am.

Anthony Codispoti (13:02)
So

you came in 2003, ⁓ how was your English at that point?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (13:07)
terrible.

Anthony Codispoti (13:09)
⁓ and so how did you make a way for yourself?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (13:10)
terrible

You know I Actually, I gotta be honest with you the first three months were rough And I’m saying rough to the level that you you crying yourself at night asleep because You know I knew I I knew bye I know thank you a little bit of that you know English that you study in school But there was nothing conversational. I couldn’t understand anybody

I was watching a TV that I didn’t understand. I was listening to music that I didn’t understand. I couldn’t really communicate with anybody. So that was really, really hard. ⁓ Luckily, my dad had some connection. And there was a friend of the family that owned a restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida.

Anthony Codispoti (13:55)
was the name of the restaurant? okay. In Boca Raton.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (13:57)
No, the name of the restaurant was Arturo’s Restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida.

Yeah, yeah. And so my dad went and talked to his friend and they hired me as a help. Whatever I could do, bus table, help out with the kitchen a little bit, wash dishes, whatever it was, whatever it was doable. And they were very, very kind. Arturo and Rosaria Gismondi, which actually had a restaurant in New York as well.

in the early 80s. They took me in and they showed me little bit the ropes on how to make the hospitality work in the United States. Because for me it was completely different. Even though I’d worked at this point in Italy I’ve done pizza guy, salad guy, I’ve done deliveries, I’ve been a server. But you you come to the United States obviously not having the language it’s very challenging to do that. So you have to start from the bottom which I did. I enjoyed it. Very beautiful group of people.

I paid my dues there too and I kept going.

Anthony Codispoti (15:01)
And you said that you found hospitality in the States was totally different from Italy. How so?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (15:07)
Well, you know, the places that I worked in Italy were very different. ⁓ You know, I worked at the same pizzeria that I was telling you about for, I don’t know, maybe a couple of years, actually a little bit more. ⁓ But, it wasn’t a local pizzeria in a neighborhood. There wasn’t really a level of service or standards. There was more, you come in, you order your food, somebody’s bringing it to you, you’re eating it, and that’s it. ⁓ When I moved to a

to the States, especially the caliber of restaurant that hired me, Arturo’s, we’re talking about old school, a tuxedo table service with Capitan back waiters, expensive wine list, ⁓ dessert cart being rolled around the room to cut fresh slices for people, ⁓ smoked salmon ⁓ cut at the table. Service was incredibly different for me. I’ve never served a table in a…

Anthony Codispoti (16:05)
It was more of a presentation,

more of a show. Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (16:07)
Oh yeah,

absolutely, absolutely. And you know, the way people spoke about wine and food and description and everything that was made happen. The style of service too. From, you know, how to open a bottle of tea or how to crumb a table. How to carry six to eight dishes on a tray with a cloche. I mean, all those things, I wasn’t really exposed to that so I had to learn everything from scratch.

Anthony Codispoti (16:32)
And how were you advancing your English skills during this time?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (16:36)
You know, communication with people, talking to people, ⁓ constantly making mistakes and not being afraid of making mistakes. ⁓ And you know, some people will tell you, hey, this is wrong the way you say it. You should say it this way, one time, two times, three times. Eventually you hear, you keep hearing it. You adjust yourself. ⁓ And you know, it takes time. It took time. But… ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (16:44)
you

Yeah. And

I want to pause for a moment and kind of draw a spotlight to you know, how challenging this had to have been. Right? You’re you’re a young kid. I mean, 2021, you know, early 20s. And you’re in a new place that you’re excited about, right? Lots of good looking people, lots of energy, you know, music, the colors, it’s fun. But you don’t know anybody and you don’t know the language. And that’s scary.

Like not being able to interact with people and have conversations, like you feel, you had to have felt really isolated.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (17:33)
Yeah, well, you know, truth to be told, had ⁓ a sister of my father lived in Boca Raton. So I was close to her and she was, you know, a little bit of a support system at the beginning. So at least I could go home to somebody that I knew, right? ⁓ And that was good. ⁓ But still, as I said, the first three months, extremely rough, even by knowing and having an aunt.

Anthony Codispoti (17:48)
that helps.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (18:02)
which by the way was the first time I ever met her at that point. ⁓ Even by having a hand was challenging. mean she had her own life and her own job. ⁓ But at least with somebody that I could go home and I had like that comfort zone, right? ⁓ But outside of that was incredibly hard. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (18:05)
Okay.

How long before you

felt like you were kind of standing on your own two feet and you’re like, okay, I got this now.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (18:29)
Well, you know, I’m a little bit, I’m a little bit crazy.

Anthony Codispoti (18:33)
I’m getting that. mean, you hopped on a bus for 48 hours to run away from home so you could go work at you know, as a barista. Yeah, I’m picking up on it, you know.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (18:38)
You

So I arrived in the States in March.

In August, ⁓ I’m walking down the street in my aunt’s neighborhood and I saw a sign, house for sale.

I have no money, Anthony, I have no money. I came in this country, I 300 euro in my pocket. So I called my father. I said, dad, I think I want to stay here. I found a house for sale. What do you think? Can you lend me some money to buy a house? So my dad thought about it a little bit and maybe two weeks later he hopped on a plane, came over here. We went to take a look at the house. He put the down payment on the house.

