How Dana Canalichio Built FCM Hospitality Managing Morgan’s Pier and Parks on Tap Beer Gardens

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 Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Dana Canalecchio, director of operations at FCM hospitality. They are a Philadelphia based hospitality group that creates welcoming bars, restaurants, and seasonal pop-up events across the region.

Their mission is to bring communities together through great food, fun, atmospheres, and memorable entertainment. Now under Dana’s leadership, FCM continues to grow and has received praise for their innovative venues. In 2021, Dana was honored by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of their Women of Distinction, recognizing her impact on the hospitality scene.

Before moving into operations, Dana served in other management roles, including general manager of Morgan’s Pier, where she oversaw daily activities. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback 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 restaurant employees free access to doctors,

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All right, back to our guest today, Director of Operations at FCM Hospitality, Dana Canellicchio. And I can’t say that last name enough, I love it. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Dana (02:02)
It’s great. Thanks for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (02:04)
Okay, so Dana, what first attracted you into the restaurant industry over 20 years ago?

Dana (02:11)
Well, it’s probably almost 30 years now and it all started back in college. know, I just went to college and started drinking and realized this is social and this is fun. And that’s how I kind of got started into it. Just drinking at the frat houses.

Anthony Codispoti (02:30)
Drinking

at the frat houses led to wanting to get a job at a bar.

Dana (02:34)
Yeah, yes. So basically in college, I started working in food and beverage. Why I was in college, working for catering for the school and just being in the cafeteria. Then that led to bartending and once I got behind the bar, I realized I loved it. Just loved being behind the bar. It was my happy place. I loved being social, talking to people and making the money. So it was fun.

Anthony Codispoti (03:00)
That’s good. Okay, so that’s how you started out in college. And then I see here, at some point, the door opened to go work at Palms Casino in Las Vegas, where you were for a couple of years. What was that experience like?

Dana (03:16)
Yeah, so I mean, I was at a point in my life bartending, all my friends were getting married and having families and I just wasn’t in that mindset. And I just felt like, where can I go make the most money doing what I love to do? And Vegas seemed like the perfect spot to go to, right? Like it’s Vegas. And I had been there a few times as a visitor realizing I saw the money that was just tossed around. ⁓

And I was like, you know what? I felt like I was a really great bartender and I wanted to be with the best of the best. And I just picked up and moved to Vegas, got my job at the Palms right away, which was ⁓ like amazing. And I was out there about three years and I spent all three years at the Palms Casino at Rain and Ghost Bar and Nine Steakhouse.

which were staples back then, know, 25 years ago, that was like the hottest spot pretty much in the world at the time. The real world was filmed there and it was like all on TV. So it was like the hottest spot to be at. I started bartending there. But when I went to Vegas, I decided, I said, was like, act like you’re going to college again. Just go three, four years, make as much money as you can and go back home. And when I moved out to Vegas, I realized

I didn’t love Vegas. It made me realize that I am an East Coast girl. I’m a Philadelphia girl and I belong on the East Coast in Philadelphia. So ⁓ I did my three years, made more money than I thought I would possibly ever and moved back home. It was a great experience. I’m glad I did it. Met a million people, celebrities, made friends, made money. ⁓ So it was good experience, but living in Vegas is not.

Easy.

Anthony Codispoti (05:05)
Yeah. So let’s break this down a little bit. You were a great bartender already when you went out there, which you had to have been to pick up a job like that because it had it couldn’t have been an easy job to get. Am I right?

Dana (05:18)
No, right. So when I was a visitor out there, the Palms had just opened up and went into Nine Steakhouse for dinner and the GM was walking around, he was touching tables and we started, me and my girlfriend started talking to him and just saying, you know, we’re bartenders from Philly out visiting and he’s like, oh, well, you know, let me give you a tour. Ghost Bar was the rooftop bar, wasn’t even open yet.

I’m sorry, was open. Rain wasn’t open yet. The nightclub gave us a tour of the nightclub, took us up to Ghost Bar, bought us drinks, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I kind of mentioned to him, you know, I’m thinking about maybe moving out. And he’s like, well, if you move out, pop in and talk to me. We’ll see if there’s anything going on. And he just knew me as Dana Philly. Didn’t know, you know, because we kept saying we’re from Philly and blah, blah, So when we… ⁓

When I decided to move out there, I went straight to the nine steak house, straight to that manager and said, hey, I’m here. And he remembered, he’s like, Dana Philly. I’m like, yeah. He’s like, well, you know, it’s the outside seasonal bars are starting to close. We have to move those bartenders in. I don’t know if we have anything. So he said, ⁓ right as we were talking about it, the manager that run all the events and private parties for the hotel started walking by.

Anthony Codispoti (06:19)
Wow.

Dana (06:41)
And they’re like, Hey, do you need any workers? He’s like, yeah, start tomorrow. And I was like, okay. So I got my foot in the door with working events, bartending and serving at events. I said, maybe about a month. I network with everybody I possibly can to move into like the bartending position. And then I just started bartending. I actually managed for a little bit too. They needed a manager up at Ghost Bar and Ghost Bar was at the time, probably the Haas Lounge in

Anthony Codispoti (06:45)
How’s that for timing?

Dana (07:10)
the world and they’re like, they needed a manager. And I was like, well, I have managing experience. did some back in Philly at the bars and, and they’re like, okay. And I’ll never forget the pay as a manager, as a pair to what the bartenders were making was so minimal and awful. I took the job because I couldn’t pass up managing one of the hottest spots in the country, the world. And then realize I am miserable.

Anthony Codispoti (07:34)
Great resume builder.

