Slice by slice, Carmine changed the way pizza is served

By Steve Green

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 | 3:18 p.m.

In the old days, Carmine Vento didn't like to associate his name with his Las Vegas pizza shops.

Vento, known for bringing pizza by the slice to Las Vegas in the 1970s with his Villa Pizza chain, was proud of his Italian heritage. But after enduring slurs derogatory to Italian-Americans as a child, Vento wouldn't put his name on his shops.

"I used to shy away from my name, being what it was,'' he said.

"I never liked my name. My name sounded Italian and I didn't like it. You have to understand where I came from. I came here when I was 9 years old and I couldn't speak English. They asked my name and I said 'Carmine' and they laughed at me, calling me (slurs). Kids are the rudest people in the world, they don't know about hurting people.''

That all changed after Vento established himself with the Villa Pizza business, which had grown to 10 shops he owned or licensed by the time he sold the business in 2000 so he could focus on higher-end Italian food restaurants. Since then, Vento has developed seven restaurants in the Las Vegas Valley, all but one using the "Carmine'' brand.

"When it came to what name I would use, I just put it in my head: You say 'Villa Pizza' they say 'Carmine.' You say 'Carmine' they say 'Villa Pizza.'''

Vento owns or licenses his name to the restaurants Carmine's on the Hill, Carmine's Little Italy/Instant Replay, Carmine's Little Italy and Ventano.

His newest restaurant, Carmine's Pizza Kitchen at 4950 S. Rainbow Boulevard at Tropicana Avenue, represents a return to Vento's roots at Villa Pizza. Unlike his big restaurants, it's a small place with counter service where pizza by the slice and a soda can be purchased for prices comparable to eating at a fast-food place. It's due to open in March.

Vento moved to Brooklyn from Italy at age 9 in 1958 and as a teen worked in pizza shops in the New York area. As is common in Northeast cities, pizza was sold by the slice in New York and Vento brought that concept to Las Vegas, where he opened his first shop at the Commercial Center near Maryland Parkway and Sahara Avenue in 1976.

Vento said that at the time, pizza wasn't sold by the slice here and there were plenty of nonbelievers in the concept. But a strike by the Culinary Union a few months after he opened left restaurants in the casinos closed and plenty of casino workers with time on their hands to try his pizza — and the business took off.

The business expanded, he said, not just because of the pizza by the slice concept. He said he brought dough-preparation concepts to Las Vegas that competitors weren't using and used fresh ingredients to make food superior to what chains offered. Just as important were the long hours in the kitchens that he and his wife Annie worked as they developed a rapport with customers.

Vento, whose sons Frank and John run day-to-day operations at his restaurants, says he insists on this hands-on management approach for the restaurants he owns and he advises the business owners licensing his name to do the same thing.

"Be there to watch it. Don't just depend on the cooks, don't depend on the help,'' he said. "We're there all the time watching the food. The biggest factor I tell them (licensees) is they have to be there.''

He also doesn't deliver pizza and other food and advises his licensees — for food quality and liability reasons — to not offer delivery services.

Of the seven restaurants he's now involved with, Vento owns three and licenses his name for the other four.

In a deal that is typical of his business concept, Vento recently invested more than $3.2 million in developing a new restaurant. He then sold the business to the operators for $875,000 — half in cash and half to be paid over a six or seven-year period. Vento will also be the business's landlord, collecting rent along with royalties of 3 percent on restaurant sales. The royalties don't include liquor and gaming revenue, all of which is kept by the operators.

"A lot of it is to put small business owners together, or a private individual who has worked for me, and give them the opportunity to own the business,'' he said. "My job is to train them in our menu, our ingredients, our system. I hand them a key when we get a certificate of occupancy.''

With the economic slowdown and bank loans hard to come by, Vento now plans to focus on developing the Carmine's Pizza Kitchen concept that requires a capital investment of just a quarter-million dollars or so.

And he and his family will be happy to have his name on the door.

"I think it's time to bring Carmine's pizza back into the valley,'' said Frank Vento. "I think Las Vegas is ready for his counter service.''

Steve Green can be reached at 990-7714 or [email protected].