Anthony Codispoti (19:01)
you

Danilo A. Di Nardo (19:29)
And he told me, but you’re paying for the mortgage. I said, no problem. I’ll figure it out. So we spent a couple of weeks remodeling the house, painting, buying furniture and everything else. And he got me all squared away and off he went back to Italy.

Anthony Codispoti (19:46)
Man, that’s the beauty of family, huh? You’ve got that kind of support to help you get started. you know, that was a hand up, not a hand out. You know, it got you started. And he’s like, and then the mortgage is on you. Yeah. And so, okay, so you, I mean, you had a rough first few months, but you you were in it. You you bought a house, and then opportunities kind of opened up for you down the road where you were able to…

Danilo A. Di Nardo (19:49)
100%.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (20:14)
study wine and work in some locations, you know, including Miami, then New York, ⁓ Dallas, you know, what, were some key lessons that you learned along the way that now as you look back, kind of prepared you for your role.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (20:30)
Well, ⁓ I found a lot of good people on my way. A lot of people that took me under their wing have really taught me a lot. A lot of mentors that really spend the time to try to make me understand what was the right way of learning this business, what were the right moves. ⁓ And the love for wine came from the experience that I had at Arturo’s.

in Boca Raton, simply because the owner, Vincenzo, was in love with wine. He also was a sommelier. He had a tremendous passion and he kept giving me books about wine or I would go early to work in the afternoon and he would be having meetings with wine wraps and that was always fascinating. To the point that he came up to me one day and was like, hey, would you like to learn how to bartend or do anything like that?

And I said, yeah, absolutely. So he actually paid for my bartending school. ⁓ And I went there, I think the course was like a month. I did that, I came back and then he put me to work behind the bar. So I had started these opportunities of seeing all the aspects of the business. Worked in the kitchen, cleaning dishes, washing vegetables.

busing tables now i have an experience at the bar ⁓ and that little by little i mean i was i was in that venue for a couple years eventually transitioned with a larger group which was because of an angel group from angelo elia in south florida ⁓ learned that time from him learned time from the team their opening restaurant managing restaurant the front house at a different level i got my first look into financials of the restaurant operation in general

And then in New York was really what made my bones. am, well, I’m 24. I had an experience which we’ll probably touch a little bit later if I have the opportunity. At 24, I got hired in Miami as a general manager. I guess my personality was what they liked the best.

Anthony Codispoti (22:32)
Okay, what happened in New York?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (22:55)
But as far as knowing the business, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Zero. But as you come to understand the way I am, I’m like, I’m gonna do it. No worries. I’m gonna take this challenge on and see what’s going on. And so I worked as general manager in Miami for a couple years and days was 26, 27, almost going into 2008.

I don’t know if you remember, but 2007 and 2008, Miami was tragic when it comes down to the economical crush. The real estate market was terrible. ⁓ And we ended up losing the restaurant. So that set me back. ⁓ And because of a series of other things, ⁓ I received a call from this guy from New York. His name is Louis Lazinaro, another great mentor of mine.

⁓ Louis owned a couple of restaurants and he had his restaurant in Saratoga Springs. And he said to me, you like to come and manage one of my places up here, upstate? I said, why not? So packed the car up. I told my parents I was going there for the summer. And I went to New York first time 2009. I ⁓ did a season ⁓ for them, for Louis at the restaurant called Novec.

in Saratoga Springs. And then I came back down to Florida and I did the winter season in Florida. And then Louis called me back again and he said, Hey, would you like to come and be full time here and become the general manager? I said, absolutely. Packed up everything, moved to New York. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (24:28)
Okay.

Okay,

now how did the opportunity at Lombardi come about?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (24:45)
The opportunity of Lombardi, we’re skipping a few years ahead. We’re talking my first experience in New York is 2009. I arrived in Texas in 2016. ⁓ I got to Texas ⁓ towards the beginning of 2016. I was hired by Gabrielle Barbier-Mueller, which is the owner of Harwood International, which is a real estate company that was developing at hospitality bread.

And so they called me and they wanted me to be here, part of their opening and open one of their concept, which was Dolce Riviera. I worked with them four years or so. And then one day, we’ll never forget this one, Monday, I’m in the kitchen in my house, just chilling. It’s my day off. My phone rings. I pick up the phone. Alberto Lombardi. It’s okay. Answer the phone call.

I said, Chao, Mr. Alberto, how are you? And I have met Alberto one time at this point. And he says, what are you doing? I said, I don’t know, I’m home, just chilling, what are you doing? He said, nothing, I’m running around the restaurant, what are you doing tomorrow? You want to do lunch? I said, sure. So I met him the following day for lunch and he told me what he wanted and he was looking for somebody to join him and help him with some of the operations, some of the leadership.

and I liked them. I liked the ideas. I liked the opportunity to put an imprint on what he was doing. And again, Lobar de Family Concept this year is 49 years, right? So joining an iconic restorateur that has such a great history that will allow you to put some of your own credo within your organization was incredibly attractive to me.

And you know, I had an incredible feeling with Alberto from the beginning. I felt much more of a father and son type of relationship than anything else. I decided to join and ⁓ that was ⁓ November 19. And ⁓ that’s it. Here I am.