Dana (07:39)
because I’m watching the bartenders count their money every night and I’m living paycheck to paycheck. And I was like, this is not why I moved out here. This is not fun to me. And I asked them, can you just put me back behind the bar? Like, I’m just not happy with this and I’m gonna move home if this is what I’m stuck with. And they’re like, no, no, no. Put you back behind the bar. And then I just bartended for the rest of my tenure there and loved every minute of it.

Anthony Codispoti (08:04)
Nice. But Vegas was not your speed.

Dana (08:08)
Yeah, you know what? You either love it or hate it. There’s no in between. I like I just felt that it’s a different world and East Coast, West Coast, different ways of life and different world. And, you know, every majority of the people there were West Coast. You know, it’s pretty slow and easy going and East Coast is boom, boom, boom, boom, and this and that. And it’s fast paced and and intense.

⁓ I felt like there was not a lot of family, ⁓ feel out there. There was no history. There was no, ⁓ you know, like your neighbors, you didn’t really know your neighbors and you didn’t spend time making friends because it was so transient that the minute that you try to be friends, someone they’re moving away anyway. And so just got to the point. It was just like, it was just a lot of, missed what we had back at.

in Philadelphia and the East Coast and that feel of family and history and generation and that kind of stuff. So I did my three years like going to college again and.

Anthony Codispoti (09:14)
All right.

Came back with a little cash in your pocket and now you kind of switch gears a little bit. mean, still in the industry, but you had an opportunity to go to Aramark and then from there Sodexo. What were those opportunities like compared to being behind the bar?

Dana (09:28)
Yeah. So when I

got back, you know, um, I got into management now that I had been managing and I just wanted something a little more stability, which is always, you know, the challenge. It’s hard to make that jump from front of the house to Alex, show you management. Cause you’re so afraid of the money and the differences and, um, but it’s, it’s stability and I was able to manage some places. And then I pretty much, um, before the job I’m in now.

was offered a position ⁓ as my dream job, which was running all the bars at the Lincoln Financial Field for the Philadelphia Eagles. And I’m a huge fan, huge football fan, huge Eagles fan. And when I had the opportunity to actually manage the stadium and run bars in the stadium, I could not pass it off. It was just like a dream come true. Like my office was at the link every day and I would go down.

to work every day and loved it. Unfortunately, back at that time, the recession hit in 09 and all major companies were doing a lot of layoffs, know, football season was over. So a whole bunch of us got laid off and I got laid off from that job, which then brought me into just kind of going back to bartending till I could kind of find something and figure out what I wanted to do next. And I did start

managing at FCM at that point. ⁓ I’m sorry, I was bartending at that point and I was kind of going off and on. So then I just went back bartending, but then went to Sodexo. Again, it was a catering management position there ⁓ that ⁓ was very challenging. Didn’t really love the job per se. ⁓ You know, you’re dealing with ⁓

a university that had high expectations and expected your staff to be, you know, Ritz Carlton staffing and the staff that you had to deal with was unionized. And I was dealing with more like McDonald’s staffing and you were stuck in the middle trying to, you know, manage your staff and make the university happy, happy. And it was just completely challenging. was probably one of the most challenging jobs I ever had to deal with.

And so that lays the couple.

Anthony Codispoti (11:51)
What’s a big lesson that

you were able to pull out of that challenging experience though, Dana?

Dana (11:56)
⁓ you know, what I’ve really learned is how to deal with union workers. ⁓ you know, union, mean, Lincoln financial field was union when our marks the ducks. So they’re all union. ⁓ it’s just, ⁓ I never really, I never worked for union at that point, never dealt with union. you know, Palms casino is not union. So just the trials and tribulations of dealing with union and documentation and workers and what you can, you know,

⁓ what they can, what they can do and lack of better word, get away with and not get fired. ⁓ it was the most challenging part because it’s, they, you know, could do what they want and they were never. There was, there was no accountability because they knew that they were always going to have a job because the union had their back. ⁓ so that was probably the biggest struggle. ⁓ when it came to the university and Sodexo, ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (12:38)
Sounds like there was no accountability.

So you weren’t happy there. So how did the opportunity to join FCM come about?

Dana (12:55)
of.

So that’s

so interestingly. So FCM has been around at time. had several different locations. And when one of the manager, or actually it was director operations back at that time, had a friend that has a Italian cafe bistro that wanted to put a bar in. And they’re like, hey, can we, do you know anyone that can consult and help build a bar in our lunch?

our lunch spot. And one of the guys that I used to work with at FCM at the time was like, Hey, I got this perfect person for you. And they reached out to me they’re like, here’s Dana. She has worked all different levels, build bars, hung out, worked at different places from stadiums to casinos to everything in between. ⁓ She could, she could probably do it for you. So FCM actually got me this consulting job in the middle.

And then I was there for, again, two years. ⁓ And then FCM reached back out and like, hey, we need a manager back here. thanks for helping them out, but we’re looking for management now. And that’s when I was asked to go ⁓ to Morgan’s Pier. And that’s when I started at Morgan’s Pier.

Anthony Codispoti (14:14)
So tell us what Morgan’s Pier is all about, because this is kind of a special place.

Dana (14:19)
Yeah, Morrigan’s Pier is my baby. Like, Morrigan’s Pier has been around 14 years now. It’s seasonal outdoor, know, 500 seat restaurant, entertainment center, basically. It’s on the water in Philadelphia. ⁓ Most popular.

spot in the city in the summer because Philadelphia is a very shore town, beach town. Everyone runs off to the Jersey shore in the summer. So if you’re stuck in the city, you’re coming to Morgan’s Pier. ⁓ And it’s just full, ⁓ it’s like restaurant by day and then nightclub by night. And we have live bands and DJs and all different kinds of ⁓ things going on, entertainment and ⁓ things going on like karaoke and, and.

and again, band night and ⁓ yeah, trivia night. Yeah. We do a lot of events. So we host birthday parties and 21st birthday parties and 40 birthday parties and baby showers and all that kind of stuff. So there’s always something going on, but it’s just so energetic. It’s always busy, full of life. And who doesn’t like to drink outside on the water, right? Like, so.

