Community Leader by Matthew Fernandez
Profile : Cindy Essa
By Matthew Fernandez
It’s 12:30 p.m. on a Monday in a local Italian Restaurant in Greensboro, N.C., called Pastabilities. Whether it’s friends gathered for a bite to eat on their lunch break or assistants picking up the carryout order for the office they work, this energetic restaurant is packed. Guests are swarming in and filling up the 26 tables, along with others picking up their orders in at the bar. It would be chaos if not for Wake Forest graduate Cindy Essa.
Greeting guests, answering the phone for carryout/delivery orders, scheduling catering events, and overseeing six full-time staff members with 45 part-time workers on call keeps Cindy Essa working full time as owner of Pastabilities. Along with running a business, Essa is also devoted to helping the community by sharing business tips and best practices as a member of two local organizations, Business Women of the Triad and Triad Networks.
Essa, a 1988 graduate, had wanted to pursue law school, but her family had other plans. “I did not really have a choice,” Essa said. She had grown up in the restaurant business and worked throughout college for her brother who owned Café Pasta in Greensboro.
Essa began managing Pastabilities in 1995 for five male co-owners who wanted the restaurant to be delivery and carry-out only. She had a different concept in mind. “I suggested that we needed a sit-down service so that people could get comfortable with the food first, before they ordered it to their home or office,” Essa said.
But she had to wait five years – until November 2000, when she and one of her business partners, Dwight Stone, were able to buy the restaurant themselves. As a result, it allowed her to implement her vision for Pastabilitites. “I focused on the dine-in business and began to grow a customer base,” Essa said. Once accomplishing this, she moved to catering and carryout. After being in control for over 17 years now, Pastabilities sales are currently made up of 55% dine-in, 20% catering, 15% delivery, and 10% carryout. On an average day at “meal times,” Pastabilities rings up $500 in sales.
Pastabilities has a wide variety of foods on their menu. Essa has created authentic Italian food with delicious appetizers, salads, homemade soups, and desserts. “Cindy goes to the farmers market every Saturday morning to buy food for the restaurant,” said Jason Dingman, the chef at Pastabilities. By obtaining only the healthiest and freshest food for her customers, Essa strives to limit the preservatives and chemicals added to their food. Essa is continuously helping the community because “she loves to deal with people,” Dingman said. This attitude allows the customers of Pastabilities to gain a trust for her.
Even though there are six other restaurants near Pastabilities, Essa lets her food do the talking. “When someone comes in and enjoys the food we offer, they will tell there friends who might want us to cater an event,” Essa said. “If we do a good job catering, we will gain another customer who will want to dine-in.” Thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations, Essa has landed many catering events in the Winston-Salem area. Essa has planned events in the Bridger Field House for the Men’s Wake Forest Basketball team with over 80 people attending.
One of Essa’s newest endeavors was creating a menu for a catering event for former Wake Forest wide receiver and NFL player, Ricky Proehl. The event will be June 1 at Proehlific Park in Greensboro to benefit Rick Proehl’s P.O.W.E.R. of Play foundation, an organization that provides financial assistance to at risk youths to participate in after school academic and athletic programs.
“I’ve worked for a week to create a barbeque menu for over 300 people,” Essa said. Although the theme “bourbon and beer” is not one of Passabilities specialties, Essa accepted the challenge anyway.
Her work ethic is prodigious. “Even when the dine-in is slow, Cindy is constantly working on new catering menus for events,” said Margaret Essa, who is Cindy’s mother and part time worker at Pastabilities. “She puts in incredible amounts of time into Pastabilities and only takes one week off a year.” Essa devotes all her time to the growth of her beloved restaurant, Pastabilities. It has become her life.
Due to her significant involvement in the business growth of the Triad area, Essa was a one of a few women chosen to be a member of the Business Women of the Triad in 2005. It is recognized as Greensboro’s oldest networking group for women. “I have been able to inspire fellow businesswomen to find resources that will help grow their own businesses,” Essa said. When holding weekly meetings on Thursday mornings at Friends Homes West, each member shares information about her business and respectively takes advice from other female members of the organization.
As a member of the Triad Network, the original referral-based marketing organization for Triad-area businesses, Essa has learned how to gain people’s confidence. She has particularly contributed by giving advice on how to develop a business structure.
“I have been able to promote and establish my business by creating relationships with people,” Essa said.
Those relationships and her loyalty to the Greensboro and Winston-Salem communities for more than 20 years are critical to her success with Pastabilities. As for the future, she says she plans to keep providing a great dinning experience for her customers.
Essa lives by the motto, “If you are good to people, they will keep taking care of you.”
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