Anthony Codispoti (27:02)
So I’m looking at your website, lombardyfamilyconcepts.com, and I’m looking at the collection of brands. they’re all, the interiors here, they’re all beautiful. I mean, they’re amazing. ⁓ They’re all different from each other. Like from ⁓ an efficiency standpoint, wouldn’t it make more sense to, hey, we’ve got a concept, people like it, let’s just copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (27:05)
Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

You’re right, it’ll be absolutely that much easier to do that, but we are not into easy stuff. ⁓ And number two, I think that kills a lot of the creativity, which is what drives us the best. ⁓ know, both myself and Alberto, we travel a lot. And we spend our summers in Europe, we travel to Mexico, South America a lot. And we always come back to the traveling. You know, see, the way we look at vacation, the way I look at vacation.

Sure, it’s to relax, to enjoy, but it’s that is a huge discovery part. We always make a point to go to places where I think I could learn, absorb, and see something different. Obviously, keeping an eye at hospitality. So the trip always made like, which country am I going? Which are the best restaurants? Which are the best hotels? Where am I staying? Which Michelin star are my dining at?

which one is the most rustic, familiar food of the area. And then when you come back from these trips, you are so energized, you see things in different light, and that gives you the opportunity and the wish of create. And that’s where we come up with new concepts.

Anthony Codispoti (28:45)
I just finished reading the book, ⁓ Unreasonable Hospitality. I’m going to guess, yeah. And it really helped somebody who’s outside the industry really helped to open my eyes to the passion that people have about what you’re just talking about, the creativity. Like, how can we take this and take it to another level? And how can we maybe take an old concept and put a little bit of a new spin on it? And so that’s what I think I hear you saying in terms of like,

Danilo A. Di Nardo (28:49)
⁓ one of my favorites.

Anthony Codispoti (29:14)
Yeah, we could come up with one concept and copy paste, copy, but man, there’s no fun in that. Like we’ve got the passion and the creativity to continue to create and make new ideas.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (29:24)
Yeah. And I mean, if you look at our brands, we currently have 17 concepts, 20 restaurants, and we have three in construction in the pipeline right now. You have brands like Taverna. Taverna is the most duplicated that we have. We have five. Then you have Toulouse, which we have three. Then you have Pena Pomodoro, which we have two.

Lombardi Cucina Italiana, have two. Maison Chinois, we are actually opening our second one in Houston in about 40 days. And Marisol will be Q1 of next year, which will be our second one. So we do duplicate some brands. ⁓ I believe there is a difference of level of restaurants and their duplications. A concept like Taverna, it’s so genuine, rustic, familiar.

A little bit of that old school Italian feeling. That is a concept that you can duplicate in every corner of the city, right? In every neighborhood of the city because it’s a neighborhood restaurant. But then you have showpieces, then you have grand restaurants a little bit more on the fine dining side like Lombardi Cucina Italiana or Marisol. Those are restaurants that you can do maybe one in each city.

because are more of a legacy piece than something that is for a neighborhood. So we really like to do both because again, we figured it out through the course of the year and through the experience of Mr. Lombardi that really what makes a restaurant successful is hospitality, genuineness, and service the community. And I think that that’s what we do best. And being in the neighborhood.

Anthony Codispoti (30:52)
Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (31:18)
make sure that you make people happy, people that live around you, people that live life with you. They walk by in front of your restaurant every other day. You really become part of family. And that is, think, the greatest opportunity that we have as we keep growing is to find those little niche.

Anthony Codispoti (31:38)
So what locations can we find most of your restaurants in?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (31:42)
So the majority of our locations are in Dallas. Then we expand in North Dallas, which is a city called Plano, and then Frisco, which is far north Dallas. And just to give you an example to make you understand the spaces, Frisco and Dallas are about 30 miles away.

And our good chunk of restaurant is there. have about 11. ⁓ Then second best market for us is Houston. We love the market. And as Mr. Lombardi says all the time, we love Houston. Everybody has an accent like us. It’s very international. ⁓ By the end of Q1, 2026, we’ll have five locations in Houston. Austin. Then we have ⁓ Ettaverna in Buckhead, Atlanta.

Anthony Codispoti (32:35)
Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (32:36)
And then we have one in Acoma, Mexico.

Anthony Codispoti (32:39)
And when are you coming to Ohio? That’s probably a little far outside your. It’s true. It is true. I can’t deny it. Let’s talk about your wine program, your award winning wine program. It’s been recognized by Wine Spectator for six years. What led you to develop such a global. Go ahead. Yeah. No, yeah. Tell us about it. I want to hear.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (32:41)
Ohio, yeah, I heard it snows over there. I don’t know. ⁓

I just got it.

No, no, no, sorry, finish, I’m sorry.

Well, we just got another one. So we’ll make it seven Very excited about this one because it’s a brand new restaurant and you know, it’s hard to get a one spectator award on your first year So we were able to do that with Lombardi Cusci in Houston ⁓ big achievement Again everything starts with passion entity the passion for wine and you know, I think it comes also with a culture ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (33:12)
Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (33:36)
There are a lot of countries, Italy, because I can speak about it, where drinking wine is not about drinking. Drinking wine is more about experiencing it, tasting it, enjoying it with food, with company. Italy really doesn’t have that mentality of going out and go to a bar and get a couple of drinks. There’s always something else that is involved with opening a bottle of wine.