Anthony Codispoti (15:06)
It’s quizzo. Just like a like a trivia thing. Yeah, okay.

Now what about the winner? Is

it still a pretty hot spot to be? Okay.

Dana (15:35)
No, so it’s seasonal. So we

are open April through Halloween, basically through the end of October. So we’re closed now at the moment. ⁓ Just winding down, rethink everything. We take a little bit of a break and then, you know, get things rolling and get back open up in April again.

Anthony Codispoti (15:52)
But so Morgan’s Pier is just one of many restaurants under the FCM hospitality umbrella. How many ⁓ restaurants, how many concepts are we talking about here?

Dana (16:04)
Right, so right now we have 14 bars and restaurants. They’re all different for the most part. have all in Philly, one is in the suburbs, just a little outside of Philly in Ardmore, Lola’s Garden, which is a indoor outdoor restaurant. But what I like to tell people, we have these big outdoor beer garden, like so Morgan’s Pier and Liberty Point are our two biggest seasonal outdoor.

Anthony Codispoti (16:11)
All in Philly.

Okay, yeah.

Dana (16:33)
⁓ very busy locations. We have three Mexican restaurants, Rosie’s Taco Bar, Rosie’s East, and Juno. So they’re all similar in concept. ⁓ Then we have two night clubs, the Concourse, dance bar, which is basically just a throwback, 70s, 80s, 90s kind of club ⁓ that’s fun for all ages over 21. it’s like now you get the

you know, the 40, 50 year olds that are becoming empty nesters and they want to go out and they want to dance. And so we offer this spot, this place in Philly for dancing, but it’s, it’s the young kids too. ⁓ Dauphin is our smaller nightclub. that just offers DJs on the weekends. and then we have our two, I called our two fancier restaurants, but they’re just casual dining, Lola’s garden and Harper’s garden, which are just.

beautiful decorated indoor outdoor locations that tend to more like an Italian menu and host a lot of events. We have good event space in both of those locations. Craft Hall is our Mecca of entertainment. It’s a brewery, a sports bar, a kids playground located. We have a stage area for bands and DJs and events. We host a lot of private events. There’s always something going on at Craft Hall.

It’s actually where my office is located. So I’m at Kreft Hall every day. And it’s a lot of fun because there’s just so much to do. It’s very, and a dog park too. So it’s very family centric. ⁓ You bring your kids, you bring your dog. Good place to go watch sports on TV where your kids are playing in the playground. There’s a game room with arcades and pool table and like all different stuff. It’s just like a giant Chuck E. Cheese for adults.

Anthony Codispoti (18:24)
This place must be huge.

Ha

Dana (18:30)
Yeah, it’s great. It’s a lot of fun. And then Lucy’s is our newest sports bar. It’s a sports dive bar. We used to have Lucy’s back in the day and we kind of resurrected in a different location. And it’s just a dive sports bar with TVs, watch games, but then our basement there is a club with a DJ and dance floor. So.

That’s like the good spot for the 21 year olds, the young kids, the college kids, they all hang there. And then the craft halls where all the families and go. So two different, very different ⁓ locations for different crowds to watch sports.

Anthony Codispoti (19:13)
So lots of different concepts, no repeats of the same concept. Is there any thought about doing that?

Dana (19:21)
No, because normally the way our concepts even come to frutation is my owner, there’s one owner, and he’s really the brain behind all the concepts. And he usually finds the space. And when he finds a good space, then we decide what are we going to put in the space. ⁓ know, what Rosie’s Rosie’s East and Juno, they’re all like

Anthony Codispoti (19:46)
similar.

Dana (19:46)
basically

the same concept with the Mexican. You know, we do a lot of pop up beer gardens. So we have Walnut Garden, Liberty Garden and Parks on Tap. And they’re all pretty much the same concept, just different names and Parks on Tap. It’s a collaboration with the city of Philadelphia and the Parks and Rec where we take a pop up beer garden and we take it to a different city park every week. And we donate.

some of the sales back to that neighborhood park to help with the renovations or things that they need in that neighborhood. And we’ve been going on it for seven, eight years now, we’ve been doing Parks on Tap. again, it’s a great program that we do. ⁓ And we bounce around the neighborhoods and it’s really, it’s.

Anthony Codispoti (20:34)
And what does that look like?

Like it’s more than just like a truck that pulls up, I’m guessing.

Dana (20:39)
Yeah, it’s very labor intensive. It takes a lot of big team to get this together, but we have a like a kitchen trailer, a bathroom trailer, ⁓ and a beer trailer. And then we also bounce around with ⁓ picnic tables and chairs and things to just ⁓ fencing. And we just plop it all in there and set it up.

Anthony Codispoti (20:41)
Yeah.

Dana (21:04)
do it for five days, one day remove it, the next day put it in the next park, boom, back up again. So it’s very, it’s a lot of work and it’s very, yeah, it’s very casual. The neighborhoods love it, very family. Again, bring your kids, bring the dogs, outdoor drinking, which everyone loves. So that’s really good. And then when we have Walnut Garden and Liberty Garden, they’re basically the same concept, but stationary.

Anthony Codispoti (21:09)
Wow. It does sound like a lot of work, but sounds like so much fun. I have to imagine the residents of each of the neighborhoods love it.

