Antipastos di Roma History

The Beginning

Dominic, head of Catering at Antipastos di Roma, has grown up around quality home cooked meals. Raised in a traditional Italian family with 5 men in the house, Dominic’s mother spent much of her time cooking and developing great tasting home cooked recipes for her family. Recognizing the quality of her cooking, Dominic and his siblings would joke for many years about commercializing their mother’s recipes. In 1991, Dominic did just that when he left General Motors to start Antipasto Home Style Cooking at Huntington Square Plaza on Martindale Road.

Nat, head of Administration at Antipastos, has a long history in the food business. By age 10, Nat was working in his brother’s pizzeria, and continued working there until age 19 when he became an area manager at Jordan Wines. Here, Nat was able to hone his selling skills before opening up Roman Deli Factory Outlet in 1988, a frozen boxed meat store.

By 1993, Nat could see that his business needed to expand into fresh meats, and at that point Sergio joined the business to form Roma Pasta and Fine Meats. Sergio, who is now head of Fresh Meats at Antipastos di Roma, had spent over 30 years as a meat cutter. Sergio started his career in a deli in New York City and then at Meatland in St. Catharines. Sergio brought his long-standing fresh meat expertise to the business. In 1994, Dominic added the prepared foods part of the business, which led to the foundation of Antipastos di Roma.

In 1994, Dominic, Sergio and Nat each brought with them a different background and expertise that each believed was vital to the success of their previous businesses. All 3 owners compliment each other’s individual talents and respect each other’s role and boundaries. Dominic, Sergio and Nat all had critical leadership roles in the start-up and the growth of Antipastos di Roma. Dominic would be the "innovator" by creating new ideas, concepts and products. Although all 3 are innovative in their own way, Dominic would be the main driver of these innovative ideas. Nat would represent the "orchestrator" or the manager by organizing the ideas. For instance, Nat would design the labels for the new products. Finally, Sergio would be considered the "technician" by his extensive experience in fresh meats and his uncanny ability to develop other technical skills needed in the operation of the business. From the beginning, the key to this partnership had been the dedication to their shared vision that all 3 had about the future of the food industry for Antipastos di Roma

The Company

In 1994 Dominic, Nat and Sergio could all see the need for a wider diversity of products and services in their own respective business. Therefore, they saw each other’s expertise as a natural fit in building a strong and diverse food service business. At the time of the merger, they decided to keep both of their existing locations open, but with the new name Antipastos di Roma. Sergio brought fresh meats, Nat brought experience with frozen foods and Dominic specialized in prepared foods. The 3 now had a full range of products and service that included hot and cold luncheons, fresh meats, frozen meats, gift baskets, wholesale, retail and a delivery and catering service.

Through their commitment to high quality, home cooked foods, excellent customer service, and consistency in all aspects of their business, Dominic, Nat and Sergio were able to turn Antipastos di Roma into a destination place for many of their customers. At this point, the businesses growth was not built on strong advertising or marketing, but by word-of-mouth advertising.

Antipastos di Roma also became the first deli in St. Catharines to manufacture fresh pasta. The wholesale part of the business became a key component of Antipastos di Roma, since now sales were going out both the front and back doors. The versatility created by the wholesale business in the kind of innovation and vision that had led to the present success of Antipastos di Roma. Dominic, Nat and Sergio all believe that you must never simply rely on past success, but continually look to improve your niche. The partners always look to have a 5-year action plan in place where they can see where the business is going and how to get there. Part of their current 5-year action plan included a recent move 3 years ago to their new 20,000 square foot location, still in the continually growing Martindale Road are on Hannover Drive. They continue to improve and expand their product line, including offering up to 7 different style pasts sauces. Their newest niche is a focus on being the first manufacturer in southern Ontario to manufacture gluten-free products. Antipastos envision a great future in these products because of a society where more people continue to develop allergies to products made of wheat.

With the visions of always having a 5-year action plan in place, Dominic, Nat and Sergio are already thinking about the future. With the move to their new location, they specially designed their facilities with a loading dock to support mass production and distribution of their products coast to coast. Their plans are to provide the same quality home cooked products to a wholesale and retail marker across Canada. This will be a huge leap from the small deli and meat shop that they ran less than 10 years ago.