Gaetano’s Newsletter Origins

Pictures from 2024 International Pizza Expo

By: Vince

At the end of March, Teg (our GM at Piccini) and I were able to go to the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.  Seminars, pizza tastings, oven experimentation and 15,000 steps later we conquered the expo.  I could write a whole article on the pizza expo, but I’ll save that for another day. While we were there, I was fortunate to meet the man that inspired us to start the newsletter back in 2008. 

We have been using Stanislaus canned tomatoes for our marinara sauce since we opened our doors.  It is the best canned tomato money can buy.  Tomatoes at their peak ripeness are picked from the vine, then immediately canned and packaged.  For over 80 years, Stanislaus has been owned by the Cortopassi family.  They mail out a yearly ceramic plaque with an Italian phrase on it, their reps call us often just to see how everything is going, and most importantly, they mail a monthly newsletter.  This newsletter is what inspired us to start writing our own at Gaetano’s.

Fast forward to the Pizza show last month.  Stanislaus had an amazing booth featuring their fresh tomato products on pizza and pasta.  They also were serving water!  The only booth to serve water, which made them by far the most popular booth.  Genius.  Anyways, the editor and Stanislaus owner, Tom Cortapassi, was there.  I introduced myself and told him how much I enjoy the newsletter and how it gave me inspiration to start our own newsletter.  He was thrilled to hear because he admitted how much time and effort it took.  Not to write, necessarily, but to think of content.  I empathized with him. We spoke for another minute on the future of their canned tomato products and then we moved on.  Even though I had never met him, I felt as though I had known him for 20 years. His newsletter has brought me (his customer) closer to his family and business, which is also our goal for your experience with the Gaetano’s newsletter.  We hope it brings you closer to our Gaetano’s Restaurant family. 

All the best…Vince Giuliano