Dana (21:34)
So Liberty Garden is located right outside of Independence Mall and the Liberty Bell. So it’s more like a tourist area than anyone’s coming to the city ⁓ to do all the history and tourist things in the city of Philadelphia. We’re right there. And so pop up your garden, you come for lunch and ⁓ cocktails while you’re walking around. Walnut Garden is located

in the middle of Center City, Rittenhouse Square, which is really the Mecca of Center City. And Walnut Garden has a really unique story. It’s pretty cool. ⁓ It was just an empty lot in the middle of the block in downtown Philadelphia. And what was in this empty lot was a McDonald’s, a McDonald’s, a Mellon bank, like a bank and a shoe store.

And during the pandemic and the riots in 2020, these three stores were burned down. And in these three stores, so that this lot became this empty lot and it was empty for three years, just building up trash in the middle of a very nice predominant area in center city shopping Mecca. ⁓ and my owner just got this idea is like, let’s take this lot and let’s just throw a pop up beer garden in there.

and see what happens. And the neighborhood and everyone just really was drawn to it. And now we’re on our fourth year and we’re still open even though it’s all outdoor, but we have a heated tent and we’re doing this huge like winter wonderland, like Christmas pop-up. ⁓ So it’s a great location. We’ll have that open till next week and then we shut down for the season.

Anthony Codispoti (23:19)
Any thoughts to make

a permanent structure there, make it year round?

Dana (23:23)
⁓ you know, it just gets too cold in Philadelphia. It’s just freezing. when, you know, well, we have the heat of tents, ⁓ but people just aren’t out and about. Like majority of our business is all the.

Anthony Codispoti (23:27)
but like an indoor structure if people like coming to the area anyways.

They just hunker down during

the winter, you don’t see anybody. Okay, all right. Okay.

Dana (23:39)
Yeah, yeah, like Philly hibernates, you

know, so no one wants to be cold and we hibernate the only time that we actually come out in January, February is for football with playoffs and Super Bowls, you know, so, ⁓ so that keeps the city thriving now that we actually have a good football team. But before that we hibernated.

Anthony Codispoti (23:59)
and you don’t see

each other again until like April. Gotcha. So lots of really cool, fun concepts that you’ve described there. As somebody goes from one of these different locations to another, is there a common thread that they would notice?

Dana (24:03)
Exactly.

I mean, yeah, most they’re very casual, right? There’s nothing, there’s nothing uptight. There’s nothing stuffy. It’s all, you know, we don’t dress codes. We’re like some of the nightclubs have dress codes and ⁓ it’s really, we’re just all interested in having social spaces. Like that’s our biggest.

Concept that we just find social spaces a place an area for people to just congregate to meet to mingle to socialize and that’s kind of always was you know, you It’s important to have good food and good drinks, but to have an atmosphere where people can to be social and enjoy Life, that’s kind of what we really strive for. So Yes, ⁓ there are all experiences at all our locations

you know, but some tend to different age groups and, that’s the biggest thing, you know, like if you’re, getting going out to watch an Eagles game, you have kids, you’re to go to craft hall. You’re not going to go to Lucy’s, know, but you’re going to go to Lucy’s if you’re still that young, energetic person that just wants to scream and party and curse at the TV. And yeah, then you’re going to Lucy’s. So, you know, the concepts are similar, but tend to different types of, of crowds.

Anthony Codispoti (25:42)
Dana, what’s the biggest challenge for you in managing so many different locations?

Dana (25:49)
Well, so, I mean, I have a core management team at every location. So I’m very fortunate to have good managers at the locations that they’re on site, they’re running the locations. I let them run the locations and I’m just here for support. So I oversee all the managers ⁓ and I’m just here to support them. I don’t micromanage. It’s more or less, here’s what’s going well. Here’s what we need to fix. What do you need help with?

You know, ⁓ that’s kind of what I do. So I really put a lot of the success on my team and my staff and a lot of it is retention. ⁓ lot of my managers have been with me for a very long time. lot of our staff have been with us for a very long time. and that’s been very important to me. I’ve always tend to hire within first. So many of my managers all started out as.

you know, servers and bartenders and they took the plunge. They wanted to jump to the, jump to the dark side, I say. And, you know, and then they, that’s where they’re at now. So internally, you know, it’s training from day one, working your way through the company, through the ranks, knowing what to do. And then I know, I, know that I can trust you because you’ve been with us a long time. You know how we do things. ⁓

There’s times I have to hire from the outside world, ⁓ you know, because we’ve, a lot of our concepts grew very quickly. You know, we’re open three, three a year at one point, and there was just not enough staff internally. So to, you know, to find management outside, to find management at all, obviously is the biggest challenge in today’s world. Anyway, ⁓ after the pandemic, lot of people realized.

I don’t need to be in the business to make money. I don’t need to be ⁓ working those hours and those late nights. I don’t need to do this to have a living. And a lot of people jump ship, you know, after the pandemic, realized that, like most people, they realized that other talents and had other dreams and took the opportunity for that happening to go ahead and…

find something else to do. And that’s what many people in this world did, right? So what I’m finding now is nobody wants to be in this business as much anymore. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (28:24)
Meaning

nobody wants to be at the management level or people even don’t want to work sort of at the front line servers bartenders. Okay.

Dana (28:29)
Both.

Both. It’s been very challenging ⁓ because again, it’s a way of life. It’s not for everybody. I think working in the industry is definitely not for everybody. ⁓ And a lot of people did it just to work their way through college and things like that. And very few people make it a career. ⁓ And most people don’t want to make it a career now. It’s hard.

It’s really hard. ⁓ The experience is different these days. The money is different. What I found is, you know, people aren’t friendly anymore and it’s very challenging for staff. ⁓ You know, and I think that’s in any…

Anthony Codispoti (29:17)
So people weren’t friendly during COVID, but they haven’t come back around? they’re worse.

