Christian Cocco was just 23 when he decided to open an Italian coffee shop and deli in Kitsilano – the Epicurean Caffe Bistro.
He concedes that’s pretty young for anyone to start their own business, especially a café in a city like Vancouver, where there is a coffee shop on nearly very corner.
But he had a few things going for him: he had a degree in hotel management and he was born in Rome, so he knows what constitutes authentic Italian food and coffee.
He also had two very trustworthy investors: Mom and Dad.
“It was a good opportunity for me to become an entrepreneur at a young age with the support of my parents,” the 41-year-old entrepreneur said during an interview in the small, busy Italian café and deli that he and his parents run at the corner of Cypress Street and West First Avenue.
Dario and Renata Cocco put up the $50,000 needed to start the business. Seventeen years later, the café is still in the same location.
“At that time [of opening] we only had three tables and six chairs,” Christian said. “Now we have 15 tables and 30 chairs indoors and about another dozen outdoors.”
When it first opened in 1993, the focus was on the coffee shop and grocery. But the Coccos eventually realized that there was a bigger demand for Renata’s Italian home cooking than the Italian breads, cheeses and pastas they had been selling, and converted the grocery into a restaurant.
At first, the Coccos found themselves stepping on each others’ toes.
“In the beginning we were arguing more because everybody was doing everything,” Renata said.
Eventually the division of labour sorted itself out, though. Renata is in charge of the menu and kitchen, which has two cooks, while Dario handles the café’s administration in the office above the restaurant. Christian does a bit of everything.
Christian was 10 years old when his family came to Canada from Rome, first to Ottawa, then to Montreal and, finally, to Vancouver in 1986.
Dario worked for Iberia Airlines, and his job was to open offices in Canada. Renata had run clothing boutiques in Rome, so she also had experience running a business.
Dario was nearing retirement from his job with the airline when Christian graduated with a degree in hotel management, so he and his wife decided to help launch their son’s business career by helping him open his own business.
An Italian coffee shop and grocery was an obvious choice for a business, said Renata.
“My husband and I were always looking for some place with good [Italian] food, good coffee and good atmosphere,” she said. “I couldn’t find it.”
Today, the restaurant features hearty Italian entrees and delicacies – like monster veal meatballs, feta-stuffed jalepeno peppers in olive oil, and grilled eggplant – and desserts, including biscotti and tiramisu.
More than one family has been torn apart due to disagreements within the business, Christian said, so it is a good idea for any family that plans to go into business together to have a clear idea of what each person’s role will be.
“Certainly put it on paper,” he said. “If a family is about to tackle this, they should have an understanding about the roles.”
Epicurean Caffe is incorporated, with Christian owning one-third of the business and his parents owning the other two-thirds.
The Coccos say they have been spared the kind of family feuding that can ruin businesses and tear families apart. Not that they don’t have disagreements.
“In a way, there’s definitely a lot of cooks in the kitchen – and not just the kitchen,” Christian said.
Like many Italian families, when there is a disagreement, it gets loud, he said.
But it never gets nasty, and unlike some work places, disagreements don’t result in festering grudges or power struggles.
“At the end of the day, we are family and there’s no hard feelings,” Christian said. “It’s just a very passionate argument that we have.”
Dario adds that, unlike the industry he spent so many years in, there is no competition among family members.
“We don’t fight with each other to steal position from each other,” he said.
One distinct advantage of having parents as business partners is that Christian said he never has to worry about his business partners.
“There is a trust-factor level with having your parents as partners,” he said.
Asked what he will do when his parents retire, he said he hasn’t given it much thought. Renata said she isn’t even thinking of retiring yet.
“It will happen one day but I don’t want to think about it,” she said. •[email protected]