Last updated: 6:54 am
October 12, 2008
Posted: 4:23 am
October 12, 2008
Paul DiAgostino and Gino Vitali bought a 50-year-old Brooklyn pizzeria earlier this year and decided to breathe some new life into the Carroll Gardens landmark by plowing several hundred thousand dollars in renovations into the Union Street store.
Gallery: Times Are Tough All Over
Then they waited for construction to end on their House of Pizza and Calzone.
On Sept. 29, they threw open the doors on their new business - just in time for the Dow Jones industrial average to fall 777 points, or 7 percent. It was the first day of a stock-market crash that has wiped $2.5 trillion of wealth off the map.
To make matters worse, the price of mozzarella, flour and other ingredients have risen 30 percent.
"The bottom line is that we have to absorb these exorbitant cost increases," DiAgostino said last week "I can't pass it on to my customers. You can't charge people $6 for a slice of pizza."
Like most New Yorkers, DiAgostino, 41, and Vitali, 36, are frightened by the rapid decline in the stock markets and are concerned about their futures - but are not taking these troubles lying down.
The decided they would open the eatery earlier and close it later - while attacking their rising cost structure by switching to bulk purchases of ingredients.
It has to work; the partners can't return to the well for more financing.
"Money isn't readily available anymore and the banks aren't lending now" says DiAgostino.
While times will be tough for the foreseeable future, the duo have no plans to lay off staff.
"They all have been with me from day one and they have families" says DiAgostino.
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