A Decade with Davio’s
Steve DiFillippo, owner of Davio’s
Davio’s has always been a trendsetter. When owner Steve DiFillippo took over the Boston-based Italian restaurant 32 years ago, he sent employees in tuxedos with Davio’s pizza to neighboring businesses on Newbury Street to promote the restaurant.
Davio’s is one of a few restaurants to make their popular menu items available nationwide. In 2007, DiFillippo launched the restaurant’s Philly Cheese Steak Spring Roll as a retail product. It’s now available in 5,000 stores and 40 states. He makes regular appearances on the QVC network, selling the spring rolls, along with Davio’s stuffed salmon fillets and meatballs.
And in 2008 when Davio’s — which now has nine locations across the United States — found that their paper-based system for managing events was not optimal for their growing restaurant group, they jumped at the chance to use Tripleseat, an innovative new web-based online event management platform. Davio’s was one of Tripleseat’s first customers.
We sat down with DiFillippo to take a look back and find out what’s next for Davio’s.
Why did you choose Tripleseat as a software platform? What were you using before?
We chose Tripleseat to enhance what we were doing in our sales departments. We had always used a paper system with binders and wall calendars before introducing Tripleseat for online management. Tripleseat seemed like a great option with its web-based system and ease-of-use for guest communication along with 24/7 accessibility for our team.
How integral is Tripleseat to your daily event operation?
Tripleseat is a major part of what we do on a daily basis. From task reminders for our sales team to follow up with leads and finishing details, to allowing our chefs and managers to check the calendar to better manage their schedules and ordering, there are so many aspects that are helpful to operations.
How many Davio’s properties are using Tripleseat around the country?
All nine of our Davio’s locations use Tripleseat, and with our West Coast location scheduled to open this summer, we will be adding a 10th location.
Are there any future plans for Davio’s that you can share with us?
We are always coming upon new projects and ventures. This summer, we’ll open Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse in Irvine, Calif. Selling products on QVC has become a great success and my new book will be coming out soon!
Want more information on Tripleseat customers?
Check out our blog posts on our customers, and learn their best practices for running successful venues and event management programs.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Tripleseat’s Seated magazine, Spring 2018 issue.