Martina graduated in law, but was always keen about graphic design and digital marketing. After working in a bank and in several law firms, she decided to follow her interests more closely and started working at “Miscusi”, a true institution for pasta enthusiasts. She is currently a Project Manager in the Marketing department.
“Miscusi” was founded in 2017 and now has 5 restaurants in Milan, 2 in Turin, and one in each of Bergamo, Pavia, Verona and Florence.
What is the mission of “Miscusi”?
Since 2017, our goal has been to unite people through fresh home-made pasta made by our “mamma and papà pastai”. Our restaurants’ offering is highly customizable: you pick the pasta and the sauce out of a selected variety. We aim to integrate everyone into our “Miscusi Family” by creating a cosy and warm environment (at the entrance the welcome mat says “welcome home”).
The Mediterranean diet is definitely one of the key points of our mission, we aim at making people happy by spreading the Mediterranean lifestyle. In fact, UNESCO has officially designated it as part of our world heritage. Indeed, our products aim not only at being delicious, but also at being sustainable and at having a positive impact on the environment. Therefore, we constantly try to innovate our menu by doing research on new innovative recipes such as “lentils paccheri” or spaghetti made out of zucchini.
What are Miscusi’s strengths?
The communication strategies we have been using so far were pivotal for our success. In fact, we opened our social media accounts before the opening of our first restaurant to begin trialling our storytelling and to generate word-of-mouth hype. Moreover, we approach our customers with an original and captivating style through social media in particular, creating engagement by encouraging them to try new exciting pastas. Eating at “Miscusi” means enjoying a forkful of pasta with friends while drinking “vino della casa” and having some grandma’s dessert before going back home.
Who eats at “Miscusi”?
We certainly have a young clientele but we are accessible to everyone, for various occasions, from a business lunch to a romantic dinner with your partner, as pasta suits every kind of event! Food has a strong power to connect people and the conviviality that it creates pushed us to place large tables in our restaurants to encourage people (even strangers!) to interact.
What was the impact of Covid-19 on “Miscusi”?
At the beginning of Covid-19, we decided to temporarily close our restaurants, even before the government told us to do it, as we wanted to protect both our staff and customers. However, as we wanted to ensure that our customers had a good forkful of pasta even during the lockdown, we created an e-commerce platform where we sold pasta, sauces and desserts. This turned out to be a way to test a new kind of business, rethinking the hospitality business itself. After the lock-down, we opened two “Miscusi bottega” in Milan, a neighbourhood delicatessen shop where you can treat yourself with fresh home-made pasta and niche products form artisanal producers such as “filetti di tonno”, “nduja” and wine.
How does sustainability play a role in “Miscusi” strategy?
A year ago, we started working on a very interesting project: the “Miscusi farm”. We asked ourselves: how would we feed 10 million people in the next thirty years without exploiting our planet? The answer that came to our mind was once again the Mediterranean diet and its emphasis on pasta, cereals, fruits, vegetables and wine. Our goal is to eventually manage the entire production chain from farm to table, to ultimately produce organic and local raw materials. “Miscusi Farm” will be not only be a centre for research and production of new innovative and sustainable recipes, but also a place to train our employees.
We aim at becoming a hub for sustainability and innovation, and in the future we will be open to the public as well, to ensure our customers can come visit us to enjoy a forkful of pasta and exchange “sustainable” ideas!