Dana (29:21)
They’re worse now. They’re worse now.

Yeah. Well, what we, know, it’s just social. Everything is social media, right? And everything is on your phone and no one knows how to socialize. I forgot how to socialize. No one’s socializing the way we used to. ⁓ you know, it’s, ⁓ so people tend to be, ⁓

just not friendly, they forgot how to be friendly. ⁓ People are very becoming narcissistic and just all about me, me, me and very selfish. So it’s like, you have to have what I want when I want it. And I don’t want this and I don’t like this. And instead of just being kind, they’re just really mean. And it takes a toll, know, it’s the staff gets beat up a lot.

Anthony Codispoti (29:59)
Stay.

Dana (30:16)
And it’s getting better. This is immediately after the pandemic and things were getting back to normal. But then I think people forgot how to act, being cooped up for months and months. So that’s what we found. We found that people are just selfish.

Anthony Codispoti (30:22)
Yeah.

So I want

to address this from two sides. First of all, from the employee side, how do you coach your team through those kinds of experiences? What do you tell them? How can you be supportive of

Dana (30:44)
Yeah. So, you know, when they always

said the customer is always right, right? Well, that’s, that’s just not true anymore, you know, and all you can do is support your staff and have your staffs back in any situations, you know? So, um, a lot of times, you know, in in the service industry, you just always back down. You always just apologize. I’m so sorry. Here’s another, here’s another, here’s a dessert. Here’s a free drink. We’ll cop your meal, you know, and.

⁓ that’s still out there and that still is justified. But a lot of times, ⁓ you know, it’s not about, it’s not about the food and drink anymore. It’s about you won’t let me in because I don’t have an ID and then they’re, they want to fight you. like, but you have to have an ID, valid identification to get into the bar. And because they don’t have it, you’re not letting them in. You’re the worst human being in the world.

You know, it’s crazy.

Anthony Codispoti (31:45)
So

yeah, so aside from that specific example that you gave right there, where somebody just doesn’t, you know, they’re oblivious to the rules and they think that they deserve an exception there. Can you give us a couple of other examples? Here’s what I’m wondering, Dana, is are there people who are being rude and obnoxious at your restaurants that don’t recognize that they’re being rude and obnoxious? Can we give people some, I don’t know,

Quick etiquette lessons here on how to behave when you’re eating out.

Dana (32:17)
Yes,

many people are not self-aware. ⁓ know, people are not self-aware of what’s happening. ⁓ But, you know, that’s how you coach your staff to just diffuse the situation. That’s the first step. You just kind of diffuse it the nicest, best way you can. ⁓ You just want the customer to leave happy, you know, so you just…

supporting the staff and helping them to understand how to diffuse, how to make the customer happy, without also, know, belittling yourself because you didn’t do anything wrong in certain aspects.

Anthony Codispoti (32:50)
Yeah.

So from a guest perspective,

what can we do to make our servers life better? How do we let them know that they’re appreciated?

Dana (33:05)
Well, mean, a lot of it, it’s just, it’s just human behavior, right? It’s just how you speak. Yeah. Like just be kind. That’s all it is. You know? I mean, it can’t hurt the tip too, but, ⁓ no, it’s just be kind. know, you don’t know if that person’s what everyone’s has bad days now, right? Everybody has mental challenges and bad days and you don’t know what’s going on in a person’s life.

Anthony Codispoti (33:10)
This common human decency is what you’re saying.

Dana (33:32)
And vice versa too with a customer, if a customer might lash out, you don’t know what’s going on. And these are just new rules and ideas that we didn’t have to deal with 20 years ago in the industry. And so it’s just adjusting to new human behavior, new patterns, new ways of just behaviors and the way people are acting. And it’s like when you have…

staff members that are veterans, you know, as opposed to young, younger employees, the way you handled things in the nineties just doesn’t cut it now. You know, you know, well, you know, like say you’re, you know, the chef in a 90, you would throw pans at your, your employees, right? Can’t do that anymore. It’s just the way that you speak now.

Anthony Codispoti (34:16)
What’s the biggest change that you’ve seen from now to then?

Dana (34:31)
You know, ⁓ everything is very offensive. So you just have to watch what you say and how you speak, you know, back in the day, ⁓ you know, you yelled at someone and now you have, it’s not, there’s no more yelling. You have to be very professional because people get offended very easily. And, and it’s, it’s, you have to change just the way that you’re managing. ⁓ you know, cause if your employees having a bad day or a mental day and you just have to, ⁓

You know, you want to be sincere to it. You want to understand, but you also have a job to do and you got to get the job done. So you’re, you’re in there just doing what you need to do. So for me, it’s coaching my staff, how to handle situations, coaching the managers, how to handle situations with the servers are, you know, front of the house. And it’s just a very different.

way of doing things than it used to be and it’s all changed and it’s a challenge.

Anthony Codispoti (35:31)
Hmm. I want to talk about the award that you won Philadelphia Business Journal, woman of distinction honoree in 2021. What led to that recognition Dana?

Dana (35:44)
⁓ you know, I was kind of surprised. but, ⁓ at the time our, ⁓ PR manager, ⁓ thought that this was, ⁓ for everything that we were doing during the pandemic.

⁓ and our employees and staffing. think that’s what really led to it. One thing I noticed, the biggest challenge obviously for everyone during the pandemic is, you know, what do we do? No one knew what to do. And what my owner was all about and…

led me to be all about it was all about making sure our staff was okay, making sure the employees were okay. You know, on the, call it the D day where we had to shut down all the bars and restaurants and I had to lay off my staff. And at the time I had over 400 people on staff and I was just like, wow, like it was the most horrible day ever, right? You’re laying off, shutting down all your restaurants. You don’t know what’s happening. And then as things came along,

And we realized, okay, here’s what we got to do. And then the cities had so many rules and regulations of what you were allowed to do and how you could get back open up and get your business rolling again. ⁓ What we found is because we have a lot of outdoor seasonal locations, we were already prepared for this. We were already prepared to be outdoors, to be six feet apart, whatever all the rules were at that time.

