Rural Success Stories
Home | View all Success Stories

Facebook, Twitter and tweets keep customer in touch at Trattoria Flippin' Sweet
by Jennifer Chick

Social networking tools have opened up communication between Trattoria Flippin’ Sweet and its customers.

Trattoria Flippin Sweet, which moved from its original location in Bertrand a few miles down the road to Holdrege in November, invites customers to pull up a virtual chair in its kitchen through Facebook and Twitter. When the restaurant moved, owner Felicia Fowler-Alexander said they updated their phones, to enable them to send tweets (short text-based posts to subscribers’ cell phones) and Facebook messages instantaneously from the kitchen.

“Word of mouth has always been our most effective tool, and Facebook is just an extension of that,” said co-owner Jason Alexander, Felicia’s husband.

Facebook has also been a tool to inform customers about large parties coming in or situations when the restaurant will be understaffed and the wait might be longer than usual. As many restaurants in rural America and elsewhere do, Trattoria Flippin’ Sweet struggles with finding enough help for the evening and weekend hours.

“We’re cautious about people we bring in because we want employees to stay,” Jason said. They look to hire fun people who can add to the laid-back vibe of the restaurant, while also providing service during the hectic times with a smile.

Unanticipated response

“When we first moved in, we were overwhelmed,” he said. “We didn’t anticipate the quick response because we didn’t advertise we were coming to town. I hope that anybody that came in and thought it wasn’t worth the trouble will come back and see that it is.”

Several months later, there are still nights where Trattoria Flippin’ Sweet is understaffed because of employee sickness or other vacancies, but with Twitter and Facebook, they can tell customers when service might be a little slow.

“By using Facebook, we are able to let people know that it wasn’t a normal night,” Jason said. “And people responded really well to that.”

The move to a larger town has expanded the pool of potential staff, and Jason and Felicia have hired an additional chef in the kitchen, along with several dedicated employees to wait on customers.

Jason said the move to Holdrege made sense for their business because almost 85 percent of their clientele were coming from Holdrege. The restaurant, with its casual family dining and Italian influences, found its ideal fit in this community of 5,000.

A Bay-area influence

Jason and Felicia, along with Felicia’s mother, Marilyn Fowler, started The Flippin’ Sweet in Bertrand in December 2006 when Jason and Felicia, moved to Bertrand from San Francisco. The soon found themselves creating entrées borrowed from the flavors of restaurants they frequented while in the Bay Area. When Marilyn retired last fall, the couple took over ownership, changing the name slightly to Trattoria Flippin’ Sweet, a nod to its Italian-influenced dishes.

As customers began flocking to Flippin’ Sweet for its unique flavors and cheeky food combinations, the restaurant quickly outgrew its original space. When they found a much larger restaurant space in Holdrege, the decision to move was an easy one.

“Now we really feel like we are here, and so far, everything looks really terrific,” Jason said.

Uner the best of circumstances, it’s not “fast food”. With fresh ingredients and items made from scratch, it might take 20 to 30 minutes to cook a pizza, and on Friday and Saturday nights, there might be a wait for tables. But with the new space, customers can hang out in the lounge with a fireplace and overstuffed chairs, to slow down from life’s hectic pace for a few moments.

“We make everything from scratch here; we’re stretching the dough,” Jason said. “We don’t want to change that. That’s part of the charm of the food we serve.”

Two businesses in one

In late February, Caffé Flippin Sweet, an in-house coffee shop and lunch counter, opened at the front of the restaurant. Jason said they think of the café and pizzeria as two separate businesses under one roof.

“We can really delineate what we do in the café from the pizzeria,” he said.

The café serves baked goods, coffee, salads and sandwiches to the brunch and lunch crowd. Felicia creates the pastry masterpieces, from the smile-inducing crowd favorite whoopee pie, to the ooey, gooey monkey paws.

Many of the lunch offerings are sandwich versions of the pizzeria’s popular calzones and pizzas, from the Hot Chick, a sandwich remake of the Original Chicken Ranch pizza, to the Tre Carne, a lighter take on the Goodfella and Fat Boy pizzas. Menus change slightly every day, adding to the personality of a place where customers can encounter the unexpected.

“We like to say that every day the menu is special as opposed to having specials,” Jason said.

Code of the day

Trattoria Flippin’ Sweet has also found a fun way to interject its personality into its Facebook fan page. Through the page, Jason and Felicia post daily code words, similar to coupons but without the printing expense. Jason, who has a minor in English, writes the codes and menu and gives then a unique voice.

“Need a little something to wake up before you go-go? Then head to Flippin’ Sweet tonight for $2.00 off any 16-inch pizza when you say the codeword ‘WHAM!’” One week might be Shakespeare and the next is all about the ‘80s. One Friday night special had customers singing lyrics.

Caffé Flippin Sweet is open from 9:30-8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 9 p.m. on Friday. The pizzeria opens at 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closing at 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. People can call in for to-go orders, but in-house dining orders take precedence.

“We want people to understand that it’s not a stuffy atmosphere,” Jason said. “We hire fun people. We aren’t going to be pretentious. We want it to be fun.”

Who To Contact...

Trattoria Flippin Sweet and Caffe Flippin Sweet
307 Fourth Ave.
Holdrege
308-995-2024
theflippinsweet.com

Jennifer Chick is a regional reporter for the Kearney Hub and takes on freelance assignments for a variety of clients. She is a native of western Kansas, now living with her husband and two young children in Holdrege, Nebraska. You can contact her via email at tjchick@q.com.

back to top | more Success Stories