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Entrepreneur’s Cold Treat
Gets a Warm Reception Sometimes, taking the road less traveled in terms of conventional business thinking can be the key to success for the little guy. That certainly proved to be the case for one New England entrepreneur in his chosen field. The results of that business strategy speak for themselves in this case. When Boston magazine set out to find the best ice cream in the city and surrounding towns, residents of Belmont and Lexington urged the editors to visit Rancatore’s, which has shops in both locations. They did, and they were duly impressed. They were wowed by Rancatore’s creative flavors, such as khulfee (the Urdu word for ice cream), a blend of cardamom, almond and pistachio. They were equally impressed with the shops’ friendly and slightly offbeat atmosphere. Exposed brick, red oak tables and a giant stuffed parrot in the window mesh well with eclectic background music and a young staff whose devotion to customer service belies their age. Joe Rancatore, president, secretary and treasurer of Rancatore’s Ice Cream, Inc., moved to Boston in 1981 and worked in his brother’s Cambridge ice cream store. At that time, he had some restaurant industry background but no clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life. The stint at Toscanini’s served as a Petri dish for his emerging creativity in a frozen medium. "I come from a tight family of four brothers and sisters, and Gus (his brother) gave me a lot of leeway when I was working in his store," Rancatore recalls. "I used that freedom to experiment with some flavors that were really out there, like broccoli and avocado - both of which turned out to be quite good, to some people’s surprise." Although he became a partner in his brother’s store after about a year, he had the urge to start a business of his own. The opportunity came in 1985, and Rancatore opened his flagship store in Belmont, Mass.
As a relative newcomer to New England, Rancatore had to prove himself to his new neighbors. "The Yankee atmosphere is that they look at you for two years and criticize you for the next three," he says. "But if you pass the test, they embrace by year five, and that’s just what happened." His first year in business, Rancatore netted the princely sum of $2,300; he says it’s "a miracle" that he survived his first two or three years in business. "But I had a rent-controlled apartment, I loved what I was doing, I believed in myself, and I knew I would succeed," he says. From the beginning, Rancatore’s has been all about providing the highest-quality product with the best ingredients, and the owner’s steadfastness in sticking to that approach eventually paid off. For example, Rancatore’s chocolate chip, which he calls the shops’ "home run flavor," is made with the very best chips, and he applies the same approach to all his flavors, not just in ice cream but in sorbets and low-fat yogurts, as well
PRICE GAMBLE Because the best ingredients cost more, Rancatore’s ice cream is more expensive than some other products in the marketplace, and that was part of the gamble. "We were willing to take a chance that we could get the public to accept what we were doing, and that we could convince them it was worth paying a little bit more for something that was a whole lot better," he says. "It took some time, but it worked."Rancatore’s decision to take the plunge into entrepreneurship was spurred by something he witnessed his father experience years earlier. After working for decades in the department store industry, his father had a chance to buy a men’s clothing store in the late 1960. He passed up the opportunity and regretted it for many years afterwards. "My dad always told me, if you ever have a chance, take it," Rancatore says. "Never be afraid to start your own business, and you are never too old. Eventually, he took his own advice and started a clothing business when he was in his 50s. I also saw Gus start his own business and succeed, so there was no fear factor there for me. I expected to succeed."
It’s just as evident in the atmosphere and décor of the stores, the attitude of the kids who work in them and the constantly changing soundtrack that plays in the background. "I love music, so we create an environment in the store and the customers just eat it up," Rancatore says. He encourages the stores’ young workers to bring in their iPods and CDs and will pipe just about anything (except rap and heavy metal) through the sound system. However, every day at 5 P.M. he switches over to National Public Radio, something his customers have come to expect. "The (the employees) bring in some of the greatest music," he says. "Some of the kids are musicians themselves, and they play everything from alternative pop to R&B and jazz. The customers love it." While quality of product is the driving principle behind Rancatore’s philosophy of business, service is a close second. "We don’t even call it service," he says. "It is hospitality." TRAINING IS KEY Rancatore is very picky about who he hires. The atmosphere and reputation his stores enjoy help attract the right kind of candidate, and he places a great deal of emphasis on training. Employees are trained and encouraged to make sure every customer is satisfied with his or her experience at Rancatore’s, and despite the employees’ tender age, they are given remarkable latitude in doing whatever it takes to achieve that goal.Rancatore’s methods may not be taught in MBA programs, but perhaps they should be: His creative approach to running a business has paid off handsomely, with the company maintaining an annual growth rate of about 15% throughout the 1990s. Growth began slacking off about five years ago, but Rancatore attributes that more to a nascent sense of complacency on his part than to anything else. It prompted him to set about finding a location for another store. Rancatore found the perfect location on a prime corner in Lexington’s central shopping square, but the building’s owner initially was not inclined to lease it to him. He asked Rancatore to write up a two-page paper laying out his vision for the proposed store, something Rancatore did with the help of his wife. Now the owner was at least interested enough to consider Rancatore’s proposal, and he began to ask around about him. One of the people he turned to was his HVAC contractor. As it turned out, the contractor was also Rancatore’s HVAC man for the Belmont store, and he had nothing but praise for the operation. The building owner was convinced, and Rancatore opened the Lexington store in 2005. "Sometimes luck plays a role in these things," he admits.
If that turns out to be the case, Rancatore will have shaved about two years off the "Yankee courtship" period he needed to get the Belmont store humming. "Twenty-one years later, I still love what I do," he says. "The raw energy is there for me, and I will use that energy to make this all work."
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