Hailing from the Big Apple, former Katie Belle’s and Tierra Del Sol employee Ralphie Grotto and his mother Rosemarie of Mira Mesa, appeared on an emotional episode of “Restaurant Startup,” which aired Wednesday night on CNBC.
The show began with a competition between two pairs of aspiring restaurant owners who try to persuade hosts Tim Love and Elizabeth Blau in giving them $7,000 dollars to “preview” their restaurants for 36 hours. Ralphie and his partner Chris Salmonese represented their hometown product called I Got Balls and went against another duo under the name Rolz, who specialized in making a variety of rolls.
Ralphie shared a brief history of himself, explaining that after the death of his father, his mother worked two jobs to support the family. Together with his grandparents and mother, the large Italian family started cooking in their garage, making the Sicilian delicacy Arancini, or riceballs.
The riceballs then turned into the concept of I Got Balls, a catering service that sells more than 30 varieties of riceballs and has been a success in the New York and New Jersey area.
After the two teams gave a brief presentation about their restaurant concepts and business expectations, the two hosts saw more potential with Ralphie and Chris’ product line and chose I Got Balls to receive the money to put their restaurant ideas into action.
Ralphie and Rosemarie can be seen in the episode’s highlights featured in the following link: http://www.cnbcprime.com/restaurant-startup/video/inside-late-night-munchies/
Rosemarie made an appearance on the show as she helped out in the kitchen making the dessert and worked as the restaurant’s hostess.
The episode took emotional turns as stress levels went high during the first hours of the restaurant’s start up. However, after a combination of hard work and cooperation, I Got Balls managed to generate impressive results at the “negotiation table.”
After surveying all the diners who ate at I Got Balls, Love reported that 95 percent of the patrons loved the food, which was “one of the highest ratings” the show has received, according to Blau.
It was also reported that 83 percent of the diners said that they would buy Ralphie and Chris’ food product in supermarkets, which projected a huge success if I Got Balls were to become a retail product.
Although the two New York natives came on the show expecting $200,000 with a 15 percent equity, Love offered to help finance the team, but asked for 80 percent of their profit. Blau made the team a co-packing deal wherein they would be connected with expert advisors to help make their riceballs a marketable item in major supermarkets.
As a result, Ralphie turned down Love’s offer and chose Blau’s help. At the end of the show, credits stated that I Got Balls is currently negotiating with the advisors and the riceballs are expected to sell at “Whole Foods, Costco, and other suppliers,” according to the show.
