Pizza family has delivered for 45 years
AT 70, Sam Burgio isn’t finished with the pizza business just yet. Or perhaps it’s just not finished with him.
El Toro Pizza and Restaurant has been his life.
While he would walk away for the right offer, Mr Burgio knows the value of his business and he’s still happy to be investing in what some of the regulars would call a Geelong institution.
“It’s been fully renovated,” Mr Burgio spruiks with trademark energy.
A thorough paint job and newly tiled floors give the restaurant at the top of the hill in Moorabool St a distinctly fresh feel, and there has been a range of other improvements too: new benchtops, cutlery, glasses and an overdue overhaul of the, er, little rooms.
The new look was celebrated at a function last week to mark the 45th year of Geelong’s Italian restaurant with a Spanish name.
Daughter Claudia Burgio-Ficca said her Sicilian-born father had always been about family.
“He’s a hard worker, a dedicated hard worker,” Ms Burgio-Ficca said. “Probably the best way to describe Dad is, it’s all for family. At the end of the day, what we do is for the love of the family.”
You get the impression the family, including mum Pina, Ms Burgio-Ficca and her sisters, Daniela and Fabia, have shouldered a share of the workload along the way.
Indeed, when their parents head off shortly for a six-week overseas holiday, the three sisters will be maintaining oversight of the business.
The Monday night celebration of almost 45 years of continuous ownership of the business — there has been a few changes over the years — was attended by regular clientele, the tradespeople who worked on the renovations and industry representatives.
Mr Burgio reflected on how technology had ended some of the direct contact he used to enjoy with sales reps and the like.
And he is understandably proud that both he and the business have lasted, particularly as it is locals who keep it going over the colder months.
“I am proud of myself,” Mr Burgio said. “But if someone had told me I would be here for the next 45 years, I’d say. ‘You’re crazy’. My idea was to come here and make a few bucks … but then I saw there’s money to be made here.”