So that has a very big romance to me. ⁓ So when I started drinking wine ⁓ professionally, let’s say, ⁓ I put a big push of trying everything that I could put my hands on. I would go to grocery stores and smell ⁓ the fruits, ⁓ smell the greens. ⁓ I had actually a little kit that you could put together the smells in order to

get your nose trained to identify notes within the wine, within the glass of wine. I ⁓ am. And so ⁓ when you start doing that, there’s a totally different spectrum that opens up to you. Again, even with this adventure, I was extremely lucky to meet a gentleman named Greg Rivera. ⁓ I met her at an Italian grocery store.

Anthony Codispoti (34:38)
Are you a Samanian? Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (35:02)
He was giving free samples. And I stopped at the grocery store. He was there. I had a little sample of wine. I liked the wine. We chatted about wine for a little bit. He’s like, you have a really good palate. What do do for living? I said, you know, I’m a server in restaurant. He’s like, I have a wine distribution company. Would you like to work for me? I said, sure. So I started working for Greg in the mornings.

Anthony Codispoti (35:23)
the

Danilo A. Di Nardo (35:30)
⁓ As a wine representative, I was hitting the account with a little bag of wine knocking on doors, hey, would you like to try my wines? ⁓ And then at nighttime, I was working in the restaurant. ⁓ And then I developed from there. He was also an advanced sommelier with the quartermaster. So he guided me the right direction to do my first couple of tests with the quartermasters. ⁓ And then I started writing my own wine lists when I moved to New York.

And I worked under another good song when I was in Florida, ⁓ Kuhn Kersman. He taught me also a lot about wine. He was a Belgian. He was from Belgium. Very, very smart guy. And then I arrived to New York. I became general manager of that restaurant I was telling you about, Nobe. And I had the opportunity of writing my own wine list for the first time on my own. And… No, no, no.

Anthony Codispoti (36:23)
And so sorry to interrupt Danila, but I want to understand

why the Wine Spectator Award is such a big honor and why it’s so difficult to get, especially in your first year.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (36:34)
Okay,

well, okay, so you’re familiar with Michelin star, right? You’re familiar with that process. One star, two star, three stars, three stars here at the top. ⁓ Wine Spectator Award is basically the Michelin star for wine lists. ⁓ usually on your first year, it’s very hard to get the one glass recognition ⁓ simply because when people open a restaurant, a lot of times don’t have the funds

Anthony Codispoti (36:37)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (37:03)
to build and invest in such a great wine list. Because obviously that is an investment ⁓ with purchasing a wine cellar and an inventory, right? ⁓ And so I think my second year in New York, ⁓ I finally applied ⁓ for a Wine Spectator Award because I think I built a good list with good vintages, a good representation of worldly wine, ⁓ and then I got it. ⁓

you can only imagine that was probably one of the happiest day of my life. And then obviously I applied every year. Every year I tweaked something on the wine list. I adjusted something. kept improving. We kept investing and having a larger selection of wine. And I think I got it in New York all straight up my entire time I was there. And then when I arrived at Harwood in Dallas, which was my first experience in Dallas, I did exactly the same thing. And with one of the…

one of the restaurants that I was running, is Dolce Riviera at the time, we actually achieved the two classes from Wine Spectator. And I think we were quoted as one of the best wine programs in Dallas at the time. ⁓ Another very, very proud moment.

Anthony Codispoti (38:06)
Yeah.

Let me ask something. I because I’m wondering if you sort of know like who has two or three glasses somewhere in the country. Why not just copy their wine list and like ⁓ like those guys know what they’re doing. They’ve picked like a lot of really good wines. Let’s just do exactly what they’re doing.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (38:22)
Mm-hmm.

Ahem.

Well, to be honest with you, I actually never thought of that. That’s a great idea, but no, ⁓ I think a Psalm…

Anthony Codispoti (38:37)
Okay.

It

takes some of the fun and the creativity out of it for you, doesn’t it?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (38:45)
I think any Psalms really want to create a wine list to showcase their identity. And I can tell you that some of my staff, even today, they will open a wine list, read through it, and they could probably tell you, this is a Danilo’s wine list. Because you’ve…

Anthony Codispoti (39:03)
Okay, what would they see?

How are your fingerprints on it? What like?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (39:08)
You

fall in love with certain products. You fall in love with certain producer. And they become part of you. They become part of the representation of your wine program. And some of the producer, I’ll tell you, they became my friends to the point that my daughters called them uncle and aunt. And so somebody flips through the list and they see, this wine, that wine, this wine, this wine. he did the list for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (39:12)
huh.

And the Nello,

yeah. So ⁓ I’m sure people listening who are very much into wine, they kind of have their favorites. They know sort of the good labels. But maybe for the listeners who are like, I would like to try a nice bottle of wine that’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg. What might be some things you point them to?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (39:37)
Right? Yeah. ⁓

⁓ Well, ⁓ if we are talking old world, ⁓ specifically Italy, I will say that probably one of the best grape that’s kind of in a middle range but showcasing incredibly is Etnarosso. ⁓ Etnarosso is Nerello Mescalese, which is an indigenous grape that grows at the feet of the volcano and Mount Etna.

Anthony Codispoti (40:28)
Okay.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (40:29)
⁓ Sicily. Very good wines. Either the red or the whites are very, very good. ⁓ When it comes down to United States, I think we have lot of different varietals that are showcased very well at a good price point. Anything that is pasorobles, cabs, serra, I think petit serra also, I think give a lot of opportunity to people not to break the bank but really have some good quality wine.

especially if they like some of that robust, know, fruit-forward type of wine.