We were able to get people back to work, back to work safely for what we knew and we needed to do.

And so it was just coming up with the ideas and the innovation of getting our locations open by following all the rules that we had to get people back working, living. ⁓ That’s kind of what I think what led to the award because we were just all about our employees and getting them working and being able to pay their bills and their mortgages and their families and eat. so it was, and the rules were constantly changing. everything

we we had to constantly change. And when we finally got like a procedure in place or a policy in place, here’s another role. And then we had to change it. So we did whatever we could to make sure we could stay open, stay in business and keep staff working. So I think that’s what a lot of that was geared towards at the time when I was nominated for that.

Anthony Codispoti (37:57)
Yeah.

So you guys had a lot of this outdoor seating already that had you well positioned during COVID. I’m curious, did you guys also make a pivot to doing a lot of carry out like many restaurants did? Or was that not as common?

Dana (38:30)
Yeah. So,

it was interesting. Rosie’s taco bar. you know, we, we weren’t doing a lot of takeout there at all prior. And again, during the pandemic and during the time of the riots, our front window got smashed and we’re like, all right, what are we going to do? We turn that window into a takeout window. Like, all right. And there we go. And then our takeout business became like,

50 % of the business and it just grew and grew and grew all because of this window got smashed. And we’re like, this is great. And so, yeah, so we, you know, we took again, a very horrible negative experience and turned into a positive and it doubled our business. ⁓ And now even Rosie’s Taco Bar, we actually took the property next door to us and made that for takeout only. And it’s been a thriving takeout addition to Rosie’s Taco Bar. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (39:13)
Yeah, I like that.

That’s crazy.

And nobody had

to throw a rock through a window for you guys to come up with that idea. Just good.

Dana (39:33)
Not at this time. Yeah.

So yeah, so I mean, definitely, ⁓ you know, we just took all these experiences and turned them into positives.

Anthony Codispoti (39:45)
What is the future of FCM look like? You said at one point you guys were, you know, opening up to three locations in a single year. Are you guys kind of taking a little bit of a breather? Is there some more development on the

Dana (39:55)
Yeah, so

I won’t allow my owner to open anything right now. We decided, because even this past year, 2025, is like, we’re going to focus on what we have, fix them, make them better, whatever we have to do. And then we ended up doing three more pop-ups.

build an outdoor bar at one of the locations. And I was like, all right, so much for nothing new this year. So now we’re trying to start 2026 off with the same idea of nothing new and just really ⁓ pay attention to what we got going on and how we can make them better. ⁓ If there anything that’s going stale, what can we do? ⁓

you know, working on our really our marketing, you know, marketing is so different nowadays with, social media where, you know, for years and years, there’s always newspaper and radio and, magazines. And now it’s just all social media. And listen, I’m in my fifties. I don’t, I, I’m barely could know how to use Instagram right now. You know, so it’s really just learning how to adapt to the way of new marketing and advertising. So we really want to.

bang that down this year and focus on learning and what can we do to help our businesses on that aspect.

Anthony Codispoti (41:18)
So I’ve never met your owner. don’t know his or her name, but I know your owner. They’re an entrepreneur and they have trouble sitting on their hands and not creating something new. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah.

Dana (41:29)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I

know he won’t stop. ⁓ And it’s just funny because I always, I’m the one that could tell him no. So I’m always like, no, I’m gonna do this. ⁓ But I mean, if he finds a location and we come up with a concept, we’ll do it. He’s not gonna hold back, but we’re definitely, you know, trying to really focus on what we have at the moment and make them better.

Anthony Codispoti (41:37)
And he listens.

And so as you look in 2026, a big initiative that you have is really figuring out through the social media, this new way of marketing. What was a big initiative that you guys tackled in this past year in 2025?

Dana (42:06)
⁓ Again, adjusting to the new ⁓ trends, new behavior patterns, what we learned, the drinking behaviors have changed. ⁓ Well, everybody is basically doing gummies and smoking vapes and not drinking. So that’s a huge change in the atmosphere, right? People are not going out and drinking like they used to. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (42:17)
How so?

Dana (42:35)
you know, because they’re all, again, they’re just gummies and vaping. So you have to adapt to that. ⁓ And so we’re just figuring out, you know, what we learned is…

Drinking hours have changed in people’s lives again since the pandemic where you had to be in early. And that’s the whole state, like that didn’t change a lot. Bars in Philadelphia close at 2 a.m. but people are going home by 1 a.m. People are not closing the bars as much anymore and staying out that late. Starting earlier and heading home earlier is the new pattern. And I remember in 90s, 2000s,

We weren’t going out till 11 PM at night, you know? And, now, so now, you know, you focus on the earlier times and the happy hours and, and, you know, so it’s, it’s really figuring out what the new trends are and drinking. You know, we noticed, craft beer has dwindled a lot, you know, craft beer went through a very huge phase for.

five, eight, 10 years, and now everybody’s just drinking RTDs, which are ready to drink cans that are, you know, your vodka and clubs in a can, your seltzers, your vodka iced teas, everything’s in the cans. Huge right now is when everybody’s drinking.

Anthony Codispoti (43:55)
Is it people’s

flavors? Like tastes have changed? Is it a perceived like health improvement? What’s behind it, do you think? Okay.

