PastaBella II leads a dual existence
At PastaBella I the pastaonly menu leads to relatively low food costs of 23 percent to 25 percent, Zisman said; the deli format keeps labor costs to about 23 percent of sales.The PastaBella I and II arangement can work in other markets, Zisman believes. Both units are "very profitable' at the unit level, Zisman said, but the commissary, which was designed to support up to 12 delis, is putting him in the red. He said he is looking for outside investors to help fund expansion and buy out his silent partner.A deli during the day, it transforms into a restaurant at nightDespite thick carpeting, the back half of the restaurant, with its wire mesh bucket seats, chrome trim, mirrors, and raised wall art, has a harder-edged ambience. The black and gray paint scheme intensifies that feeling.A 1,200-square-foot operation, PastaBella I brought in about $600,000 last year through the sale of cold and warm pasta dishes, pastries, coffee drinks, imported wines and beers, boxed lunches, and groceries ranging from pancetta (Italian bacon) to dried porcini mushrooms."Many restaurants serve six ounces to eight ounces of steak for twelve to sixteen dollars; what we do is give three to four ounces of steak, leveraged with a good pasta, and charge half the price,' Zisman said of his food philosphy.Zisman said the synergistic system he began work on four years ago will be complete when he opens several more deli-retail outlets like his PastaBella I at the Embarcadero Center.Vision loss, they note, is not a direct result of the personalitytraits observed in some patients. The traits tend to stoke up daily tensions, emotional distress and physiological arousal. "These in turn may set in motion retinal vascular and blood pressure changes that predispose the individual to central serous chorioretinopathy," propose Gelber and Schatz.Chronic high blood pressure or blood pressure jumps duringsuccessive incidents of stress may weaken capillaries near the retina and increase the likelihood of developing central serous chorioretinopathy, suggest the researchers.The sound of his Israeli accent makes it clear that he was not born to sell Italian food, but that apparently has not proved a handicap. Both of his restaurants have been reviewed favorably in the consumer press on several occasions, and the pasta they put out has been voted the best in the city by readers of a local magazine.The two of them invested about $250,000 in PastaBella I, $500,000 in PastaBella II, and $200,000 in the commissary and corporate offices, Zisman said.Fifteen patients experienced recurrences of the eye problemseveral minutes to three days after new psychological disturbances, they add. The disturbances were not as severe, however, as those that had preceded the initial vision loss.Zisman said additional delis would permit him to fully profit from the name recognition and perception of quality created by the showcase Fremont Street restaurant. And, he said, they would help pay the overhead incurred in operating a 7,000-square-foot commissary that supplies both restaurants and about 100 wholesale customers with dozens of different fresh pastas, breads, and pastries.A neon sculpture riding on two beams divides the two areas from on high.It's common knowledge that carrots, as a rich source ofvitamin A, are useful in preventing night blindness. So when night blindness showed up among malnourished individuals, researchers assumed it was because a protein shortage disrupted the transport of vitamin A to the eye from its storage in the liver, says Daniel Bankson, a clinical biochemist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. While a protein shortage will disrupt vitamin A transport, Bankson says, his recent research, done while he was at the Agriculture Department's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, indicates that is not necessarily the primary reason malnutrition affects
night vision.Six desserts are usually on the menu, including Italian bread pudding, $3.25, and various flavors of gelati (Italian ice cream), $2, and up to six daily specials, such as a white chocolate and fresh raspberry tart.Included on the PastaBella II menu are four antipasti, such as roasted red pepers in virgin olive oil and garlic with mozzarella and anchovies, priced $4.95 to 7.95; four salads, $3 to $8.95; two soups, $2.75 to $3.25; and seven pasta salads in appetizer and main course sizes, including red and white seashell pasta, fresh mussels, bay shrimp, and calamari tossed with a lemon, garlic, and olive oil dressing, $3 to $7.45.Though a lack of capital has slowed expansion plans, Zisman said, he is ready to grow and has compiled a training manual and the other systems needed by a larger company.Photo: Pasta Bella creator Tali Zisman in his company's commissary where fresh pasta is made.After 5 p.m., PastaBella II patrons, who earlier might have helped themselves to fresh-baked brioche and coffee at breakfast or a cold angel hair pasta salad at lunch, can return for a grilled duck breast dinner and table service.Rats fed a growth-stunting diet (having only a third to a fifthof their normal protein intake) along with four times the daily requirement for vitamin A suffered night blindness, despite maintaining sufficient levels of vitamin A in the eye. Rats fed a fully balanced diet, but with only enough calories to maintain the size and weight of animals on the protein-deficient diet, suffered even worse night vision--again while maintaining normal eye levels of vitamin A. Bankson says this suggests that a lack of protein and/or energy can also cause night blindness.Among the PastaBella II entrees are seven warm pastas, including spinach and egg ravioli stuffed with ricotta, basil, and lemon and topped with marinara sauce and mascarpone cheese, $6.95 to $9.95; and seven grilled meat, poultry, and fish items, such as fresh whole rainbow trout wrapped in pancetta with bay leaves, $8.95 to $13.95.Alcoholic beverage sales at PastaBella II, where the full-service bar is fronted by 22 stools, contribute 18 percent of sales, Zisman said. Wine and beer sales represent about 8 percent of sales at PastaBella I.He also said the average Pasta Bella II ticket, with beverage, is about $7 at the counter and $12 in the table-service section, where prices are about 20 percent higher. Food costs there run 23 percent to 27 percent of sales, and labor, about 27 percent of sales, he said.The two-year-old chameleonlike restaurant on Fremont Street, near the financial district, does about $1.3 million in annual sales and is part of Tali Zisman's unrealized vision of a broad-based food-service system.Photo: Alicia Orellana, a baker, with loaf cakes prepared at PastaBella II's company commissary.The purpose and appearance of the two sections are somewhat blurred at night when gray cloths are thrown over the tables up front and the lights are dimmed along the line to create an airy but intimate atmosphere. The back half, where table service is available at lunch, becomes the lounge.The floor up front is tiled, and the walls and ceiling are painted in gradually darkening shades of gray; the upholstery used on the banquettes and chairs is red, and so are the two dozen low-hanging lamps.His eye problem was not "all in his had"--he had a disorderknown as central serous chorioretinopathy, in which vision is reduced because of detachment of the retina at the area of most acute vision. Although its causes are unknown, this problem predominantly occurs among men aged 30 to 50 years, and in most cases the retina reattaches and good vision returns after several weeks or months.The 41-year-old carpenter had been, in his own words,"happily married." But then his wife unexpectedly spent the night out, eliciting in him a wave of rage and jealousy fueled by his certainty that she had had an affair. Two days after the traumatic incident, he lost the vision in one eye.
Photo: Customers file past the retail goods display at the original Pasta Bella in the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.
Author: Alan Liddle