Anthony Codispoti (41:06)
In your role as vice president of operations, what’s been your biggest challenge in maintaining the really high service standards that you guys have?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (41:20)
on tainting the people.

⁓ making sure that the staff is valued, making sure that the staff understands your long-term goal, take care of them, ⁓ and make sure that they stay with you. ⁓ You know, I think one of the main reasons why people go to restaurants today, as it was 20 years ago or 30 years ago, is that they get recognized. They get recognized and they get taken care of. ⁓ I’ve seen in our industry

the level and the quality of people is going down tremendously. Majority of the time because ⁓ yesterday was seen as a career job, today is no longer seen as a career job. Today I’m working in a restaurant because I’m going to college and I need to pay for my studies and I go to college and I work in the restaurant two, three years and that’s it. There is no seeking.

for excellence that is not wanting to better yourself in that industry because you know it’s just temporary. Back in the days when I started, back in the days when Mr. Lombardi started, and any of these veterans, it was a career job. Their goal was to starting from a busser, becoming a waiter, becoming a manager, and possibly having the opportunity of becoming an owner down the road. ⁓ So maintaining my staff is one of the biggest challenge.

but also one of the best rewards because it definitely allows us to give that exceptional level of hospitality that I think we deliver the majority of the times ⁓ in the restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti (42:58)
Yeah.

So what are some things that you found that have been helpful in recruiting new folks?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (43:07)
So, Carmel as a company, Anthony, I have a specific philosophy and I learned also from Mr. Lombardi a lot, of course. We have an array of people that have been working for us from 30 to 42 years. I actually think we have one bartender that has been with Mr. Lombardi for 44 years. His name is Fernando.

⁓ And me in my smaller time in hospitality, I have some of my directors, some of my servers, they have been with me since 2009 when I was in New York. ⁓ And some of them were with me at Heartwood and when I moved over, they decided to follow me here. How do we achieve that? Well, we need to achieve that by making them a priority and let them know that you are there for them and that your growth

equals their growth. Everybody a lot of times talks a lot of smack about Gen Z, about the new generation. They don’t want to work, they don’t have this, they don’t have that. I think that is not accurate. I think that the failing is the leadership. ⁓ You can’t talk to a Gen Z the same way you talk to my generation or your generation, generation previous.

People are different. They see things differently. But I think if you get through it and you make him see the light at the end of the tunnel, you give him a path and a clear explanation of where you should go or how we should do it or let me teach you how to do this and that, you’ll get unbelievable results from the younger generation as well.

Anthony Codispoti (44:58)
Where’s the future of Lombardi heading?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (45:03)
Well, we were blessed to have an incredible growth in the past couple of years. We opened some incredible restaurants. Very, very blessed. As I told you, we have about three in construction right now, some other developing and projects in the pipeline. ⁓ Our goal is to keep growing. ⁓

expanding out of state. It’s something that we are evaluating even though we do have two restaurants out of state. But we kind of focused right after COVID, we really focused in the state more than anything else. You know, a little bit because restriction with traveling at a time, a little bit because, you know, Texas was a little bit different as far as other states were opening up. Texas was faster. It gave us the opportunity to go back to work fairly quickly.

So we wanted to focus there and obviously we have a good name here. People know what we do and we want to keep exploring some pockets of the state and keep growing that for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (46:12)
Danilo, I wanna shift gears and talk about a serious challenge or two that you’ve overcome in your life. How’d you get through those? What did you learn?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (46:24)
So that probably was the toughest time that I had in life when I was telling you before about my experience of opening that restaurant in Miami at 23, 24 years old. And I told you I took the job without really knowing what I was doing. However, I was in it. I was in it. I took the ship. I was the captain and I kept moving forward. I don’t think I had a day off for the first six, seven months.

We kept the restaurant open for about two and a half years ⁓ Unfortunately the economical situation Miami was what it was and we lost everything absolutely everything ⁓ I lost everything and You know the investors in the restaurant Were made guys they had their chunk they had things to fall back to I

Anthony Codispoti (47:18)
Wait, I want

to clarify made guys, because that means one thing to people who watch movies and maybe you meant it a different way.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (47:27)
Yeah, mean like there were older guys that they were, gentlemen that already were financially stable, right? No, no, no, no, nothing like that.

Anthony Codispoti (47:34)
Not mafioso. Okay, gotcha. Okay, please continue with your story. These were guys

who were well established financially. They didn’t like losing the money, but it was okay. Their lives went on. You, on the other hand, were just up and coming and now you’re flat.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (47:50)
That’s it, I’m done. Anthony, I’m done. I have no money in my pocket. ⁓ My car is getting repossessed, getting evicted from my apartment. ⁓ I had one thing to fall back and that was that little house that I told you that I bought in Boca Raton, Florida in 2003. ⁓ So I left downtown Miami because the restaurant that I’m talking about was in downtown Miami. ⁓ Brickle to be exact. I left Brickle with not a dime.

I went back home, destroyed, lost everything, felt completely broken. I felt my name was tarnished, even though I didn’t really have that much of a name at the time. But it was a feeling, right? And I’m like, I failed. I completely failed. I didn’t listen to this person. I didn’t listen to that person. They were right. I was wrong. And now I gotta eat it. And so I went back to Bogotan, Florida.

