Community Highlights: Meet Breno Donatti of Winfield Street Coffee
Today we’d like to introduce you to Breno Donatti.
Hi Breno, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I immigrated to the US when I was 18 and got a job washing dishes at a legendary pizza joint in Greenwich CT. The owner’s brother owned this empty mansion nearby and he let me sleep there – just me and a mattress in this giant house. I worked from 9 am to 11 pm every day anyways, so I didn’t need much. After a couple of weeks of that, this Brazilian waitress let me crash on her couch and that is where I stayed for a few months.
The job and the restaurant business fascinated me. I didn’t know any English, but the guys at the pizza joint all spoke Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, so it was easy to communicate. I took the bus in the morning and the pizzaman gave me a ride after closing at night. I worked from sunup to sundown and couldn’t get enough of it. I fell in love with the American culture, I found a family within my pizza family – we took care of each other, we had Bialetti coffee every morning, we took our lunch together at 3 pm, and the place was so busy that the sleep just felt better after a busy dinner rush. I learned to prep chicken, meatballs, sauce, and pizza dough and graduated to prep cook. Then I learned to cook pasta, chicken parmigiana, and lasagna, and I graduated again to Sautee cooking.
The chef was from the island of Ponza in Italy, and he was this adorable hairy short, and stalky Italian. He was beloved in the community. He was already leaf-blowing the parking lot when I arrived in the morning, and he left after we are all done at night. The owners were a great family. I had Thanksgiving and Christmas at their house.
Watching these hard-working immigrants, both the owners and staff, shaped my work ethic and who I am today. We, as a team, truly wanted to give it all to this pizza joint and its customers. One of my fondest memories, which still comes to my mind every time I am frustrated with unfinished work, is of the owner telling me to go home “It is ok, Breno, tomorrow is a brand-new day”. That image helps me get at ease when I am overwhelmed and think I am not able.
I also learned to make salads, I learned to make pizza, learned to answer the phone, learned to work the quadruple pizza oven – my favorite job in the whole world and one that I still carry scars from. Then I graduated as an assistant pizza maker and finally, I was able to even work in the most coveted of all the roles, the pizza maker. Only very few were allowed to work that station and it took a long time to get there. For most of the really busy nights, the owners were the ones at that station. The assistant pizza maker stretched the dough. The pizza maker was the one who put sauce, toppings, and cheese on it and placed it in the oven.
The dishwasher was always replenishing that station and removing dirty containers. No doubt I enjoyed being a pizza maker, in the few shifts that I was allowed to, but I had the most fun handling the oven. Once the pizza maker placed the pizza on the stone, the oven guy was the one in charge to make sure that baby was cooked to perfection. You see, you need to turn each pie around, but you need to put it back in the exact same spot that the pie was before it got turned.
If you don’t place it in the exact same spot, any part of the dough that touches the “new” untouched stone will burn. On busy nights and with a fast pizza maker, you can have upwards of 24 pies at the same time to watch over. It is no joke. About six minutes is how long it takes to cook a pie in a 600-degree gas-fueled oven. You are never stopping. Your arms will touch those doors oven and your skin will burn, but the adrenaline of the rush doesn’t let you feel it until after the nightly shower. I was a damn good oven guy. I was fast. I was careful.
I cut the pizzas to precision. You need to be violent, precise, and confident when you’re slicing the pizza. If you eat pizza out, you probably have been a victim of a less than confident oven guy. You know when those slices come half cut and you have to separate them yourself? Or when the slices come all uneven and unproportioned. Or when that pie is wimpy and partially burn because the oven guy didn’t cook it to perfection or didn’t place the pizza in the right spot.
Anyways, Winfield wasn’t yet a thought back then, but I certainly already knew, as I was washing a pile of dishes at this hole-in-the-wall bewildering pizza joint, that counted as regulars Brendan Frasier, Anthony Hopkins, and multiple other actors and CEOs, that I was going to own my own food business in this country.
I went to community college, I took reading and pronunciation classes, I transferred to a business college, I worked multiple jobs in the industry, I opened a gelato shop, I ran a beach burger shack, I ran a wine bar, I worked for a food network star, I managed a fancy boutique hotel, I maitre’d for a famous local chef’s new oyster restaurant, I opened my own farm to table restaurant, I ran a small pizza chain, I worked as a barista… and then after 5 years married my wife got pregnant and I knew the experimentation timing was up.
I had worked enough, saved enough, learned enough, failed enough… well, it turns out I hadn’t failed or learned enough yet, but I thought it was time to strike on my own. I had a bit of saving from my work and my wife’s work, some open credit card lines, and some severance pay from the boutique hotel. They had fired me after I told the owner’s mistress to stop harassing my bartenders… go figure… it was the final kick in the butt moment I needed to get my brand started for good. My wife was 8 months pregnant and I needed to get my shit together.
I searched for a good second-generation concept that I could pour my heart into. I had decided I would like to not start from scratch but instead identify a business that needed a new owner.
Winfield Delicatessen was there… in its fourth owner since 1925, the current operator had had enough of the business and wanted to sell it. This neighborhood deli was nested in East Norwalk, on Winfield Street, and was very low key, but with a steady stream of regular customers and a great reputation… perfect for an ambitious young new father that wanted to spend evenings with the young family. It needed a fresh coat of paint, some love, and affection, but the bones were good and it allowed me an income to support my family. It was September 13, 2015, 33 days after my wife gave birth to my first son, that I sold my first subs at the original Winfield Street Deli.