Dana (44:02)
Yeah, I think it’s a little of all that. The

taste of change, ⁓ everyone’s on the healthier kick. Let me have vodka club because there’s no calories. that, again, it’s all the different trends and behaviors. So you’re just constantly adjusting to that. And then you have dry January. So now we’re working on all our locations having a special menu of mocktails and things because

You gotta stay with that trend next month or your sales are gonna be down. Yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (44:35)
Can you guys

do anything like in the adaptogen space with these mocktails? Like, I’m making stuff up here, because I don’t know what you would put in them, like ashwagandha or like other sort of things.

Dana (44:47)
Yeah, oh

yeah, it’s just, it’s all crazy curated cocktails without alcohol. Or now there’s non-alcohol alcohol, like vodka, there’s non-alcoholic vacas out there and non-alcoholic wines. So you’re taking vodka and gins that are non-alcoholic and making them in the mocktails. It’s a little bit of a trend now going on here, so.

Anthony Codispoti (45:11)
keeping you on your toes. So let’s shift gears, Dana. I would like to hear about a big serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life. ⁓ How you got through that and what did you learn?

Dana (45:13)
Yeah.

Well, you know, I was thinking about, ⁓ a lot of it, I kind of brought it up earlier with my move to Vegas, you know, ⁓ it’s always kind of been a challenge. It’s a special lifestyle being in the business and, know, nights and weekends and the hours that you work being a bartender and a manager and, and, ⁓ it’s not for everybody. So then that does take a, ⁓

it’s challenging on having a personal life, right? So it’s hard to meet someone. It’s hard to have a family. And so I think, you know, at the time I decided to move to Vegas is because all my friends were getting married. All my friends were having babies. And I just wasn’t in that part of my life. So I was like, I’m just going to pick up and move across the country and make money, you know? And then, um,

I always felt that’s been challenging to me for very long time, just being in the business and working those hours because I couldn’t go to parties. I couldn’t do a lot of holidays. I was always work, work, work. And I always work weekends. So I was not being able to socialize, you know, and then it’s always just being with the people that you work with. But once you get in management, it’s like, well, I’m not, I can’t hang out with my staff.

Anthony Codispoti (46:46)
Bye.

Dana (46:46)
I can’t drink

to my staff. can’t date my staff. Like this is things that you’re not supposed to do. So then it got even more challenging to actually have a life and a social life. Getting in the management, you know, it got a little easier, but now I’m extremely fortunate for the position that I’m in because I do not work nights and weekends and I can actually go out and have life and, and

to be with the family and things like that and date. And so I’m doing that now. so I think, you know, I, and I’m in my fifties. So I think I always struggle with ⁓ why am I so like.

Why can’t I meet someone? Why am I not dating? What is wrong? Like, so on a personal level, was just, you know, that lonely side of it. I have a million friends. I still did a lot of social things, but now I can really do it. And life has been energetic and exciting because I’m able, finally in a position that I can do that, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (47:50)
As you look back on those earlier years, Dana, do you have any regrets? Was there anything that you would have done differently with hindsight?

Dana (47:59)
You know, I actually don’t because I love what I do. ⁓ I’ve been able to live the life that I wanted to, the lifestyle I wanted to, you know, like ⁓ being a single woman, I was able to buy it.

I have a couple of houses, I have a shore house I have. I was able to support myself, be very independent, and it’s all because of the work that I do. And again, just bartending and living the lifestyle. I like a good bottle of wine, I like to go to a good dinner, and I worked very hard to have all this, and so I don’t regret that. I mean, back in the day, missing some holidays with family and stuff was always rough.

you know, but again, I’m in a position now that I get to spend.

all the time with my family and my friends. so, I don’t really regret because I’m where I wanna be. again, I love what I do and I love being in this job and it’s not for everybody. And I just feel like that I’ve been doing it for a long time. can’t imagine doing anything else. Like I’ll be 80 years old bartending at the diner or something. And it’s a social aspect.

met so many people and made so many connections and it’s been fun. It’s just a fun job.

Anthony Codispoti (49:28)
Any advice you would give for folks who are where you were and sort of struggling with that, I love what I’m doing here, but I feel like I’m missing out on some of those social aspects because when everybody else is having the parties and the holidays and whatever, that’s the time that’s busiest at the bars and the restaurants and that’s where I gotta be.

Dana (49:48)
What I found is, you know, if it’s that important, make time for it. So like, you have to, if you’re in the position where someone can cover for you for that one night so you could go to that wedding, go to that wedding. You know, don’t miss the important things with family and life, you know, because you’re not going to get them back. And ⁓ I feel, again, I’ve been fortunate for years now I’ve been able to, to

do that, but you know, when you’re in your twenties, you don’t think about it. You don’t care. You’re like, I don’t care. I’m missing Christmas. I’m going to go make tons of money at the bar Christmas night. And you don’t like real, you don’t think about it. ⁓ it’s not as important to you, you know, but just if, if it’s something really important, don’t miss out on it. Find someone to cover your shift and, do it.

You know, and I always encourage my staff, as long as it’s covered and we’re good, take off what you have to. You know, my managers, if you need off, let’s get it covered and go do what you have to do. Family’s more important, so.

Anthony Codispoti (50:56)
Dana, what’s your superpower?

Dana (51:02)
I don’t sit still. Like I am very energetic in the sense and I don’t drink coffee and I don’t do drugs. So everyone just says not understand where I get this energy that I could be out all day, all night work. Every day I’m doing something. If it’s going to a football game, a basketball game, a concert or out to dinner, it’s just the energy to just…

barely sleep and go out every day. So I think everyone’s always asking me, how do you have this energy to do this? But you only live once, you know? That’s all I feel like. And you have the opportunity to do it, just do it.