Anthony Codispoti (48:34)
Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (48:50)
And I went back serving tables. ⁓ Failed back on what I knew ⁓ again, no money to pay that mortgage that I promised my dad I was going to pay. ⁓ And I had to work hard. ⁓ I found a job in a sunglasses store in the morning. I selling sunglasses, which is actually, that’s a super funny story. I’m gonna tell you about that. I’m walking in the store.

wanted to buy sunglasses and the owner of the company was actually in the store and I don’t know if you know this have you ever heard about Solstice the sunglasses store okay so the CFO one-part owner was there Luxorica correct yeah yeah yeah Luxorica yeah Safilo Safilo and anyway so this guy is there I don’t know who he was he doesn’t know who I am I’m just there I’m speaking Italian

Anthony Codispoti (49:31)
Sure.

Aren’t they owned by like Lexotica or Cephalo or okay, they’re huge, yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (49:49)
and I’m trying to buy these sunglasses. This guy is next to me, he turns around and is like, hey, what are you doing? Where are from? He turns around to the manager and says, please make sure you give this guy a job.

So within a couple of weeks, I kept bugging the manager of the store because I really needed a job. And they hired me. So I was working in the sunglasses store in the morning. I had my ⁓ server uniform in the car and I was getting dressed in the car from the store to the restaurant. ⁓ Went back serving, kept working, saved myself out of that or whatever I had at the time and built that car.

Anthony Codispoti (50:08)
Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (50:32)
And then the New York call came about in 2009. And then I got to New York and as I said to you before, that was a very formative experience because the owner of the restaurant lived downstate while the restaurant was upstate. And you know, I just had to figure it out. Whatever it was, whether it was a plumbing issue, whether it was a kitchen issue, chef issue, server issue. That’s it.

Anthony Codispoti (50:58)
You were the guy. The buck stopped there. You had to figure it out.

Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (51:01)
26 years old, figured it out. And that was best school.

Anthony Codispoti (51:05)
So I want

to go back to sort of the beginning of this where that restaurant failed. ⁓ I mean, you used, think, the appropriate terms, right? Devastating. You felt broken. You felt like you had failed. ⁓ And there’s a part of you that just wants to, I’m sure, just stick your head under the covers and be like, I just want to wake up from this nightmare. ⁓ But that’s not what you did. I mean, you did a little bit of sort of like going back and licking your wounds, but

It’s like I went and found a job. I hustled to get this restaurant job. I hustled to get this ⁓ second job at the sunglass store so I could start paying my bills, so I could get out of debt. you just, I mean, tell me if I’m putting words in your mouth, but it was kind of a, don’t know what’s coming next, but I got to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (51:54)
no absolutely you’re absolutely right and uh… you know also there is a there’s an element of embarrassment uh… there’s a an element that really wants to to disappear but you can’t things keep coming towards you they’re not stopping uh… and uh… i’m gonna be a very honest with you i think i think i went i don’t know if i did but i think i went through maybe three to four months of very deep depression uh… and uh…

I think I pushed a lot of comfort on food, gained a ton of weight. ⁓ And my mom, my mom flew over and spent a couple of months with me.

And she was next to me and helping me out and kind of like trying to get out of it. ⁓ I actually, just told this story two days ago to one of my staff. ⁓ I was in my patio one afternoon and I’m just not crying, but very sad. And I kept saying to my mother, said, I’m never gonna be able to make it. Everything I’m trying to do, everything I try to achieve, everything that I put my foot on, it’s going wrong.

You know at the time I also had a personal bad relationship that had a bad breakup as well all at the same time of course and I was really down. I said to my mother I said no way this is not happening. I mean it’s I’m done. Nothing’s coming my way. I don’t know what I did but nothing good will come out and I’m just destined to be here and get stuck here. My mom got really upset and for the first time in my life I think somebody

put me up to understanding the power of your self-will, ⁓ the power of being resilient, the power of being positive. And I think through that conversation with my mother, that’s what she wanted me to take home was, hey, wake up. You need to be positive. You need to shake this off. And whatever’s gonna take you, you’re have to do it. And that’s it. And ⁓ from that moment, ⁓ I think…

couple more months of being okay. And then I got that call from New York and I took that ball and I ran with it and I said, I need a change. I need fresh air, I need new locations, I need to restart. That was it. That was it. But know, Anthony, obviously, you understand, not easy. Very challenging. ⁓ And ⁓ the good support obviously helps.

because it puts you the right mindset.

Anthony Codispoti (54:36)
You know, I think,

I think this is a really great story for our listeners because, ⁓ you know, for people who haven’t been through it before, when you lose a business and this is going to sound melodramatic if you haven’t walked in, in these footsteps before, but it feels like a death. Like it, it feels like somebody very close to you has died because you it’s an inanimate thing, right? But you’ve put so much time and energy and pride and

They’re people who lost money and so it feels like a part of you now is missing. So I want to highlight that. people who have been through that, they’re sitting on the other end of this and they’re like nodding their head. They’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah. People who haven’t been through it, if you have a friend or a loved one who’s going through it, has gone through it, may go through it in the future, have your antenna up for that because it is an incredibly debilitating experience and having

the support of loved ones around you to come and prop you up like your mother did for you is, you know, it’s just everything. It’s huge. And I think as human beings, a lot of times we make this mistake, I raise my hand, I’ve done it over and over again, of thinking that the feeling in the present moment is permanent, right?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (55:58)
Exactly,

yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (56:01)
when it’s not. Everything changes, this two shall pass. That’s why, you know, I use this line over and over again on the show, one foot in front of the other. You don’t know what’s gonna come next, but you gotta get up and you gotta move and you gotta create that forward momentum. And that’s exactly what you did in this story. And then that call from New York came and now you’re off to the races again.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (56:01)
start.

