The Arancini Snack Story
“Seeing people enjoy what I prepare has always drawn my attention.” – Paolo
Paolo has always been around kitchens since his early years in Sicily Italy, enjoying family traditions, such as the culinary arts on the weekends and continuously helping his mother and grandmother with the cooking for large family reunions.
His experience working and managing restaurants started when his dad bought an Italian Coffee Shop, taking responsibility for running it when his dad left to Venezuela, learning how to do all kinds of dishes including desserts and other managing activities to run a successful restaurant.
At this point his father nicknamed him the magician of the kitchen, the magician of the Italian Coffee Shop. Which he felt proud of. Soon after they moved to Venezuela with his father, who had built a prosperous business, to work with him. Shortly after his dad passed away, just a year and a half after they all moved to Venezuela. But Paolo was determined to take his father’s business to a whole new level, and grew it successfully to many main airports in Venezuela.
The condition of the country of Venezuela was bad, and it was only getting worse. Struggles started happening with Paolo’s business because of the condition of the country and the government, so the government started to slowly take away each of Paolo’s location from him, one by one until the last one.
With all this happening, Paolo decided to present his flavorful dishes to important audiences for feedback, to determine if his dishes could be a success in Venezuela. Astonished with the feedback success, Paolo launched the first Restaurant location in an airport of Venezuela. It wasn’t easy, but he embraced his love for cooking and his spirit for succeeding, pleasing the venezuelan palate with his italian cooking expertise.
His food creations were very well received by the locals and travelers at the airport, as a new and different experience people were not used to. So much was his success that he opened a second location in the same airport and a third one not far from there.
Investors started approaching Paolo wanting to partner up with him to open up more locations around Venezuela as franchises, but unfortunately Paolo had to decline all of them as the condition of the country was only getting worse, with more scarcity and becoming more dangerous. It got so bad, to the point where there were no providers anymore, and the only way to get raw material to cook was with cash going around the city finding what you need. Which is a very dangerous activity in a city like this.
Paolo kept hopes for better times for Venezuela, but the country only got worse.
So he decided that in order to grow he needed to leave Venezuela, so he chose the United States as the place to grow and make his dreams come true.
With that decision came a long series of challenges for him overcome.
It was a hard and long process to get approved to bring his business into the US. Where he had to prove he was successfully running his 3 locations with more than 40 employees, and had to demonstrate it was a prosperous business. This approval process took around 6 months.
While in the process of approval, Paolo was excited for his new journey in Utah with his family, so he signed a contract to rent a space in the Fashion Place Mall, got a house and a car. But what happened after became his biggest challenge yet… As he went to Venezuela to bring his family, he got denied his entrance to the US. And was only going to be able to enter when his permit for the business was approved. Having to return with his family to Venezuela with no business at hand there, and big financial obligations in Utah, was a hard hit he had to endure.
Months struggling to pay obligations in Utah, while still in Venezuela was a hard and painful challenge, worsening his financial condition to say the least, when after 6 months his permit was finally approved by the US. And so he was able to fly to Utah with his family to start his business.
After enduring this hard financial hit and finally putting his business in Utah, there was no more budget for marketing his new venture in this new Country. He started as fast as he could, keeping his quality and uniqueness intact, and it was not long before people started to come back, and talking about Arancini Snack. The word started to get around, and more and more people came to eat and support his business. With all the financial hits he had to endure, and high monthly payment at the mall, Paolo was forced to close this location.
Paolo believes the United States is a great country, he believes it is full of opportunities, and wants to succeed in the restaurant industry. It is an adventure, it is a challenge, and he belongs in the big leagues.
With his Italian Food Truck approach, he is bringing to Utah the traditional Sicilian Street Food Experience! Where he hopes you can enjoy it with friends and family through yummy dishes of Arancini Snack.