Anthony Codispoti (51:42)
You’re like the Energizer Bunny.

Dana (51:45)
Yeah, without the coffee. I do drink a lot of wine though. Wine works.

Anthony Codispoti (51:47)
you

Wine

gives you energy.

Dana (51:54)
Yeah. Well, say, you know, everyone just says, you’re, again, I’m in my fifties and I feel younger. And I was like, well, I drink a lot of wine at preserves.

Anthony Codispoti (52:05)
I like that. ⁓ You know, sometimes when we have when we make a mistake ⁓ in the moment, it can feel like a big setback. But when we look back at it, in hindsight, we have some gratitude for it becomes a you know, a teacher to us. Can you think of a moment like that for you?

A moment that felt like a mistake or a misstep at the time that now you look back at and you’re like, oh, actually kind of glad that happened. That steered me in a different direction or taught me a lesson that ended up being really helpful to me later on.

Dana (52:34)
you

I don’t know. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (52:58)
Nothing comes to mind. Okay, no, that’s fine. We pass it. How about some daily practices or habits, things that help you start your day or keep you on track?

Dana (53:00)
Yeah, sorry. ⁓

Yeah.

⁓ well, you know, a lot of what I do right now is very, ⁓ email based and organized being organized. And I just feel like I wake up every day and right away I just kind of roll over and I’m like, all right, any, any fires I have to put out from the night before, you know, so I don’t even get out of bed and I’m already checking my emails to make sure.

⁓ nothing burnt down the night. ⁓ everyone’s okay. nothing broke, whatever it is. And, know, I kind of start off my day. It’s probably not the best way to start off the day because then I get angry sometimes, you know, like you start off and you’re checking your emails and then you see that one bad review. And I’m like, here we go. So I’m going to start my day with one star review because of this, this, this, and, ⁓ but it’s just.

Anthony Codispoti (53:56)
Ha ha ha.

Dana (54:12)
I’m still writing things down constantly, you know, ⁓ and just to stay organized. ⁓ routines, it’s just routine every day, roll over, check the weather, make sure for my seasonal location. We have to check the weather for all the outdoor locations to see, all right, it’s gonna rain today. You know, it’s all, again, it’s the minute I wake up, it’s work, which is fine, which is fine.

Anthony Codispoti (54:28)
Check the weather, check the email, get angry at the one star reviews.

Yeah, yeah. Well, what’s

something fun that you like to do outside of work we haven’t already talked about?

Dana (54:44)
Well,

like I said, I’m a huge sports fan, huge Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers. But I’m a huge Eagles fan. I’m very fortunate. I live right next door to the stadium. So the tailgate party’s at my house and everyone comes over and then we just walk over to the stadium for game time. I travel to a lot of away games. So…

Anthony Codispoti (54:49)
So eagles.

It’s fun.

Dana (55:13)
I love to travel and I use ⁓ sports as a reason to go visit a city. So wherever the Eagles are playing, we’ll fly there to go to the game, but then experience the city. ⁓ kind of, I do use these Eagles as an excuse. We just went to LA last week for the game and ⁓ my goal is to go to every football stadium and I have three left. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (55:40)
Or which are they?

Dana (55:42)
Three being both the Ohios, so Cleveland and Cincinnati, and Buffalo. And we play Buffalo in two weeks and I’m planning on going finally if I don’t have to dig my seat out of the snow. So I’m a little hesitant with snow. Yeah, there you go, right. Yeah, so I mean, so that’s really a lot of my life revolves around traveling.

Anthony Codispoti (55:44)
Come hang out with us.

Okay, which means that you’ve saved the best for last. You’re gonna come to Cleveland and Cincinnati. Come visit me. I love it.

Dana (56:11)
⁓ and football.

Anthony Codispoti (56:13)
Well, Dana, I’ve just got one more question for you today, but before I ask it, I want to do three quick things. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with or learn more about what they’re doing here at FCM, go to FCMHospitality.com. It’s a great launch pad to each of the individual websites for all of their restaurant and bars. You can learn more about what they do, get in touch with them, reach out and ask any questions there.

Also as a reminder, if you want to get more restaurant employees access to benefits that actually carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us at addbackbenefits.com. Finally, if you’ll take just a moment and leave a comment or review on your favorite podcast app, you’ll hold a special place in my heart forever. Thank you very much. So last question for you, Dana, a year from now, you and I reconnect and you are celebrating something big. What’s that big thing you’re celebrating?

one year from today.

Dana (57:13)
Yeah, probably opening another restaurant. Yeah, exactly. Hopefully an Eagle Super Bowl and a, yeah, you know, just another successful year here at FCM. We’re just started going through numbers for the year and ⁓ see, you know,

Anthony Codispoti (57:15)
Even though you said that’s off the table for 26.

Dana (57:38)
what our successes were. We did have a very successful year this year. All the numbers were up at most of the locations. Couple locations were down a little bit. What we can do to hopefully get them back up. We’re really focusing on events. So definitely event driven. We feel like everybody’s looking for experiences now. Like that’s like the culture. And again, more of the guest behavior is people are looking for experiences. It’s not just like going to a bar or restaurant. They want.

to have an experience, have a party, ⁓ focus on something that they can get involved in. ⁓ If it’s like paint night or again, quiz or experiences like that where there’s something for them to do. ⁓ So at our website, all the locations, we have a concept for everyone. business, if you wanna have a business party with a thousand people, we can do it. Or if you wanna have a little

vital shower for 15 people and everything in between. So I’m hoping that, you know, we have another successful year even better than this year.

Anthony Codispoti (58:46)
Awesome. Dana Canellicchio from FCM Hospitality. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Dana (58:57)
it was fun. Thank you for inviting me.

Anthony Codispoti (58:59)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.