And you know the most beautiful part of that Anthony is actually we’re talking about staff, we’re talking about people underneath you that collaborate with you, work for you, however people want to describe it. I think some of these kids need a lot of that too. And for those people that went through it like me and that finally had that moment with their mentality completely turned around and they started hitting life with that positivity.

and speaking in existence what they want and have the willpower to go and get it. This needs to be transferred. This needs to be transferred to other people and needs to be open and make people see. Because sometimes we realize that the life that we live is different than other people’s life. And some of the kids that work for me,

work for us. They live day by day and some of them might be in the same scenario in different situation but they live paycheck to paycheck and they don’t know how to make it to the end of the month and this and that and you know sharing a story of hey you know Rocky Babo I said it the same in an interview a while ago it’s not about how many times you get knocked out. How many times do you get up?

How much can you take but still go for it? I think that’s the beauty of it.

Anthony Codispoti (57:54)
Do you feel

like almost a responsibility then to take some of the lessons that have been handed to you and the help that’s been given to you and pass that along to your employees?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (58:08)
150%. If I don’t do that, I will not be a good leader. If I can only teach them how to serve or how to bottle of wine and I cannot teach him how to go through life, then I’m not a good leader.

It’s more than work. You’re taking on a responsibility of hiring somebody. And, truth to be told, Anthony, there are some people that you develop better relationship with than others. ⁓ every time I get a call from somebody that needs help, whether it is a server, whether it is some people in my management team, I’m always there. I need to be there. I have a responsibility to do so.

⁓ I’m not just here delivering a job for somebody. ⁓ I don’t expect my staff to just deliver a service to somebody at the table. And I was incredibly blessed to follow and join a company where the founder of the company feels exactly the same way. I’m not going to go into details, but ⁓ in our company, we went through times that we had to bail people out of jail.

Anthony Codispoti (59:17)
Hmm.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (59:17)
⁓

We had to lend them money because their family here and there were in need. ⁓ That’s what I think it’s human to do, kind to do, and important.

Anthony Codispoti (59:30)
You know, I’m glad that you mentioned those two stories, even though we don’t need the detail, but we get it. Like there were people in need. They were in jail. They needed some help. They, you know, there, there was debt. made loans because, know, a lot of times people talk about the culture of their company and maybe their mission statement. And for a lot of people, when they hear that, especially if they haven’t worked somewhere where that culture is something very positive.

And ⁓ it’s a strong foundation to kind of roll their eyes at it. Like, what does that mean? Good culture. That just sounds like a buzzword everybody uses. But when you mention a couple of those examples, I think that really helps to illustrate for people how much you really care about the folks that you work

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:00:09)
Yeah.

It is important. It is extremely important. And I guess that’s why our company has the retention that it has. Alberto says it a lot too, is one of his lines. It’s Lombardi family concepts. There is the word family there for a reason. We want our staff to feel like family. We want our guests to feel like family. And so it’s not the transaction.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:27)
Yeah.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:00:48)
It’s something that has a lot more than that. You gotta have natural feelings.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:55)
Putting all humility aside, Danila, what is your superpower?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:01:03)
⁓

I don’t know, I think positivity. If I gotta say one thing. ⁓ I wake up happy every morning, Anthony, because I’m blessed, I’m alive, of course. But I get to do a job that I absolutely adore. Going to work energizes me. Going to meetings, go to meet people. You never know what you’re gonna find on the street.

You might walk into a restaurant today and you meet the president of Mexico or you meeting Messi You meeting a football player or you know today these afternoon at lunch I walk into one of our restaurants and there was this super sweet lady and She was dining by herself. So I stopped by the table. I said, hey, how you doing? How’s your bill is the team treating you? Well, she’s like, my god. I love the manager here They treat me so good and then she like are you Italian? She said yes

I say, ⁓ my family is Italian. Where are from? My daughter lives here and they’re living in Tuscany. She just wanted to talk. Right? She just wanted to talk and I was there and I listened and it was fun. And now I know so much more about our family. But yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a, be positive of everything that life tries to throw at you. And, you know, always, you know, have the mentality of

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:20)
Yeah. You guys filled a nice part of each other’s day.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:02:34)
The glass is always at full.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:38)
Do you have anything that you do to help kick off your day in a positive way? Any rituals or habits, routines?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:02:47)
⁓ Espresso. ⁓ No, ⁓ I try to work out at least four to five days. ⁓ And the workout to me is important because I do it extremely early in morning, about 5 a.m. And it’s one of the only times during the day that I’m by myself.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:49)
How did I know that was coming?

