By Emma Bowen Meyer, For The Herald Bulletin
PENDLETON, Ind. — Rick Kinsey isn’t fazed by comments that restaurants don’t always survive in Falls Park Plaza.
People told him the same thing when he opened his original Daddio’s Italian Café location in Fortville.
And that was 12 years ago.
A steady stream of happy customers has kept his hands in the homemade dough — in fact, around 80 percent of his customers have driven the extra miles to satisfy their cravings since the move.
Higher streams of traffic called Kinsey to Pendleton. Having perfected his style and his food in Fortville, he is ready to serve a larger community sitting near the intersection of several state roads.
“People like to come here because they know the owner is here almost all the time,” he said. “I’m not a big corporation like Olive Garden. I’m not on the beach somewhere letting someone else run the place. If people want a little deviation from the menu, I can do it and I make the atmosphere fun.”
From Daddy’s Place to Daddio’s
Fun greets customers at the door in the form of brightly colored walls with large murals of comical Italian chefs creating dishes and serving plates loaded with pasta. Kinsey’s wife of 25 years, Lisa, is the artist.
Titling the restaurant was the contribution of their two children, who were 5 and 10 years old at the time the original café opened.
Begging to call it “My Daddy’s Place,” the excited kids were appeased with Daddio’s.
Learning the trade at the elbows of true Italians from New York, Kinsey has worked in the restaurant business more than 25 years.
Making homemade dough and using a special sauce from California has steadily kept customers coming through the front door.
“My favorite part is that each day is a little bit different,” he said. “If you have 10 different people in the room, you have 10 different attitudes. I enjoy talking to people and meeting people.”
Striving to make customers happy each day, he noted that Daddio’s has avoided staff turnover. The familiarity of faces contributes to the family atmosphere.
And often, patrons spot him in another store doing some shopping — without his apron. He gets a kick out of watching them try to place him outside his domain.
“Sometimes Lisa will lean over and say: ‘That guy is staring at you,’” he said with a laugh. “I just say: ‘He hasn’t figured it out yet.’”