About six months after I took over Winfield Deli, an operator of a nearby coffee shop at the Westport train station reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to take over his business. It had great early morning traffic and I could make breakfast sandwiches at the deli and bring them over two miles down the road to the coffee shop. I thought if I was going to serve coffee, I needed to learn and focus on it. I researched the best international and national coffee roasters and settled on Counter Culture Coffee for their focus on their coffee shop partners through training, maintenance support, and quality.
On February 1st, 2016, the historic Norwalk hole in the wall known as Winfield Deli transitioned to Winfield Street Coffee. Later that year, I decided to expand again and I took over the also legendary Art’s Delicatessen in Westport, near the bridge, after the operator at the time couldn’t run it anymore because of a drug problem. November 4th, 2016, a little over a year after starting Winfield, we were opening our third location. It was a wild time.
During this time, we also started operating a food concession for a country club, a cafeteria for a senior house, and a coffee kiosk in a professional building, and that really expanded the net that we covered. To this day, we have different contracts in different settings, that allow us to weather difficult seasons and the ups and downs of the market. Our business diversity certainly helped us through COVID as part of the business like the long-term contracts and drop-off catering supported the stores that had to close.
On December 2, 2017, we opened our fourth location at Croton-On-Hudson, with a limited coffee and grab-go style breakfast. This location was incredible from the start as it was seeing almost 500 customers by 9 am on a daily basis. Being the only food option in a busy train station worked out well for us.
With four locations and multiple concession contracts, I started to do some soul search seeking an identity for our brand. I prayed incessantly for God to show me the correct next step and for this business to flourish the way He intended it to be. I started designing my ideal concept. I designed a menu. I collaborated with a brand firm to come up with our logos, taglines, and merch. I collaborated with an architect and a contractor to draw the equipment setup and the vibe of the place. I wrote a business plan and sought a loan from local banks. I spoke for many days on end with many business mentors and friends in the industry. And then I prayed that God would show me a location.
And it finally came. One of my mentors got wind that the Starbucks in Stamford downtown was going to close down because the landlord didn’t want to renew the lease with them. The local library owned the building and they were looking for a local operator to work hand in hand with them and stir public interest in the services they provided. It was a special place for me. One of my first jobs in the United States happened to be across the street in a local coffee shop/wine bar.
I also happened to have met my wife at the steps of that Starbucks location almost ten years prior while working at that coffee shop/wine bar. I knew this location was the one destined to be our flagship and the ultimate result of the many years of work and efforts. It was a perfect location, with indoor and outdoor seating, lots of walking traffic in a bustling downtown, and very little competition. I lived a few blocks away, took my son to that library, and had many ties with the local community. I submitted a bid and we won.
Winfield Street Coffee, in Stamford, our flagship location, opened for business on October 20, 2019, with astounding success. I am so proud of it and now I can point to it as a model for any future openings. During the construction of our Stamford store, we also lost the lease to our first two stores (East Norwalk and Westport train station) and that was a huge blow to our company, but I learned to negotiate more airtight lease agreements after that.
After having weathered COVID during 2020, we have emerged stronger than ever and now we have our Westport location, our Croton-On-Hudson location, our Stamford flagship, Trumbull and Wilton concessions, our Coffee Trailer, and are currently in the process of opening three locations in NYC, one in Rye, two in Naples FL, one in Miami, and one in New Haven. At the end of 2022, we will have 12 Winfield Street Coffee units.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The trials never end. They just get less scary. It is not that the trials have diminished themselves, but we actually have grown and evolved to be bigger than the trials we face.
I think Winfield Coffee was born and has grown despite being founded by a third-world immigrant that came to this country with no money or education or English, but a lot of drive and ambition. And I think it will become a huge food brand in this country because of those same things.
My goal is the same as I had when I first realized I wanted to create and own my own food concept: to never stop growing and expanding. Just taking one step at the time, one customer at the time, one hire at the time, one shop at the time, one contract at the time, and one coffee at the time. I will never stop. I will be building this to the day I die.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Winfield Street Coffee?
There is definitely a combination of things that make our customers have a great experience, but the main ingredient is the sincere effort of each staff member to want to go above and beyond for each customer. Customer service is what we do best.
Our mission statement is Winfield Street Coffee was created to be a community gathering coffee place where guests can find a warm smile, excellent coffee, and creative food. The warm smile comes before the excellent coffee and creative food in that sentence and that was on purpose.
We want to make sure we put the customer first. The thing that I look at a person when we are hiring is whether they actually care about what they are doing. I love people that keep me on my toes, that stretches our standard and make us grow. When we have people like that working and a concept behind it, everything else will follow.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Yes, identify people that you want to model and work for them for free. Hustle a referral, and be around their circle, until you get the opportunity to learn from them.
As far as supporters…
My wife is my number one supporter. She always believed in me and gave me confidence. She put her career on hiatus so I could focus on building the Winfield brand. She put her savings into the investment for our first store. Our parents have also always given their unconditional support and constant advice. I am grateful for the people that led me in all of my different jobs, especially the Criscuolo family, who owned the Greenwich pizza joint and gave me my first job in America.
I am grateful for this country and our constitution that allows people like myself to have a shot at creating something. I am grateful for my community college (NCC) and my university (UCONN), where I learned things that opened many doors for me. I am grateful for my staff and our managers, who work hard to keep bringing that mission and that concept to fruition every day.
And I am grateful to my current investors that believed in the brand I described to them and committed to it financially.
Pricing:
Average check $14
Average coffee $5
Average breakfast sandwich $9
Contact Info:
Website: www.winfieldcoffee.com
Instagram: @winfieldstreetcoffee
Facebook: @winfieldstreetcoffee