From my Italian friend, I would expect nothing less.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:03:15)
And so that gives me the opportunity to be clear minded ⁓ with myself, ⁓ kind of plan what I need to do, what I have to do. Then, you know, going to the gym to me, yes, is workout and staying healthy and everything else, but I do love the aspect of sauna and steam rooms. Again, it’s another 15 of 20 minutes where you got no phone, there is no ringers, there is no beeper, and you are in a room with nobody. ⁓

because you can’t see them, because there’s fog, ⁓ and you’re just there, and you just relax and you focus. That really helps me to kick my day off in a different way.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:55)
I love a good steam room. Followed up by a nice cold shower and like now all of a sudden my body is just.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:03:57)
Yeah.

or a plunge, that’s the best.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:04)
⁓ you are more hardcore than I am. The plunge is a little tough for me, but I can appreciate the value in it.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:04:07)
Huh?

I feel like you get shocked with energy when you get out of there. It’s just everything is alive, you know?

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:17)
Yeah.

How about a resource that you might recommend to our listeners? A book, a podcast, a course that you’ve taken, something that was helpful for you.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:04:31)
Well, for people that start ⁓ going into the wine business, ⁓ I think ⁓ The Wine Bible by Karen Miller. It’s probably one of the simplest book ⁓ that really helps you to understand wine region and maps and gives you some of like the first grounds on wine. I listen to a lot of different podcasts.

I also have other interests besides hospitality. I like real estate a lot. ⁓ I listen to Grant Cardone a lot. ⁓ I like not only suggestions about the industry back in the days, but also a lot of his motivational stuff. ⁓ The guys from Eleven Medicine, as you mentioned, Will, ⁓ I listen to his podcasts a lot.

I read a couple of these books. think they’re inspirational. ⁓ Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:34)
That’s a good list. That’s a good list. How, if at all,

are you using AI in your work?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:05:43)
⁓ So on the marketing standpoint, ⁓ we are definitely seeing the majority of AI work being implemented. Whether it is with, you know, posts or creation of posts or logos or anything like that. And then it’s, think, one of the easiest way to do it. Also in the designs of our restaurant, ⁓ ICAI implemented a lot. Obviously, we come up with ideas with photos.

sketches and then you know we use a couple of programs with AI that start giving us a little bit of a first shot of what we think the restaurant will look like or what the interior will look like. Obviously we had that over to interior designers and they take it from there. ⁓ The latest one that we started is actually in our phone systems. You know we have a couple of locations that do not do lunch they only do dinner.

And we felt that we were losing some of those phone calls because nobody was in the restaurant to pick them up. And so what happened in the past is some people call, they leave a message, and the manager comes in at two or three or whatever that might be, and they got to go through that answering machine and scramble back up to call all these people back. We felt that we lost a little bit of business because of that, because managers were not super efficient on getting back to people. So we started adding these elements of AI in these restaurants.

⁓ where they pick up the call themselves and they are able to make reservations through links and other applications. And in some of these locations we actually saw a 17 % growth on reservations.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:22)
Wow, that’s significant. Danilo, I think I’ve just got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I wanna do two things. First of all, everyone listening, pause for just a second. Go to that podcast app that you’re using right now.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:07:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:35)
Go ahead and hit the follow or subscribe button. We’ve had a wonderful conversation today with Danilo DiNardo from Lombardi Family Concepts. And I want you to continue to get more wonderful interviews like this in your feed. If you’ve got an extra second, you can leave us a review or a comment helps other people find us.

I want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you or Lombardi or follow your story and what would that be?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:08:02)
Well, obviously to our website lombardyfamilyconcept.com or you know on Instagram it will be fairly easy or Facebook same thing lombardyfamilyconcept.com for those that want to get in touch directly with me you know Instagram probably will be the easiest way to do it danilo di dardo number 83 and you know it’s amazing how again it’s another way of making incredible connection ⁓

We would love to hear from anybody that is in Dallas, wants to be in Dallas, travel in Dallas, wants to come see us or experience or chat, an espresso, whatever. I think we’re pretty open and we’re so excited to meet new people because you never know what’s going to come out of it.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:47)
Love it. So last question for you, Danilo. You and I reconnect a year from now and you’re celebrating one thing. Really excited. What’s that one thing you’re celebrating one year from now?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:08:58)
Another year of beautiful growth for my daughters.

Anthony Codispoti (1:09:03)
I love that you went personal.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:09:05)
Well, you know, so I have Isabella, she’s the oldest, she’s eight. Juliana, she’s six. And Sienna, it’s four. And my most incredible wife has been with me through thick and thin for 19 years. ⁓ Anthony, think, you know, we talk about business, we talk about experience, but I think at the end of the day, all we do, we do it for family.

Anthony Codispoti (1:09:06)
How old are your daughters?

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:09:31)
And ⁓ one time I was talking to this older guy actually and he said, your time is over. Everything you’re building right now is not for you, it’s for your children. Your life is halfway done. So whatever you do, make sure that you build it for them. ⁓ And I think it’s very true. ⁓ All we do as parents ⁓ are little things that are going to be making their life easier. ⁓

make a better opportunity, give them better opportunity. So if I work this hard, as much as I love my job and what I do and what we’re building, if I work this hard, it’s only to give my family a better future. And so if that is one wish that I have, is to really achieve that.

Anthony Codispoti (1:10:23)
Danilo DiNardo from Lombardi Family Concepts. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Danilo A. Di Nardo (1:10:31)
Thank you. It was an honor to be here with you today. Thank you so much.

Anthony Codispoti (1:10:35)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.